How to set a predetermined language in a Word template?

L

LisaPaloma

I teach English in Latin America. I am accustomed to using the LatinAmerican
keyboard even when working in English (it's easier than using the English
keyboard when working in Spanish). I wanted to create a Word template with
English as the predetermined language to use on shared computers, but it
keeps resetting to Spanish, I think because the keyboard setting is for
LatinAmerican Spanish. Since I'll be using it on shared computers I don't
want to reset the default language settings for the computer, so I wanted the
language to be set by the template. Any suggestions?
 
G

grammatim

In Windows (not Word), you can switch between a Spanish keyboard and
an English keyboard.

Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages >
Details > Add, and then add either English or Spanish, whichever one
isn't already there, choose which of the zillions of Spanish keyboards
you prefer, and exit all the way out.

You'll now have a Language Bar icon down in the lower right corner of
your Status Bar; click on that and choose the language you want;
toggle between them with left Alt+Shift. You can switch keyboards in
the middle of a word in a Word document if you want.

This has nothing at all to do with the default language setting in
Word. You can change that in your normal.dot template, or you can
change it for each document with Tools > Language > Set Language.
 
L

LisaPaloma

Yes, I know about the different keyboards and I have used them literally for
years. As I mentioned in my previous post, I use the Spanish keyboard almost
all the time because it's essential for Spanish and much easier to use when
working in English than to use the English keyboard for working in Spanish.
(And have you actually tried to use two different keyboards in different
cases? Most of us have trouble doing that because our fingers automatically
go to [shift] 2 for quotation marks and it requires thought to go to that key
to the left of the semicolon.) I have the language bar active on the status
bar.

I have repeatedly gone through the steps you mentioned to set the default
language in a template (not the "normal" one, because, as I said, it's a
shared computer, and the other users would be happy about it). Each time,
when I open the template after saving it, the default language has switched
back to Spanish. All the other settings I've saved in the template (font,
margins, etc.) are still there.
 
G

grammatim

No -- I've never had occasion to use a different IME (each IME can
have many keyboards) in a separate document; I only type linguistic
examples within English documents, and I've done it in Armenian,
Georgian, Russian, Greek, the eight standard Indic scripts, ...

Yes, I know about the different keyboards and I have used them literally for
years. As I mentioned in my previous post, I use the Spanish keyboard almost
all the time because it's essential for Spanish and much easier to use when
working in English than to use the English keyboard for working in Spanish.
(And have you actually tried to use two different keyboards in different
cases? Most of us have trouble doing that because our fingers automatically
go to [shift] 2 for quotation marks and it requires thought to go to thatkey
to the left of the semicolon.) I have the language bar active on the status
bar.

I have repeatedly gone through the steps you mentioned to set the default
language in a template (not the "normal" one, because, as I said, it's a
shared computer, and the other users would be happy about it). Each time,
when I open the template after saving it, the default language has switched
back to Spanish. All the other settings I've saved in the template (font,
margins, etc.) are still there.

grammatim said:
In Windows (not Word), you can switch between a Spanish keyboard and
an English keyboard.
Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages >
Details > Add, and then add either English or Spanish, whichever one
isn't already there, choose which of the zillions of Spanish keyboards
you prefer, and exit all the way out.
You'll now have a Language Bar icon down in the lower right corner of
your Status Bar; click on that and choose the language you want;
toggle between them with left Alt+Shift. You can switch keyboards in
the middle of a word in a Word document if you want.
This has nothing at all to do with the default language setting in
Word. You can change that in your normal.dot template, or you can
change it for each document with Tools > Language > Set Language.
 
G

grammatim

You can also simply put a Spanish keyboard in your English IME (or
vice versa). Maybe that would take care of your problem.

Yes, I know about the different keyboards and I have used them literally for
years. As I mentioned in my previous post, I use the Spanish keyboard almost
all the time because it's essential for Spanish and much easier to use when
working in English than to use the English keyboard for working in Spanish.
(And have you actually tried to use two different keyboards in different
cases? Most of us have trouble doing that because our fingers automatically
go to [shift] 2 for quotation marks and it requires thought to go to thatkey
to the left of the semicolon.) I have the language bar active on the status
bar.

I have repeatedly gone through the steps you mentioned to set the default
language in a template (not the "normal" one, because, as I said, it's a
shared computer, and the other users would be happy about it). Each time,
when I open the template after saving it, the default language has switched
back to Spanish. All the other settings I've saved in the template (font,
margins, etc.) are still there.

grammatim said:
In Windows (not Word), you can switch between a Spanish keyboard and
an English keyboard.
Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages >
Details > Add, and then add either English or Spanish, whichever one
isn't already there, choose which of the zillions of Spanish keyboards
you prefer, and exit all the way out.
You'll now have a Language Bar icon down in the lower right corner of
your Status Bar; click on that and choose the language you want;
toggle between them with left Alt+Shift. You can switch keyboards in
the middle of a word in a Word document if you want.
This has nothing at all to do with the default language setting in
Word. You can change that in your normal.dot template, or you can
change it for each document with Tools > Language > Set Language.
 
T

tedmi

Lisa: For a language setting to take hold in a template, the template must
not be blank. Something must be selected when you set the language for the
language to stick (the ending parag mark doesn't count!). So, if your English
template has some text in it, select all and then set language. If empty, add
a space, select it and then set language. Ugly solution, I know, but that's
the only way I found, in 2007 and previous versions.
 
L

LisaPaloma

I don't know what an IME is.

grammatim said:
You can also simply put a Spanish keyboard in your English IME (or
vice versa). Maybe that would take care of your problem.

Yes, I know about the different keyboards and I have used them literally for
years. As I mentioned in my previous post, I use the Spanish keyboard almost
all the time because it's essential for Spanish and much easier to use when
working in English than to use the English keyboard for working in Spanish.
(And have you actually tried to use two different keyboards in different
cases? Most of us have trouble doing that because our fingers automatically
go to [shift] 2 for quotation marks and it requires thought to go to that key
to the left of the semicolon.) I have the language bar active on the status
bar.

I have repeatedly gone through the steps you mentioned to set the default
language in a template (not the "normal" one, because, as I said, it's a
shared computer, and the other users would be happy about it). Each time,
when I open the template after saving it, the default language has switched
back to Spanish. All the other settings I've saved in the template (font,
margins, etc.) are still there.

grammatim said:
In Windows (not Word), you can switch between a Spanish keyboard and
an English keyboard.
Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages >
Details > Add, and then add either English or Spanish, whichever one
isn't already there, choose which of the zillions of Spanish keyboards
you prefer, and exit all the way out.
You'll now have a Language Bar icon down in the lower right corner of
your Status Bar; click on that and choose the language you want;
toggle between them with left Alt+Shift. You can switch keyboards in
the middle of a word in a Word document if you want.
This has nothing at all to do with the default language setting in
Word. You can change that in your normal.dot template, or you can
change it for each document with Tools > Language > Set Language.
On Jul 11, 1:48 pm, LisaPaloma <[email protected]>
wrote:
I teach English in Latin America. I am accustomed to using the LatinAmerican
keyboard even when working in English (it's easier than using the English
keyboard when working in Spanish). I wanted to create a Word template with
English as the predetermined language to use on shared computers, but it
keeps resetting to Spanish, I think because the keyboard setting is for
LatinAmerican Spanish. Since I'll be using it on shared computers I don't
want to reset the default language settings for the computer, so I wanted the
language to be set by the template. Any suggestions?-
 
L

LisaPaloma

You know, I've always wondered (and I suppose I always will) why they keep
changing things that don't need to be changed and don't fix things that have
needed fixing for years.... (I still miss writing macros on the fly in
WordPerfect.)
 
G

grammatim

The IME is what you get when you go through the Control Panel thing
and Add a Language. Under each installed IME, you can then add any of
the dozens of keyboards that appear in the dropdown list of keyboards,
even if those keyboards have nothing to do with the language they're
installed under.

I don't know what an IME is.

grammatim said:
You can also simply put a Spanish keyboard in your English IME (or
vice versa). Maybe that would take care of your problem.
Yes, I know about the different keyboards and I have used them literally for
years. As I mentioned in my previous post, I use the Spanish keyboard almost
all the time because it's essential for Spanish and much easier to use when
working in English than to use the English keyboard for working in Spanish.
(And have you actually tried to use two different keyboards in different
cases? Most of us have trouble doing that because our fingers automatically
go to [shift] 2 for quotation marks and it requires thought to go to that key
to the left of the semicolon.) I have the language bar active on the status
bar.
I have repeatedly gone through the steps you mentioned to set the default
language in a template (not the "normal" one, because, as I said, it's a
shared computer, and the other users would be happy about it). Each time,
when I open the template after saving it, the default language has switched
back to Spanish. All the other settings I've saved in the template (font,
margins, etc.) are still there.
:
In Windows (not Word), you can switch between a Spanish keyboard and
an English keyboard.
Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages >
Details > Add, and then add either English or Spanish, whichever one
isn't already there, choose which of the zillions of Spanish keyboards
you prefer, and exit all the way out.
You'll now have a Language Bar icon down in the lower right corner of
your Status Bar; click on that and choose the language you want;
toggle between them with left Alt+Shift. You can switch keyboards in
the middle of a word in a Word document if you want.
This has nothing at all to do with the default language setting in
Word. You can change that in your normal.dot template, or you can
change it for each document with Tools > Language > Set Language.
On Jul 11, 1:48 pm, LisaPaloma <[email protected]>
wrote:
I teach English in Latin America. I am accustomed to using the LatinAmerican
keyboard even when working in English (it's easier than using the English
keyboard when working in Spanish). I wanted to create a Word template with
English as the predetermined language to use on shared computers, but it
keeps resetting to Spanish, I think because the keyboard setting is for
LatinAmerican Spanish. Since I'll be using it on shared computers I don't
want to reset the default language settings for the computer, so I wanted the
language to be set by the template. Any suggestions?-
 

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