Word 365 changing language back to default when re-opening document

Lezli Farrington 20 Reputation points
2026-08-01T15:33:41.9866667+00:00

I have a document that has text in both French and English. I have both language packs installed, and the French text is set using its own style, that specifies French as the style's language.

However, whenever I open the document, it reverts the French language sections back to "English". I wish I knew when it started doing this - it's been a while, but I only definitively worked out what was going on a couple of days ago, when "track changes" was left on, and the reformatting to English is now being flagged specifically.

The style itself isn't changing - it still knows that its default language is French - and the text is still in the 'French' style rather than 'normal'.

I'm sure this is probably a question that someone has asked before, but I haven't been able to find it when searching. There's a lot of information about how to change the language, but nothing about it being forcibly changed by Word itself when everything has been done right.

What can I do to stop this from happening, and keep the French language that I purposefully set?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows
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Answer accepted by question author
Stefan Blom 348.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2026-08-01T18:56:34.2333333+00:00

Is this the full version of Word running under Windows? On the Review tab, click Language (in the Language group) and then click Set Proofing Language. Make sure that you clear the option to "Detect language automatically," if it is currently selected.

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