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The default language option doesn't seem to work.

When I change the language to UK English, it keeps going back to US English every time I start a new document or even page.

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Danelle shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

19 comments

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  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Similar problem here. I am trying to set proofing language to English (Canada) and new documents keep defaulting to English (US). This is a major regression from the desktop application.

  • Samantha Wallace commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am a college lecturer and use Microsoft applications to produce lesson materials for my students to access online. Part of my role is to teach Communications (proper spelling and grammar) and I am having to ask my students not to use Microsoft Online products for their assessments because they are more likely to make spelling errors because of the default US English setting. Please make it possible to set a default language for all documents in the settings menu.

  • IH commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Definitely be a good option to make it respect the Regional / Language settings that you have set and then ensure that the Proofing Language does not revert back to English US each time you create a new document.
    This is really important for teaching since it is telling students that their English UK documents are incorrect, some may then 'correct' the spelling which then makes it an English US spelling so when it is marked/submitted they lose marks since it is not UK English.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Make it so you can choose your defult language and whenever you make/open a document it will correct to that.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Setting the language should be a property of the document. It should definitely not be part of a font setting.

    My suggestion is to have a "document properties" menu, with a default language setting. Make it possible to apply a different language to either a selection, or set the language for the whole document. If a range is selected, give users the option of specifying the language, or set the language to the "document default".

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Exactly! The US spell words differently from NZ and AU so there should be a setting. I am with you Alexis: is this ever going to be fixed?
    You know here is always Google - they have a setting. This has been bothering me for a long time now. PLEASE DO SOMETHING!!!!

  • Jie Song [MSFT] commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi, Thanks for the feedbacks. Please be noted that the change language function works on selected text only. We are thinking about bringing a document level language setting, please let us know if you have any further ideas.

  • Alexis Castillo-Soto commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I cannot believe that you can't permanently change the default proof language from English (US). Is this ever going to be fixed?

  • Jamie Kerwick commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This functionality is required across all of the Office 365 online applications (one-note, excel, powerpoint, visio, project, as well as Word.

    There are Office 365 users outside of the USA you know :)

  • Amber commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Enable the user to successfully set a language for the whole document, not just one or two words...

  • Sandie Everett commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This doesn't resolve the issue. The point is that the proofing language has to be selected every time for every document, rather than just being able to change the default from US English to, say, UK English.
    As a UK user, I have my Office 365 language set to English (United Kingdom) and yet all the online apps ignore this setting. Apart from the irritation this causes in Word, in Excel date fields it causes chaos on spreadsheets that different people edit online and offline as you end up with a mix of dd/mm/yy and mm/dd/yy.

  • Gavin commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Members of our organisation are really keen for this functionality in Office365

  • DD commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    The same is true for Canadian English, and this has been so for far too long. Any fix on the horizon, Microsoft??

  • Chris commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Have a default language for each Microsoft account. Use that language for new Word documents.

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