Permanently changing default language to English UK

Mate.. not kidding.

The more I use windows the more I do not know. Any suggestions???

If you want to use US English input language in Windows but UK English as proofing language in Word, you are where you started: you need to manually change proofing language.

If you want your new documents automatically use UK English as proofing language, you need to use UK English input language and learn its differences compared to US English (click screenshots to enlarge):

UK English No Caps:
UK English Caps:
UK English Alt Gr + No Caps:
UK English Alt Gr + Caps:



Kari

I have a short attention span.

I will let Kari explain.

He is great at that.

Ok.. I have a US keyboard.... so I am screwed. OK I will accept that Microsoft and the Americans have won... I am now going to see if I can fix the network/NAS that was working yesterday, but now not.

Thanks for the explanation and the answer is NO.

Regards
Dan

The answer to what?

Being in Australia using a US keyboard, but wanting to use UK-English....the answer is you cannot do it.

Oh.

Strange, I have a mesh keyboard. I can change it to Chinese PRC (US keybd) and back to UK keybd without any trouble.

Is there something I am missing with Kari's explanation???

Before you ask.... I cannot change keyboards, it is a special ergonomic Kinesis keyboard. I have tried many and this is the only one that does not give me pain. It is a US keyboard.

But if there is a way of retaining the keys and changing the input language - let me know....

foxint said:

Sir,

I am totally confused.

You mentioned:

“Create a system restore point or better still use Macrium Reflect to create a back up image” – I said I have no idea what this means, but you offered no explanation.

Click to expand...

But in my post #6 I said:

Read this for System Restore:
System Restore Point - Create
and this for Macrium Reflect:
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

When you are ready if you have any questions on either subject post them here on the Forum.

Click to expand...

If you click on these links and read the contents you will fully understand what is meant by System Restore and Back up. These two links explain this much better than I can so it seemed the best option. Back up is a very important part of your general PC maintenance, or should be! It gives you the confidence to try different approaches knowing that if things go wrong you can very easily get your PC back to a good state. I really don't think I can explain it any better for you.

Sir

Please Mr Mitchell65, I am not meaning to be rude, but I will take the advice of Mr Kari.

Thank you for your input in this question. It obviously cannot be done, unless one wants to use a UK keyboard, which as I said I do not have.

But if there is a way of retaining the keys and changing the input language - let me know.... I am still open to suggestions, but as I said I cannot change my US-styled keyboard.

foxint said:

Sir

Please Mr Mitchell65, I am not meaning to be rude, but I will take the advice of Mr Kari.

Click to expand...

That's fine, I certainly don't think you are being rude. We are all here to try to resolve your problem for you in the best way we can. Kari will help you all he can, I know. One tiny point, I suppose I was a bit out of order for going off topic with my suggestion that you should back up your system before making any big alterations to your system but if you do a good back up and then things go wrong I guarantee you will be very, very pleased that you have a back up. It's like a good insurance policy, useless until you need it!
I hope all goes well for you!

Mr Mitchell65,
Thank you for your explanation. Sometimes these forums get out of hand and we take things the wrong way. If I was rude or dismissive, accept my apologies. I did not think the language issue was such a major change. But you are spot on with back-ups.


In my experience all the backups I have used always take days to restore, so I have really had my head in the sand with that. I am using Raid 1, for system SSD (2 drives) on F-PC (my main one) for the programme files, plus I have an external box that has my data again 2 drives in Raid 1. Plus D-PC again with 2 drives in Raid 1 and a 3rd PC called T-PC with 2 HDD in Raid 1. Plus a NAS with Raid 1


If you have the time and you know of a good back-up and “restore” protocol, plus how would it physical happen – would I need more drives??
Dan

I've done some more testing. I am now convinced changing the default proofing language in Microsoft Office products is a useless feature, with no real effect. Selected Windows input language determines the default proofing language in all new documents.

I also found some Microsoft articles supporting this. For instance:

To change the default language in Office programs, you must change the default input language for the Windows operating system, and then change the default editing language for Office

Click to expand...

(Source: Change the default language for Office programs - Word - Office.com)

foxint said:

But if there is a way of retaining the keys and changing the input language - let me know.... I am still open to suggestions, but as I said I cannot change my US-styled keyboard.

Click to expand...

Of course you can. You just don't want to. A big difference there, something being impossible or the user being stubborn.

Although already said but let's repeat:

Your original question: How to change default proofing language in Microsoft Word?
Answer: Microsoft Word uses selected Windows input language as default proofing language. In order to set default proofing language to UK English you need to use UK English as Windows input language.

I guess you did not read the tutorials I linked in one of my previous posts?



Input language and keyboard layout are not synonyms, they mean something totally different. An input language can have and use several different keyboard layouts. An input language and a keyboard layout can both be set independently.

See below, remember that as my Taskbar is on the left your actual location of the language selectors is bottom right instead of bottom left as in these screenshots.

If you have installed two or more keyboard layouts to an input language, the language selector has two parts. A two letter abbreviation for selected input language, and a keyboard icon for layout:
In my case I want to have US English as input language by default but use Finnish keyboard layout. To achieve this I select first the input language:
... and then the keyboard layout within that input language:
As you can see from the screenshots, the empty word document next to the pictured Taskbar notification area shows that Word uses US English as proofing language although the keyboard is set to Finnish. This is because the input language determines the proofing language, not the keyboard layout.

The same might be easier to understand if you look at the Language Bar instead of notification icons:
Select input language on left, keyboard on right.

To achieve this, setting the default input language to US English and default keyboard layout to Finnish I have simply installed needed input languages and keyboard layouts, then selected the correct combination in Regional Settings:
Now in this my case all new word documents use default US English as proofing language even though I am by default using the Finnish keyboard layout.

In your case, setting the defaults to UK English input language with US English keyboard would do exactly what you wanted and came here to ask.

Kari

Kari
You lost me???

I cannot find "Text Service and Input Language

I am not as clever as you.... I had to take a photo with my camera and TRY and post it. I do not think it worked.... But I have only 2 options US and Australian English as my input languages... so I am screwed

foxint said:

Kari
You lost me???

Click to expand...

foxint said:

I cannot find "Text Service and Input Language

Click to expand...

As it was obvious you had read responses you got very selectively, I asked this in my last post:

Kari said:

...
...I guess you did not read the tutorials I linked in one of my previous posts?
...
...

Click to expand...

With that I was referring to this, one of my earlier posts:

Kari said:

Here you go:

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/86204-keyboard-input-language-add-remove.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/86239-keyboard-layout-change.html

Click to expand...

In those tutorials I linked you will find detailed instructions.

Kari

Kari - you are a smart guy....

I had to add UK English with the US-keyboard... Is that right?? Then I put my default input language as English (United Kingdom) - US....??? Is this right??

How am I going to remember this when I change PC's... all my formating and my personal dictionary (whatever that is called) all goes....

If this is it - you are a genius..

I am new to these things and I did not know there were links in the body of the text

Yes, that's how you should set it. In your case it should look like this:

English (United Kingdom as Input Language, US keyboard layout.