PaulB January 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Have done that but cannot remove completely US English. It sometimes switches to US English even when spellchecking docs which have been set to UK English. Grrrr.

Those yanks…

TedF January 28th, 2008 at 6:04 am

Hi,

I’ve tried all these things for Word 2007 but every new document has the U.S. dictionary set as the default. Not only that, but I can’t change it to a real dictionary until I’ve typed something. A single letter is enough, but if I delete everything back to the very start of the document, it changes itself back to a U.S. dictionary.

Curious thing is that when I check the default dictionary, it says it’s U.K….

Ted.

TedF January 31st, 2008 at 10:19 am

Hi Liz,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I’ve tried that a number of times and when I go back in there to check, it says the default dictionary IS U.k. But as I said, every new document still has the U.S. dictionary selected as default. I’ve even tried removing the U.S. dictionary, but that didn’t work either.

I think that what I have is a “normal” template problem. Trouble is that if I haven’t typed anything and the cursur is still at the very start of the document and I try to change the dictionary, it won’t change and stubornly remains set with the U.S. dictionary. Type one character, even a space and I can change it. Delete that character and it reverts to the U.S. dictionary.

Now I could type a space, change the dictionary and overwrite my normal template, but I don’t really want every new document to start with a blank line or character.

Weird and strange it what it is…

Ted.

Al, February 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

on February 3, 2008 at 12:54 am john wrote:

Ted,

I had the same problem. Try this.

Open your word document. Click on ‘review’ tab. Near the top left click the ’set language’ button. Highlight the language you want to use and click the ‘default’ button. Click ‘yes’, click ‘done’.

Hope this helps.

Thanks john,

This worked for me, this problem has been driving me nuts for a few days now.

Regards Al

TedF February 7th, 2008 at 12:42 am

John,

Thanks for that but once again, with a brand new document, it remained the U.S. dictionary. And same as before, as soon as I typed a character (a space this time) it allowed me to change it.

Ted.

TedF February 13th, 2008 at 2:14 am

Hi all,

Well I bought a new machine on the weekend which occasioned a new build. Guess what? I installed office 2007 along with SP1, exactly the same as I did last time. I opened Word and before typing anything, clicked the “Word Options” tab, selected “Popular” and “Language Settings”. The U.S. dictionary was there as the default and the only selected dictionary in the “Enabled editing languages” list. I added the U.K. dictionary and set it as default and here’s where I see a difference.

In my last installation I could set the U.K. dictionary as the default, but I couldn’t remove the U.S. dictionary from the “Enabled…” list and the U.S. dictionary would always come back as the selected default after restarting Word. This time, I removed the U.S. dictionary after I set U.K. as the default, quit Word and restarted and I now have U.K. as my default dictionary for all MS Office products. It puts the U.S. dictionary back in the “Enabled…” list but it now keeps U.K. as the default.

So I must thank you all for your help and apologise for wasting your time. It seems there was something wrong with my previous installation that only manifested itself in the language settings. So thanks again guys, I really appreciated the help which obviously, was all good because it worked in the end…:)

Ted.

Gerald February 25th, 2008 at 1:43 am

Hi Liz,

Thanks for writing this article. I’ve followed your instructions to the letter. When I open up a new document, it uses English (U.K.) by default. But whenever I open a document created by someone else it reverts to English (U.S.). In fact, if I just copy-paste text from another document written in English (U.S.), that portion of pasted text in my document will be in US English.

How can I make every document English (U.K.) by default?

Greg February 26th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Its not just the US English default thats the problem - that would actually make my job simpler right now! My Word keeps reverting to New Zealand English. I’ve tried everything I can think of and everything listed above to make it stay on US English as default, but no luck…

Adam March 2nd, 2008 at 11:54 pm

Hi, like to contribute my irritation at never ever being able to set the default language to English UK. Ive tried everything listed above… and in every single instance, it resets to English US.

I think my options are now to just trying to convert everyone I communicate with to spell slightly differently by Default?? Its a new approach, but Im hoping it might catch on?
If anyone has a new solution, id like to know it, but no amount of choosing English UK settings anywhere has any effect on my Word documents, which clearly show Im always using English US.

Even if I remove English US from the language setting.. it reappears there.

I better get on and start my report now. ..

- Adam

David Williams March 12th, 2008 at 7:49 pm

Hi,
I too have experience this problem and I understand it’s because the language setting is embedded in the text. I tried my own text followed by a bit of copy and paste from a US web site. The spell checker used the English(UK) dic to check my work but the English (US) dic to check the web text.

It is a real pain, I haven’t found a solution to it yet - none of the above work for me.

Cheers all

Steve Winder March 17th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

Hi guys,

what worked for me in this incredibly irritating problem was to go into:

CONTROL PANEL –> Regional and Language Options –> Keyboards and Languages –> Change keyboards

Then under the general tab, I added ‘English (United Kingdom)’ in the installed services section, then made sure the keyboard layout was still US-International (as I have a Canadian laptop but live in the UK now), then made sure to click ‘Move Up’.

So now in MS Word 2007, I added the English (UK) language as default as suggested above, and now it stays on English (UK) and not English (US)

Hope that helps.

P.S. This is on Vista Premium, but I am sure it is a similar process for XP.

Sana Ghazi April 17th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

Hi all,

I had the exact same problem and the US Dictionary refused to go away. I’ve tried what Steve Winder said and deleted the US Dictionary entirely. I didn’t even have to set the Dictionary to UK again, it was there by default! The problem seems to be recognition of typing language. Cheers!

Best
Sana

Paul Nielsen May 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am

So far none of the solutions offered have worked for me. I’m using all my settings for English Australia. The Keyboard is now English International but still the bloody US dictionary does it’s thing. How do you spell ‘organise’. The damed yanks want ‘organize’. My MS Word 2007 install marks both as correct. This sort of problem makes me start to hate using MS shit. I did install this Vista and Office 2007 6 months ago pre the big service packs. Maybe a new install will fix it but maybe not. Did I say I’m starting to hate using MS shit.
Give me another whiskey please. Cheers.

Key67 May 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pm

Xiao Wrote:

The way I managed to make it work is under the REVIEW tab, clicked Set Language, and set English Australia and then clicked Default..

This solution worked for me too - up to this, I was struggling with a 42 page uni assignment, loads of errors down to US dictionary! The clicking of default is the key thing!

Thanks!

Key

Moe May 25th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

Hey there people.

@Mark

From what I have read here it seems the way to fix this problem (the problem of changing the Default Dictionary in Word) is the combination of the “Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings” option and Steve’s way. The office language settings way is described at the top..so follow that and then follow Steve’s way. Which is clicking on START -> CONTROL PANEL –> Regional and Language Options. This will bring up the Regional Language Options window. Here you can change the language to your choice and it will make a difference when you open up Word. So click on the drop down menu in the regional options tab and select the language you wish. When you now open up Word the default language should be the one you have already set in the “Regional Language Options” window and in “Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings.”

Ian June 10th, 2008 at 11:33 am

The above may work on Vista, but I’m using XP and none of the above suggestions work. I’m still getting UK English spellings being underlined in red.

Is this a bug in Word 2007 with regard to XP? If I can’t fix this problem I’ll just have to sell 2007 on Ebay and go back to 2003.

Ian June 10th, 2008 at 11:57 pm

Liz,

Yes, as I said before, I have been through all that. However, I just stumbled upon the cure.

Open a document. At the bottom left of the Word window it shows page number, then the word count, then the current language. Despite my previously deleting all references to US English and following all the previous advice, this current language was still showing US English. I left-clicked it and a box appeared showing the current default language. I clicked on UK English to highlight it, clicked Default, then clicked OK.

Microsoft appear to be making a pig’s ear of Word.

Pete July 15th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

The answer is it’s not possible to fully remove the English US dictionary.

Us poor Brits just have to put up with it irritating the crap out of us in EVERY Microsoft application. In general if you set your default language to British then everything *you* make stays British. The problem is with the other 99.9% of the UK population that can’t get their simple heads around this and leave their docs set in US format.

I’ve migrated to the Mac recently and sadly things aren’t much better there either. Actually, my Macbook came with a hybridised US keyboard to add insult to injury.

Ken August 1st, 2008 at 5:02 am

I’ve failed to find a lasting solution, even after trying all of these solutions together:

1. Control panel –> Regional and Language Settings… Languages/Details… set to Australia (default) and remove US and restart computer [this appears to work, and US does not come back into this list, but it doers not prevent Word from using a US dictionary.]

2. Programs/Office tools /Office2007 Language settings… remove US from editable languages list. [This does nothing for me: US has returned next time I go to this setting.]

3. Office Button/Word Options/Popular/Language Settings… remove US from editable languages. [Has no effect that I can see.]

4. Select all text in a document, go to Review/Set Language… choose Australia (or anything other than US) and set it as the default, un-check ‘detect language automatically’. [useless and futile.]

Occasionally I’ve thought I had fixed this problem. If you think you’ve solved it, I challenge you: Simply take a document created by someone else (with any setting on their computer set to US), copy some of their text, paste it into one of your own ‘pure’ documents, save it — if your computer is like mine (XP or Vista) you’ll be right back where you started.

Shall be very grateful if anyone finds a registry edit that kills the US dictionary forever!
Ken