Smart Lookup Language

Question

Hi everyone

I'm using Word 2016 (Office 365) and am currently working in China.

I tried to use the smart lookup function and the information returned was all in Chinese (which I don't understand). My language is set to English UK and I don't see anywhere to change any other language setting. It seems common for software companies to assume everyone lives in their country of birth all of their lives. I would like everything in English no matter where in the world I happen to be.

Any help would be gratefully received. Thank you.

Paul

Answer 1

Hi Paul,

You can try changing the East Asian Language, go to Word > Preference then click East Asian Languages.

Change to English then check the language in the smart lookup.

If the problem persists, please provide the following information:

1. The screenshot of the smart lookup section.
2. The screenshot of Language and Region in System Preference.

Regards,

Tisky

Answer 2

Hi Paul,

Any update?

Regards,

Tisky

Answer 3

Bob asked me to comment on this thread, because he enjoys revealing when I know absolutely nothing about the matter at hand :-)

My experience in China was that specifying Bing as your search preference in your browser worked MUCH better than Google, simply because Bing will accept an HTTP (un-secured) connection, whereas with Google, every Google office except Google Hong Kong requires HTTPS (secured and encrypted).

The Chinese Government will not allow connections to things they cannot monitor, except in International Hotels.  So when I am in China I set my browser search provider to Bing, and add a link to Google Hong Kong to the browser.

I suspect that your issue is being produced by various pieces of software auto-detecting your location. Location detection is so common now that it is very difficult to find all the things that are doing it and turn it off.  Start with System Preferences:  Start with Language and Region, and with Siri: set these all to English and Hong Kong, and then disable location auto-detection everywhere you find it.

And engage with Tisky Zhang: chances are she grew up in China: if she didn't, several people on her team did :-)

Bob:  I hate you!  :-)

Cheers

Answer 4

I've never used the feature outside the US so this is just speculation on my part...

The Smart Lookup feature is a cloud-based service. As such, I would not be surprised if it is localized based on the region in which it is being accessed. That would be determined external of the Office software, itself. If you mean that the Default Language specified for your Word documents is English UK, that only determines the preferred language for new documents you create with the program. The Language setting in Word would not have any influence on it.

I'm guessing that the returned info is in Chinese because you are accessing it via a Chinese internet provider. I'll try to get someone with experience in China to have a look at the thread.

Answer 5

To report this deficiency, please click on the small smiley-face icon in the upper-right corner of the program windows, choose Tell Us What Can be Better and describe the issue as you have done. Submitting sends the report to the Mac programming team. 

You can also create a suggestion at the Word User Voice forum. Others can vote on your idea and Microsoft uses this feedback to prioritize their programming.