Cannot seem to change the default language in Word 2007 from English North American to English United Kingdom.

Question

Hi,

I have spent a good 2 hours Googling this problem on how to change the default language in Microsoft Word 2007 to UK English and I keep hitting a brick wall and not getting anywhere. Despite all my efforts, it is still stuck on English North American which is no use to me at all.

I came across this Website and tried everything that everybody suggested within each post with no luck at all.

http://www.lizjamieson.co.uk/2007/12/03/how-to-set-the-default-language-dictionary-on-microsoft-word-2007/http://www.lizjamieson.co.uk/2007/12/03/how-to-set-the-default-language-dictionary-on-microsoft-word-2007/

I even tried to change it in Microsoft Word itself but as it was already set as the default for UK English, there was nothing to change really and when I opened up the dictionary and although the default was set to UK English, the dictionary still opened with UK North American.

Even when as suggested by somebody that the default should be changed in the Normal.dotm Word template, I tried this also. English UK was already the default. I did it once more just to double check and it was definitely left as English UK as the default but when I opened the Word dictionary, it still showed as English North American so I am completely baffled.

A friend of mine did manage to do it somehow, but it managed to change itself back to English North American again from since he did it. So obviously there needs to be something done after you set it properly to stop it changing back again to UK North American.

Just in case anybody asks this as well. I checked in the control panel as well under "Region and Language Settings" and that shows English United Kingdom but in Word it is still English North American.

Do I need to do something like disable some add-ins in Word so that the change would then take hold???

Other than that, I am completely baffled as to what to try next. I am sure there is probably a simple explanation for this scenario. I would appreciate the answer to this question on how to make the default language in Word, English United Kingdom and for it to stick with every new Word document I open.

Cheers

HB

Answer 1

Tony,

 

you'll have to forgive me, I do not know how to split up the quotes as you have into separate grey boxes. Perhaps you can tell me how you did this? Instead, your questions I have shown with quotation marks and in italics with my answers underneath.

I have now found the answer to my question. So simple but I just did not see it and I feel so foolish. I should explain all for the help of others in this group forum!

 

"At the end of your post you say:

And the Microsoft Office Word 2007 dictionary is still showing at UK North American."

"By this, I presume you mean that when you do a spell check and it highlights error, the dialog title says it is using US English. Perhaps you could confirm this, but, if so, it means that the text in which the error has been identified is marked as US English - regardless of any defaults."

No, I meant the dictionary which shows in Word.  Open Word 2007 document: Review > Research

On the right-hand side window, it then shows "All Reference Books".  Click the little arrow, it will then show a range of reference books such as a dictionary, a Thesaurus. What I meant was here: my dictionary, thesaurus and reference books are either showing as Encarta dictionary English (North America) or English (United States). It is here that I want to change to English (United Kingdom) for all my reference books including the dictionary and thesaurus.  I do not want US at all.

Here is where I have now found the answer to my own question.

At the bottom of the window on the right hand side in - Open Word 2007 document > Review >  "Research", in blue, it says"Research options...".  I had to click this, then uncheck all the options that I did not desire and check the options I did desire. In here, the options that were checked amongst others included Encarta dictionary English (North America) which I have now unchecked along with its thesaurus and some other languages I did not desire. Encarta dictionary English (UK) along with its thesaurus etc were not checked so I have simply checked these boxes along with any other relevant ones I wish to include.

 

"Going on what you are mentioning, the spell check or "Spelling and Grammar", this was coming up as English (United Kingdom) review to maintain"

 

This was coming up in English (United Kingdom). No problem with this.

 

"You then say:"

The funny thing is, I am saying "full stop" and this is being obeyed! You would think I would have to say "period" which makes it even more strange!

"What do you mean by this? Both "full stop" and "period" are correct in both UK English and US English - they may be used differently but there is nothing about them that any tool in Word identifies; there is nothing to be marked wrong, and nothing to be obeyed."

What I meant here was: because the dictionary that I have just explained about was showing in US (North American), I just assumed that everywhere else was in the US (North American) format including in the main body of Word. So at the end of every sentence I was saying "full stop" and it was showing the punctuation mark, (as used in English UK) not the literal spelling. When I was saying "period", the literal word was showing and not the punctuation mark. So when I said "the funny thing is I am saying "full stop" and this is being obeyed. In other words, I simply thought that because the dictionary was showing as English (North America), "full stop” would have been rejected and "period" would have to be said instead to enter the punctuation mark at the end of every sentence.

Does this now make sense?  I hope so, because this now may help other people find what I have been trying to find for the last 3 days. Perhaps I did not explain myself properly in the first place. If this is the case, I do apologise.  Now you know exactly what I was trying to get at.

Regarding what Suzanne said about the CUSTOM.DIC (default) in Word options under proofing >custom dictionaries. The default was set at English (United Kingdom) and not "All Languages". Are you saying here, that this should be changed from the default language I want to All languages? That makes no sense.

Thanks for all your efforts and troubles.  These forums are a godsend and I am thankful along with a host of others I should imagine that you experts are willing to give up your time to help a relative novice like me and hundreds of others.

One thing I am glad of though and that I took my time in going through the processes and that is that I did not go into the registry as one poster advised. I have been advised in the past to steer clear of this area unless you are certain you know what you are doing.

Thanks for everything and cheers.

HB

 

 

Answer 2

Did you also check the keyboard settings from the Keyboards and Languages tab of the Regional and Language Settings control panel? If the keyboard language is set to US English, Word will follow that.

Answer 3

Strange gremlin you have.

How about a brute force approach, short of re-install.

Do a repair, remove  English US and make sure english UK is only language installed. Repair instructions here:

1.1.1 Repair or remove Office 2010 -http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repair-or-remove-office-2010-HA010357402.aspx?CTT=1

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http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/learn-where-menu-and-toolbar-commands-are-in-office-2010-HA101794130.aspx - Silverlight applets Mapping 2003 to 2010 commands for all Office apps.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx - flash applets mapping Office 2003 menus to 2007 ribbon.

Answer 4

Hi Heathside, setting language in MS Word can be tricky and especially English US can be insidious.

As per the previous responses, ensure that you have set the default language to English UK, turned off all auto detect language, changed the Regional & Language options.

Also check that all your styles in ALL of your templates are set to English UK and none have auto detect attribute, enusre you check all built-in styles, even if you never use them.

After all that English US will still be on your system as MS is an American company and this language will still be there in the far-background.

To solve this problem, I also went to the Registry and changed the Language code there.

Find the following path in the Registry (type regedit in the Run dialog):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11\Common\LanguageResources

(11 for 2007 I believe)

English (UK) code is 2057 (LCID Dec) but please check on:http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/lcid-all.mspx

As English US dictionary will reamin in the background and many US spellings will still be an option, it is best that you also start an Excluding Dictionary which will counter these entries.

See http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/ExcludeWordFromDic.htm

This works very well with the -ize and -ise issue, in the respect that once you have made your personal choice you can ensure your documents have the versions you want.

I use my Exclusion dictionary to hold other words that are in all dictionaries and even though correctly spelt, you would rather not appear in your documents; namely obscene words and the like - need I say more ;-)

With the Excluding Dictionary you will need to enter all variants of the -ize words, such as -ization, -izing, -ized, -izes, etc. This will take time but once completed and maintained this because a very powerful tool.

Hope this helps you

DeanH

Answer 5

11 (actually 11.0) is for Office 2003. Office 2007 is 12.0

Both -ize and -ise are acceptable in UK English, though clearly not mixed :)

For further reading on the dictionaries and how they work see http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/MasterSpellCheck.htm