Language setting keeps switching - Word 2008

[MC]

I have a totally English document, but Word 2008 keeps marking it as
Japanese. There are no Japanese characters in my document. I started this
document from scratch.

It does not matter whether 1) I update my normal style so that Asian text is
MS Gothic and Latin text is TNR and change the language setting for Normal,
or 2) whether I change the language setting for an individual paragraph, Word
insists on changing the language setting back to Japanese as soon as I do
something like centering.

How do I get Word to stop changing the language?

This has just started happening to me -- but in my case it's not
Japanese but English (AUS).

I htink I've been working with a document cxreated in Word Windows that
may have been corrupted -- it was certainly strange -- but it looks like
*something* is going on.

I've tried everything I can thihnk of, including reverting to a
normal.dotm from a month ago (via Time Machine) and nothing's working.

Going to Repair Permissions and see if that does it.

One question: I recently installed the beta version of FruitMenu -- did
you? It seems to be working perfectly... but I suppose it could be
affecting Word.

 

[John McGhie]

Both of you:

Word has a bug in its design: it switches language every time you change
keyboards. If you switch keyboards to get a different character, it will
switch languages and forget to come back.

Word picks up its language settings from the Operating System when it starts
up. Check your locale and language settings in System Preferences.

A document basically makes no further reference to the Normal template after
it has been created. So while it is essential to set the language correctly
in the Normal Template, it has no effect on existing documents.

Language is stored three places: The Document, the Style, and the String.

The Document language is set in the Normal style. This will normally be
inherited by all other styles in the document. However, if you specify a
language in any style other than Normal, that style will no longer switch
its language when Normal Style does, and neither will any other style based
on the bad style.

Any language applied directly to the text by selecting and using
Tools>Language overrides all of the above. If that has been done in a
document, the language settings of the document and the style will not "show
through" from under the direct language setting.

Lots more information here: http://word.mvps.org/mac/spellcheck.html

Hope this helps

This has just started happening to me -- but in my case it's not
Japanese but English (AUS).

I htink I've been working with a document cxreated in Word Windows that
may have been corrupted -- it was certainly strange -- but it looks like
*something* is going on.

I've tried everything I can thihnk of, including reverting to a
normal.dotm from a month ago (via Time Machine) and nothing's working.

Going to Repair Permissions and see if that does it.

One question: I recently installed the beta version of FruitMenu -- did
you? It seems to be working perfectly... but I suppose it could be
affecting Word.

--
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]

 

[MC]

Both of you:

Word has a bug in its design: it switches language every time you change
keyboards. If you switch keyboards to get a different character, it will
switch languages and forget to come back.

I haven't changed keyboards.

Word picks up its language settings from the Operating System when it starts
up. Check your locale and language settings in System Preferences.

I can't find "locale" in the System Prefs -- is aka "Region"?

Any language applied directly to the text by selecting and using
Tools>Language overrides all of the above. If that has been done in a
document, the language settings of the document and the style will not "show
through" from under the direct language setting.

In my case I can do this with any language EXCEPT English (US) - it just
won't stick.

I have now specified English (UK) as my default (closest to Canadian)
and it sticks.

So... it looks like there's something wrong with my English (US).

The good news is, my custom dictionary works fine, so when I need an
American spelling I can just add it.

However, I would like to get back to the way things were, because I have
American clients, and *their* spell check won't work on documents I send
them.