Languages confusion

[Jeremy]

Hi,

It seems that Word 2008 is still confusing with different languages, like use to do Word 2004. The latest confusion is with the new Bibliography feature.

I am running my system in French but typing a file in English and when I am citing a source (website) in footnote, Word writes the "retrieved"/"accessed" fields in French... which is pretty disturbing for a file written in English (with spelling/grammar set on English).

It would be nice to habe a compulsory option to tell Word in what language is mainly written a file. I have had lots of problems with Word 2004 in writing different files in different languages... especially with footnotes never staying in the same language as the rest of the file.

In addition could you add a "law" field in your citation options.

Thanks.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Jeremy:

The confusion results from not keeping an eye on the language marked on the
text you are typing.

In Word, each piece of Text has a "language" property. This can be applied
directly, or applied by a style. The minimum text unit is a "word", so you
can have words of different languages in a sentence.

When you insert anything (e.g. Bibliography) Word uses the language that is
set in the text at the point where you do the insertion.

If you mark all of the text in a document with a language, that language
will be used throughout. But if you change keyboard language, Word's typing
language will change and mark new text you type with the new language.

If you create a document from a template in which the language has been
correctly set in all the styles, the document will not change languages on
you.

But it is a very complex mechanism, and if you are working across multiple
languages, you do have to set things up so that you do not get any
surprises.

Cheers

Hi,

It seems that Word 2008 is still confusing with different languages, like use
to do Word 2004. The latest confusion is with the new Bibliography feature.

I am running my system in French but typing a file in English and when I am
citing a source (website) in footnote, Word writes the "retrieved"/"accessed"
fields in French... which is pretty disturbing for a file written in English
(with spelling/grammar set on English).

It would be nice to habe a compulsory option to tell Word in what language is
mainly written a file. I have had lots of problems with Word 2004 in writing
different files in different languages... especially with footnotes never
staying in the same language as the rest of the file.

In addition could you add a "law" field in your citation options.

Thanks.

--
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Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks for your answer.

THis is exactly what I have been doing. But here, even after setting the default language to English (UK) and making sure, before double-clicking on the reference i want to include, that the language is set on English (UK) the citation is quoted in French in the FOOTNOTE.

In the Bibliography everything is working fine apparently.

Regards

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Jeremy,

do you by any chance use a French keyboard layout?

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Jeremy]

Yes I do.

So this would be the cause of the problem? But this is not coherent with the behavior of Word in general, isn't it?

Thanks for your concern.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Based on other accounts in this newsgroup, Word 2008 seems to pick its
default language and AutoCorrect settings from the keyboard layout
language. That would be infuriating in so many ways that, quite
honestly, I'd give up on Word until the standard behaviour (i.e. the way
it used to work in all the versions of Word for Mac until 2008) is
restored. I will check this out in detail once my copy of Office 2008
arrives; if you can verify this, please make sure to use the Send
Feedback on Word inside Word's help menu, and also the Instant Feedback
tool, to report this behaviour to Microsoft. If my hypothesis turns out
to be true, we multilingual users need to apply as much pressure on
Microsoft as possible to get this issue fixed ASAP.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Jeremy]

I have just sent a feedback message.

You are right, if I select the British keyboard layout, the citation is printed in English. Pretty annoying. I hope they will correct it soon.

Thanks for your help.

Regards

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Jeremy, can you check one more thing, just to confirm?

Is the style Footnote Text, which is used by default for footnotes,
formatted as English? Create the note, let the cursor appear in the
note, and then check Tools | Language and see what comes up.

It would be odd if the Citation field used the system info but the
Bibliography field used the text language info, though entirely possible
that they messed up.

When you say "setting the default language to English (UK)", what did
you do to do that? Because a LOT of people misunderstand how this works.

 

[Jeremy]

Just checked again.

With French layout, when I click on language in the footnote before inserting the citation it says English (UK), when I insert it, it does so with the French wording.

Selecting the citation in the footnote and checking the language it says French.

It remains in English, if I choose the British layout.

So basically Word is changing the language while inserting the citation in the footnote based on the layout.

It might have been the case already in the previous versions in the footnotes. I remember having my English footnotes underlined in red because Word assumed it was French that was inserted. But I never tested it because it was not as annoying.

I hope it helps.

Regards.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Jeremy:

Yeah, Word 2008 switches languages based on the keyboard chosen, for several
functions.

Debate raged about this "feature" for several weeks before we were told to
"shut up".

Sorry about that: they think it's a "feature"

Cheers

Just checked again.

With French layout, when I click on language in the footnote before inserting
the citation it says English (UK), when I insert it, it does so with the
French wording.

Selecting the citation in the footnote and checking the language it says
French.

It remains in English, if I choose the British layout.

So basically Word is changing the language while inserting the citation in the
footnote based on the layout.

It might have been the case already in the previous versions in the footnotes.
I remember having my English footnotes underlined in red because Word assumed
it was French that was inserted. But I never tested it because it was not as
annoying.

I hope it helps.

Regards.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for confirming, just wanted to make sure.

Daiya

 

[mlewanfr]

Yeah, Word 2008 switches languages based on the keyboard chosen, for several
functions.

Debate raged about this "feature" for several weeks before we were told to
"shut up".

Sorry about that: they think it's a "feature"

Good feature or bad feature, I think this is something they do to be
compatible with the pains inflicted by the Windows version of Office.
I have often cried of despair when I had a perfectly good document in
French on my Windows PC, which over and over again was being spell
checked in English, as I used the US keyboard layout.

Cheers
Magnus

 

[John McGhie]

We are trying hard to get this fixed.

Please tell every user you know that they need to use the "Send Feedback"
link in Help to ask for this change.

If not enough users send feedback, the change will not be made.

Time, money and developer resources are EXTREMELY tight. Microsoft people
are indulging in horse-trading in corridors to try to buy "one" hour of
developer time for this feature or that feature they want to change.

In complex software such as Microsoft Office, it takes a developer nearly an
hour simply to FIND the feature concerned

Cheers

Good feature or bad feature, I think this is something they do to be
compatible with the pains inflicted by the Windows version of Office.
I have often cried of despair when I had a perfectly good document in
French on my Windows PC, which over and over again was being spell
checked in English, as I used the US keyboard layout.

Cheers
Magnus

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]