I want to disable English US dictionary, it keeps returning

[nimrod]

I have set the language to English (UK) in Tools drop down menu;
I have set the Dictionary language in the Spelling panel, but still English
(US) keeps coming back. I will never need English US or indeed French
(France) or Spanish (Peru) so how can I disable all dictionaries I will never
use?.

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

You mean Tools | Set Language ?

I just did a quick test, and when I changed away from English (US) in that
area and in the Spellcheck options, the settings survived closing and
reopening the program.

Can you try a Detect and Repair?

 

[nimrod]

Hi Erik,

Thanks for your reply, yes, I did mean Tools | Set Language.
And you are correct setting the options does survive closing and opening,
normally. I think what happens, at least from time to time, particularly
when copying and pasting inherited preferences are included with the text.
If possible I always try and remember to select "Keep Text Only" from the
little icon that accompanies a paste.
The dictionary problem is a Microsoft-wide 'problem'.

I have just been into eBay China, copied some text in Chinese, opened
OneNote and it pasted boxes and not text, did a spell check;
wallop-there-it-is; checking in English (US), not even Chinese. So, I did the
same in Word, the Chinese characters appeared, did a spell check, there we
are again checking in English (US).

I have pasted this text into OneNote to check my spelling before posting and
it is checking in English (UK).

I have various ‘workarounds’ but was hoping there was a simple ‘turn off all
other dictionaries’ facility that I was not aware of.

Kind regards
Mike

 

[Chris_Pratley \(MS\)]

If I copy text from a Chinese web site to OneNote, it shows up as Chinese.
Do you have Windows East Asian support enabled in Control Panel/Regional
options?

The spelling is still done in English because the web site does not mark the
text as Chinese when it is copied to the clipboard, and Onenote cannot
figure that out by itself. Marking the text as Chinese in Onenote should fix
that permanently for that text.

In Word, when I paste the same text (even as plain text), I get Chinese with
the right font, plus Word is able to determine the text is Chinese so the
spelling is handled correctly (Word has some automatic language detection as
well as some built-in knowledge of character types that OneNote does not
have)

You could also check in Start/programs/Microsoft office/Office
Tools/Language Settings that Chinese is selected as a supported edited
language.

When you say "keep text only", you are telling OneNote to throw away any
language information that might be attached to the Chinese text, which will
cause your problem with the spelling language to occur again.

Chris Pratley (MS)

OneNote blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/chris_pratley/

 

[Ben]

Hi, i have just purchased Onenote 2003, and i seem to be having the same
problem. Although I change the language from English US to English UK, it
changes back again rght away. Also in Microsoft Office Language Tools it
says that the only language that is enabled is English UK. Im confused, any
help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[nimrod]

I am very sorry, I think I am confusing the issue by using the Chinese example.
What I am trying to say is that I only ever write in UK English, I have no
need for US English dictionary (or any other language) and I want to remove
it from all MS programs. I will never use any language other than UK
English. I want to stop forever US English.
Mike Souper

 

[Lance Bombardier]

Nimrod,

Did you get an answer to this question? Should we apply to the CIA?

 

[nimrod]

Hi Lance Bombardier

Having come back to this problem after a good sleep, the answer appears to
lie *outside OneNote*; try this …

In Microsoft Windows XP

Start
All Programs
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office Tools
Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings.
Enabled Languages tab.

In the “Choose the language that defines default behaviour in Microsoft
Office applications†box, select English UK

Click OK.

In “Enabled languages†highlight English (US)
Click <<Remove

OK

I think this might do the trick.

Best wishes
Nimrod

 

[Lance Bombardier]

Nimrod,

It's done. Prayer and fasting to keep it in place.

LB

 

[Snowie]

I have absolutely no use for US English either and I'm ready to dump Office
for some other WP program to get around this problem. I HAVE changed the
default language in the language settings via the start menu and US English
isn't even enabled on program yet it still keeps defaulting back to US
English. It even keeps defaulting back to US after I manually change the
language in each document. Is there some way to just delete US English from
the whole program and rid myself of this problem?

 

[nimrod]

Snowie
Day 2 (of removing English (US): It does not appear to correct historic
documents only new ones.

I have no use for it either, nor any of the other languages that are there,
be patient, someone will write a gorgeous fix.

The problem is bigger than LB, you and me, students don't realise they are
checking their spelling in the wrong language and it causes continual
problems to teachers (me).

Nimrod

 

[Belle]

I have the same problem: but I need to go from US English (arrghh) to
Australian English to write a thesis. I love using OneNote, but even after
checking all the default settings I coud find in XP and Office, nothing works
to change the default in OneNote... So I'm putting everything in the custom
dictionary and hoping MS will find a solution! Are there any new solutions?
And I mean for 2003 not 2007 beta.

 

[nimrod]

The answer appears to lie *outside OneNote*; try this …

In Microsoft Windows XP

Start
All Programs
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office Tools
Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings.
Enabled Languages tab.

In the “Choose the language that defines default behaviour in Microsoft
Office applications†box, select English UK

Click OK.

In “Enabled languages†highlight English (US)
Click <<Remove

OK

It will not affect the documents you have already written in OneNote, for
those you need to highlight the text in each document and change the language.

Good luck with the thesis.

 

[Belle]

Thanks Nimrod,

After a bit of swapping languages I got Aust English up for all the old
pages and while the new ones started with US English, when I swapped to Aust
English they were good too, which (pleasantly) surprised me, BUT oddly when I
went to change the heading, US English came up. (Pause) Just closed down and
opened back up, back to the same problem everywhere! So I've put the change
language button on the toolbar and if I click on the misspelled word then the
change language button and then do it again, it gets the idea. Hope that
makes sense! I'll change to UK English and see how I go. Thanks.

 

[Angry]

I have tried all of these options. It appears that Microsoft are determined
to continue the cultural dominance of the USA. Nothing will stop my version
of Office from checking words in US English. I would love to know how to just
get rid of this pointless dictionary.

 

[Patrick Schmid]

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/LangFmt.htm
Note, however,
that language is form of text formatting that can be applied to amounts
of
text as small as one letter, so it is very easy to inadvertently paste
text
in from a source formatted in another language and thus introduce the
unwanted language into your document.

Patrick Schmid

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Note, however,
that language is form of text formatting that can be applied to
amounts of text as small as one letter, so it is very easy to
inadvertently paste text in from a source formatted in another
language and thus introduce the unwanted language into your
document.

What really got me several times:
If a container has English as the lanaguage my keyboard is behaving as
if it was English too - f.e. if I press the "y" key, a "z" appears
(the same with all special characters).
I could turn it to German, but then almost everything is shown as
mis-spelled.

Is this a feature or a bug?

Rainald

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Tools, Options, Editing. There is a switch "Switch keyboards
automatically". Is it activated? If yes, deactivate it.

You are probably best off btw to change the Windows input language
English. Specifically change it so that it uses a German keyboard layout
(yes, you can do that). That way you can use the language selection most
effectively to indicate the language you want to write in while
retaining the German keyboard layout. If you need instructions, just
ask.
MS suggested that as workaround, because they haven't found a viable
solution yet to the issue of keyboard layouts that can be used for other
languages (meaning you can use a German keyboard to write English, but
if you want to write German on an English keyboard, you need to switch
keyboard layouts). Due to complications that come in with Asian, Arabic
and other non-Latin character languages, this is actually a rather
complicated issue.

Patrick Schmid

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Patrick Schmid shared these words of wisdom:

Tools, Options, Editing. There is a switch "Switch keyboards
automatically". Is it activated? If yes, deactivate it.

Great!
Thanks a lot.
But never came across something like that ...

You are probably best off btw to change the Windows input
language English. Specifically change it so that it uses a German
keyboard layout (yes, you can do that).

Do you mean in Control Panel | Reginal and Langauge settings ?
Never had anything else than German keyboard settings <g>.
And except my days with the Boy Scouts where we had an American
typwriter left over from the US Army <bg> I nver used anything else

That way you can use the language selection most effectively
to indicate the language you want to write in while retaining the
German keyboard layout. If you need instructions, just ask.

Sorry, I just cannot follow you in what you want to show me and why
:-( :-(

Thanks again for the assistance and the good tip!
Rainald

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Tools, Options, Editing. There is a switch "Switch keyboards

Great!
Thanks a lot.
But never came across something like that ...

I am surprised it was activated. This feature is designed for languages
that don't use the Latin alphabet. E.g., if you move your cursor into
some Asian or Russian text, you need a different keyboard layout to even
be able to edit anything.

Do you mean in Control Panel | Reginal and Langauge settings ?

Yes.

Do the following: Set up English and German in there, but both with a
German keyboard (you need to check the keyboard box and switch it to
German when you are adding English). You should have the language bar
now next to your tray area in the task bar. When you are in OneNote now,
switch the language bar to English (meaning you are switching the
Windows input language). Now OneNote will treat anything you write as
English and use the English spell checker. Once you switch it back to
German, it will treat anything you write as German. Changing within the
same paragraph though might give you some trouble. I would definitely
stick to one language per paragraph.

Patrick Schmid