Language changing to English (US)

[Marcus Gee]

I have Word for Mac and have set the default language to be English (UK).
When I create a new document, the language is UK, however if I paste text
into this document from certain other sources (including text copied from
the web) it changes the language to English (US).

Does anyone know why this happens and if I can prevent it?

cheers

Marcus

 

[Elliott Roper]

I have Word for Mac and have set the default language to be English (UK).
When I create a new document, the language is UK, however if I paste text
into this document from certain other sources (including text copied from
the web) it changes the language to English (US).

Does anyone know why this happens and if I can prevent it?

Have a look at your style definitions. It is possible to have a
different language on each style. It over-rides the default.
You can even over-ride that manaually. I don't know how that could come
from stuff plagiarised from the web, but stranger things have happened.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Marcus,

Please always include your OS and Office/Word versions when posting.

In another thread on this topic, the poster said that he solved a similar
problem by changing his system's international language setting. He was in
OS X and Word 2004. Since I'm not in OS X, I'm afraid I can't tell you how
to do this but root around and I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Hope this helps.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Clive Huggan]

Marcus,

I have the same problem, caused by people not having selected my variant of
English ‹ English (Australian) -- as their language when setting up their
computer. (Most Australians are on PCs and most are terrified to change
anything lest they be Punished By Windows.)

The short answer is to select their text and manually change it to English
(UK) via Tools menu -> Language.

The longer answer, if you want a very quick way of doing this in future (in
the event that you will often have to do it) is to have a button on a
toolbar (and/or a keyboard shortcut). See under the heading ³Apply a
preferred language to selected text² in appendix E of ³Bend Word to Your
Will², downloadable from
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe,
so my follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

 

[Marcus Gee]

Marcus,

I have the same problem, caused by people not having selected my variant of
English ‹ English (Australian) -- as their language when setting up their
computer. (Most Australians are on PCs and most are terrified to change
anything lest they be Punished By Windows.)

The short answer is to select their text and manually change it to English
(UK) via Tools menu -> Language.

The longer answer, if you want a very quick way of doing this in future (in
the event that you will often have to do it) is to have a button on a toolbar
(and/or a keyboard shortcut). See under the heading ³Apply a preferred
language to selected text² in appendix E of ³Bend Word to Your Will²,
downloadable from http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe,
so my follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

Clive,

Thanks very much indeed. From what others have said, and from my own
guesswork, I think the problem we have is due to the fact that the language
is embedded in the text formatting both in Word and when copying from the
web etc, so that despite the fact I¹ve selected English UK as my language
default in Word, this is overridden by the language formatting within copied
text. Additionally I¹ve not managed to find any language setting at
operating system level that is not overridden by that within the formatting
of copied text.

However, I¹d not thought of recording a macro to change selected text to UK
and adding it as a toolbar button, so your email was very useful.

Thanks again

Marcus

 

[Marcus Gee]

Elliott,

thanks very much for your help. From my own observations and from what you
say, I'm now pretty convinced that any text copied from documents or from
the web carries language settings within its formatting that overrides any
defaults you may have either in the application or at operating system
level.

i.e. there's nothing I can do about it. However on the suggestion of
someone else, I recorded a macro to change the language of select text to UK
and added that as a button to my toolbar, so at least it's a touch easier.

Thanks very much again for your help though.

Cheers
Marcus

 

[Clive Huggan]

Clive,

Thanks very much indeed. From what others have said, and from my own
guesswork, I think the problem we have is due to the fact that the language is
embedded in the text formatting both in Word and when copying from the web
etc, so that despite the fact I¹ve selected English UK as my language default
in Word, this is overridden by the language formatting within copied text.
Additionally I¹ve not managed to find any language setting at operating system
level that is not overridden by that within the formatting of copied text.

<snip>

Marcus,

Marcus,

Here¹s the longer answer, with acknowledgement to John McGhie: Word changes
language dynamically according to the language active in the paragraph
containing the insertion point. This language is "inherited" in the order:
OS -> Locality -> Keyboard -> Word -> Normal Template -> Document Template
-> Document -> Style -> Paragraph. It can be "set" in any of those places,
and it can be set differently in each of those places. The closest place in
the hierarchy to the insertion point wins, hence the solution to your
problem being to change via [select] -> Tools menu -> Language.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe,
so my follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

See way below....

Clive,

Thanks very much indeed. From what others have said, and from my own
guesswork, I think the problem we have is due to the fact that the language
is embedded in the text formatting both in Word and when copying from the web
etc, so that despite the fact I¹ve selected English UK as my language default
in Word, this is overridden by the language formatting within copied text.
Additionally I¹ve not managed to find any language setting at operating
system level that is not overridden by that within the formatting of copied
text.

<snip>

Marcus,

Marcus,

Here¹s the longer answer, with acknowledgement to John McGhie: Word changes
language dynamically according to the language active in the paragraph
containing the insertion point. This language is "inherited" in the order: OS
-> Locality -> Keyboard -> Word -> Normal Template -> Document Template ->
Document -> Style -> Paragraph. It can be "set" in any of those places, and
it can be set differently in each of those places. The closest place in the
hierarchy to the insertion point wins, hence the solution to your problem
being to change via [select] -> Tools menu -> Language.

Cheers,

I'm pretty sure that what's happening here is that you paste something from
the web, and then hit enter directly after it, so you are still typing in
the style/text/formatting copied from the web. So it doesn't exactly
*change* the language....if you pasted into the middle of existing text (or
into existing blank paragraphs, try hitting enter a few times *before* you
paste from the web), it shouldn't change anything that is already there.

DM

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Thanks very much indeed. From what others have said, and from my own
guesswork, I think the problem we have is due to the fact that the language is
embedded in the text formatting both in Word and when copying from the web
etc, so that despite the fact I¹ve selected English UK as my language default
in Word, this is overridden by the language formatting within copied text.
Additionally I¹ve not managed to find any language setting at operating system
level that is not overridden by that within the formatting of copied text.

However, I¹d not thought of recording a macro to change selected text to UK
and adding it as a toolbar button, so your email was very useful.

I've lost the earlier part of the thread but I see you're posting using
Entourage X. So I presume you must be using Word X. In addition to what the
others have pointed out, you might like to know that if/when you upgrade to
Office 2004 there's a little button that appears every time you paste into
Word. You can choose "Match destination formatting" there before moving on,
and I think that should set the language setting as well.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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