How to Set the Default Language Dictionary on Microsoft Word 2007

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…

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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…

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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

Here is how I solved it.

Problem:

Outlook 2007 on Windows XP

Language set to English UK. Spelling constantly reverts to English US.

SOLUTION

1) I noticed that if there was a spelling mistake in the subject it would correct it with the Enlish UK Dictionary and then if you moved to the body of the message it would revert to English US

2) Outlook 2007 uses a work template called NormalEmail.dotm

3) Open this template in Word (as a template) then on the status bar at the bottom of the window you will see the language as English(US). Left click on this and change it to English(UK). Set as Default. Remove the tick that refers to Use Existing language or something similar.
Save the docuement and let it replace the existing template. So answer yes to these changes effecting all future documents.

No close and reopen Outlook and test again.

Hopefully it will work.

I have the same problem, I want the US English version , but it keeps giving me French. French? Where did that come from. I just want to delete all languages except for US-English. Frustrating!!!!

Tried most of these options and still didn’t have a perfect fix, outlook was behaving, but word refused to co-operate. In the end the following worked for me (my target being English UK proofing, but using US Intl keyboard):

In word (all other office program being closed):
1) Close all open documents (inc blank default)
2) Click open, select ‘Trusted Templates’ folder delete any temporary files if present THIS IS THE IMPORTANT STEP which made all the difference, i.e. the delete the greyed out “~$Normal.dotm” and if present “~$NormalEmail.dotm” [if you can't 'see'the temporary files, you will have to alter your folder view settings to show hidden files: from any open Windows Explorer window, e.g. My Documents, select "Tools" -> "Folder Options" -> "View" -> "Show hidden files and folder" - if this makes you nervous, you can always change it back afterwards].
3) Open the “Normal.dotm” template, click on the document (but don’t type anything)and the language should appear in the the status bar at the below the document(lower left hand side of the screen or window) if it doesn’t you can enable “Language” by right-clicking the status bar and choosing customize and clicking the “Language”tick box. If you are reading this I guess it will say “English (U.S.)”, click on it and then choose the language you want from the pop up list and set it as default.
4) Close the normal template (I wasn’t asked to save any changes) and hopefully you’re done. All subsequent documents open as English UK by default. If you are having problems with Outlook doing the same with the NormalEmail template may resolve the issue since outlook uses word components for proofing.

Bear in mind that I had already carried out and tried all the other steps mentioned above, so they may well have contributed, or be necessary, for this approach to work.

Good luck and thanks to the other posters for their contributions and the original article.

M