Languages default

[james]

I NEVER want to check docs in US English (no disrespect intended to our
US cousins, but it's not something I need to do) so how can I stop Word
defaulting back to US English? I keep clicking 'UK English' in the
languages option, and clicking 'default', but it always comes back to
US language.
I want it to only ever check everything in UK English, regardless of
the format etc but don't know what to do.

Thanks guys.

 

[regmail]

I figured it out.
Microsoft's support page for it is
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;179596

Here's the basic rundown:
1) Open a blank document
2) On the Tools menu, select Language
3) In the dialog box, click the language you want (when I did it, at
first I couldn't find English (UK) but scroll up & it is there)
4) Click Default
5) a dialog box will come up asking if you want to change the default
language - click Yes.
6) Click OK
7) Hold down SHIFT & click the File menu
8) Click Save All
9) In the save box that comes up, change the save as name from
Document1.doc (or whatever it is) to Normal.dot & click save.
It worked for me. YAY!

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Just a couple of comments on your method (which is basically sound).

It's even easier to just open the Normal template, change the default, save,
and close. For more on the Normal template, see here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice; or use Internet Explorer for
this site.)

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

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

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Just a couple of comments on your method (which is basically sound).

Is it? Is it okay to try to name something Normal.dot instead of letting
Word create it? I shy away, but that may be superstition.

DM

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Is it? Is it okay to try to name something Normal.dot instead of letting
Word create it? I shy away, but that may be superstition.

I took another, much closer look at "regmail's" original post as well as at
the MSKB article that he cited. Based on that article, I do not see his
step #9 anywhere and I don't know where he got it:

In fact, it makes no sense. First, Word *for the Mac* does not recognize
Normal.dot as the Normal template: Yes, .dot designates a template, but the
Normal template is called Normal, not Normal.dot. Secondly, if you try to
save the document as Normal.dot, Word will let you save it TO ANY LOCATION.
Unless you save it in the MUD, Word can't use it as Normal anyway.

Now, if you do save your created Normal.dot in the MUD (Microsoft User Data
folder) and pull your old Normal to the desktop and then relaunch, close and
relaunch Word again, you will find a brand new Normal coexisting in the MUD
with your Normal.dot. That's because Word never recognized Normal.dot as
the Normal template.

Conclusions: Step #9 was superfluous; Step #8 completed the change of
default. You can create as many Normal.dots as you want: Just don't expect
them to replace your Normal template .

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

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

 

[Clive Huggan]

I took another, much closer look at "regmail's" original post as well as at
the MSKB article that he cited. Based on that article, I do not see his
step #9 anywhere and I don't know where he got it:


In fact, it makes no sense. First, Word *for the Mac* does not recognize
Normal.dot as the Normal template: Yes, .dot designates a template, but the
Normal template is called Normal, not Normal.dot. Secondly, if you try to
save the document as Normal.dot, Word will let you save it TO ANY LOCATION.
Unless you save it in the MUD, Word can't use it as Normal anyway.

Now, if you do save your created Normal.dot in the MUD (Microsoft User Data
folder) and pull your old Normal to the desktop and then relaunch, close and
relaunch Word again, you will find a brand new Normal coexisting in the MUD
with your Normal.dot. That's because Word never recognized Normal.dot as
the Normal template.

Conclusions: Step #9 was superfluous; Step #8 completed the change of
default. You can create as many Normal.dots as you want: Just don't expect
them to replace your Normal template .

Beth is dead right, of course.

And another point for people to bear in mind is that the structure of a
template (.dot) is quite different from that of a .doc, so you can't just
rename a file by changing blah.doc to blah.dot ("blah" being a name other
than Normal, which Beth has covered).

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)
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[james]

Thanks for all your help, but it still doesn't work. Once I get to
step 8, where do I save the document to?
I saved it to the desktop and closed it. Word then asked me if I
wanted to make changes to the normal template, and I clicked yes and
thought that was it solved. Yet the the first document I checked
(which had been forwarded to me, the language had moved back to US
English.
I just want to remove US English forever.

Sorry to be a pain.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yet the the first document I checked

(which had been forwarded to me, the language had moved back to US
English.
I just want to remove US English forever.

Someone else created this doc? You can't keep US English from being used in
documents you don't create. If someone sends you a doc tagged as US English,
it will stay that way unless you change that doc specifically. And any
change will not be retroactive, changing Normal template will only affect
documents created from then on.

DM

 

[regmail]

In any event, it worked, without any problems whatsoever.
Quite honestly, as long as it helped the original poster & worked for
me, you all can **** yourselves.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Kaj,

That's because Word is picking up the language setting of the source of the
imported text.

Are you in Word 2004? If so, when you do the cut and paste, you should see
a little clipboard icon appear. Click on it and you will see options other
than "Keep source formatting" which you can choose. If you allow the paste
to happen with source formatting preserved, then the language setting will
be that of the source.

If you're not in Word 2004, use File> Paste Special and choose Unformatted
Text or Styled Text to preserve the destination settings.

Otherwise, you'll have to change the language setting of the pasted text by
selecting it and going to Tools> Language.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

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

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Sorry, this may be irrelevant--I know on Windows, Word picks up the default
language from the regional settings in the OS, or they are involved somehow.
This wasn't the case in OS 9, but I have a vague memory Panther settings
might make a difference to languages in Word. I thought I read that
somewhere here, but I might be inventing it.

DM

 

[Clive Huggan]

Someone else created this doc? You can't keep US English from being used in
documents you don't create. If someone sends you a doc tagged as US English,
it will stay that way unless you change that doc specifically. And any
change will not be retroactive, changing Normal template will only affect
documents created from then on.

DM

James, and anyone else watching,

SCENARIO ONE -- PROBLEM ORIGINATES IN DOCS SENT BY OTHERS:
I get a lot of documents in US English here in Australia, mainly from PC
operators who are terrified to modify default settings that have been
wrongly decided by their IT-nazis. And my OmniPage Pro OCR software
produces text in US English, similarly.

If the text has formatting problems, which is often the case, I paste it in
as plain text (as Beth describes) into a blank paragraph that carries my
default English (AUS) language setting. That assigns my version of English
automatically.

If there are no formatting problems, I paste the text in, select it (or the
entire document) and hit a special toolbar button I created that apples
English (AUS) to that text. (If I didn't get so much US-English text sent
to me I wouldn't have prepared the button, I'd just choose Tools menu ->
Language. For details of the button, see appendix E of "Bend Word to Your
Will", a free download from the Word MVPs' website at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm)

The above is what Daiya is pointing out.

SCENARIO TWO -- PROBLEM ORIGINATES IN THE DEFAULT FOR A BLANK NEW DOCUMENT:
I'm not sure whether this is your problem or scenario one. Post back to
tell us (and telling your OS and Word version will help) and someone will
give you further feedback (may not be me -- I bask in a different timezone,
which imposes a delay).

If this is your scenario, my suggestion is to follow Beth's advice and just
open the Normal template (to get to it, click on the desktop, key Command-f
and key in "Normal" and open the template that is found), then change the
default as described by her, save, and close. Maybe you should quit Word
before re-opening -- I can't remember -- it will do no harm. In a newly
opened blank document, your language will be English (UK) unless you have a
corrupted Normal or some maladjustment of settings. But any previously
created documents (by others or you) that has English (US) will not have
changed -- see scenario one.

PS: You aren't a pain. Word is, until one achieves insights that allow its
powerful features to be used -- in this case, multiple-language
capabilities, which admittedly you don't want! ;-)

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)
============================================================

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Is it? Is it okay to try to name something Normal.dot instead of letting
Word create it? I shy away, but that may be superstition.

In this case yes, if you are opening a template and saving it still as a
template.
All Word needs is a template file called Normal and saved at the proper
location.




Corentin