Language setting (2000 up to date)

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I have checked the settings, and I do mean all, several times, in Windows XP Home & Word 2000 are English UK the spell checker frequently reverts to English US. This seems to happen with a document that has been created on a computer set to English US. Even when I scan such a document the spell check reverts to English US. Can I force the spell check to work only in the Language of my choice?

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Hi Malcolm,

The language setting for each document is document specific, though more than one language can be used in a document (preferably by using different styles for each).

If you proof a document that was intentionally created as US english using UK english, should Word would then infer that language-specific spelling & punctuation differences are errors? I don’t think so. It’d be even worse if you were to proof a non-english language with an ‘english’ proofing tool.

If you really want to go down this path, a macro solution would probably be needed, to change each document’s language to UK english or whatever as it is opened.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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If I change the setting from US to UK while spell checking the change reverts to US when the next spelling `error’ is reached. For example `cheque’ & `check’.

I assume the macro could be created with the Record Macro Tool & I will try this approach.

Thank you for your helpful response.

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Word’s spell checking is closely tied to the keyboard language setting. Make sure that your keyboard language is set to UK English, not US English. In Windows XP, this setting is in the Regional Settings control panel, in older versions of Windows in the Keyboard control panel.

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I had already done what you suggest & deleted the English US option there.

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I have Word 2002 (and a non-English version to boot), so I don’t know whether the following applies to Word 2000. In Tools | Language | Set Language…, there is a check box “Automatically determine language”. If this option is available in Word 2000, try clearing the check box. Then, select the entire document and set the language to English UK.

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Hi Hans,

The same setting is in Word 2000 too. Not sure how Malcolm gets ‘check’ to show up as an error when ‘cheque’ is meant, though …

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Is this a misunderstanding or did I get it the wrong way round? I meant `cheque’ shows as an error for `check’ because the checking defaults to English US when I have it set to English UK. I have one document where the spell check changes from UK to US & back again!

I have wondered if the problem started with me taking over a set of Word files from my predecessor as honorary secretary of a social group.

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As it happens that check box is greyed out & clear.

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Hi Malcolm:
2 additional thoughts.
1. I’m not sure about Win XP, but in Win 98, there’s a language setting in BOTH Control Panel/Regional Settings & in Control Panel/Keyboard.
2. Since the document is created in US English, have you selected the entire document & then applied English (UK) by going to Tools/Language/Set Language/English (UK)?

Cheers,

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Within the past week or two there was a thread here on the Australian spell checking problem, which sounds like the same issue. Hope you are able to find it.

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I’ll take a look – thank you.

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The thread Jefferson Scher mentioned has been updated, so it was easy to find again – see post 254648, in particular the links in the second post in that thread.

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