Can't set language default
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- BronzeLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
OK, thanks. That one is solved then ;-)
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Just in the note, no matter how convenient it may seem, when you have a new question, as you did here, it is best to create a new question. You will get the best and quickest answers that way.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
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- Microsoft MVP
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Re: Can't set language default
So I tried it. I opened a document that's based on a template other than Normal.dotm. In the document, I modified the Body Text style by changing the font to something ridiculous (a font named Elephant, for good reason) and clicked the "New documents based on this template" option. When I saved the document, I was prompted whether to save changes in "the template" (unfortunately not naming the template) and I agreed. After closing Word, I looked at the Templates folder. The template on which the document was based had today's date, but the Normal.dotm template had its old date so it wasn't changed.Charles Kenyon wrote: ↑22 Apr 2024, 19:48When you click the option for new documents based on the template, I am unsure whether or not the change goes to the Normal template or the attached template. I expect the attached template. You can certainly try it and see.
If I directly changed the font of some text in the document instead of modifying a style, and clicked the Set as Default button in the Font dialog, I was presented with this message box, which was much more specific about what the choices mean:
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Thank you Jay.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
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The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
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- BronzeLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Thanks Charles, you're right of course. I just did that.Charles Kenyon wrote: ↑22 Apr 2024, 20:11Just in the note, no matter how convenient it may seem, when you have a new question, as you did here, it is best to create a new question. You will get the best and quickest answers that way.
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- BronzeLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
I can confirm what Jay reported. I changed the font and clicked "Set as Default".
That gave me this dialog:
Seems the changes are saved in the active document and not in Normal.dotm
That gave me this dialog:
Seems the changes are saved in the active document and not in Normal.dotm
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Thank you for the followup.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
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Templates in Microsoft Word
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
@snb
Have you tried your proposed solutions with a Windows proofing language other than the one you want as the default in Word?
Your solution ought to work, but it does not. IMO, this is a bug in the design of Office but it has been there for a long time.
In a different thread https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40942 you commented on the cumbersome workaround I posted.
You are right, it is cumbersome. However, it does work.
To benefit future forum users, please bring those suggestions into this thread.
Have you tried your proposed solutions with a Windows proofing language other than the one you want as the default in Word?
Your solution ought to work, but it does not. IMO, this is a bug in the design of Office but it has been there for a long time.
In a different thread https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40942 you commented on the cumbersome workaround I posted.
You are right, it is cumbersome. However, it does work.
To benefit future forum users, please bring those suggestions into this thread.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
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- 4StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
You might replace this file (after renaming it to normal.dotm) instead of the normaltemplate.
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
You cannot simply write your own Normal.dotm file without losing functionality. A fully functional Normal.dotm can contain macros and keyboard customizations as well as AutoCorrect and AutoText entries. Replacing it can lose those. Creating your own without starting with one created by Word will lose some functions.
Your Normal_snb.dotm file is 13KB. A blank one created by Word is 20KB.
Here is much of my writing about the Normal template: https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/t ... htm#Normal
I asked you earlier if you had tried your proposed solution with Windows language other than the one set in Word or in the normal template.
I have. It doesn't work. I also tried this with your proposed template, just to assure myself that you had not discovered something that I did not know (This is always a possibility.)
Neither does changing the proofing language of EVERY paragraph and character style in Word.
I've worked for years to figure this out.
Here is my article on the Microsoft site.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... 9788821357
This is a basic and long-standing anomaly in the programming of Office. I would call it a bug or at least behavior contrary to documentation.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
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The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
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- 5StarLounger
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What happens when you try to set a proofing language in Word different from the language setting in the Operating System
Here is what happens if you set the proofing language in Word to be something other than that in the Operating System:
To do this you can do all of the following:
The proofing language applied to what you type will be the language of the Operating System.
An alternative might be to save the language-set Content Control saved as AutoText in the Normal template and have an AutoNew macro insert that when creating a new document. That would have to assure that the attached template for the new document is the Normal template.
To do this you can do all of the following:
- Set the proofing language option to the different language.
- Modify the Normal style in the Normal.dotm template to the same different language or modify all paragraph and character styles in the Normal.dotm template to use the different language.
- Close all Office Programs including Word and restart Word with a new blank document based on the Normal template.
The proofing language applied to what you type will be the language of the Operating System.
- It will not apply the default or preferred proofing language set in Word settings.
- It will ignore language settings in styles in the document.
- If a character style with the different language setting is applied, that will work.
An alternative might be to save the language-set Content Control saved as AutoText in the Normal template and have an AutoNew macro insert that when creating a new document. That would have to assure that the attached template for the new document is the Normal template.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
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- 4StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Created by Word, adapted by snb, proofing language should be NL.
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- BronzeLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
I tested this just now. If I start Word, the (any) text I type is flagged as English. So is the proofing language setting.
SNB, I recall you are using an older version of Word. What Charles (and I) have been using is the latest (MSO365) version.
If that is true, I believe that in your Word version, all what you state could be true. At the same time, I hope that you can believe that what Charles has been indicating and what I have been seeing is also true.
SNB, I recall you are using an older version of Word. What Charles (and I) have been using is the latest (MSO365) version.
If that is true, I believe that in your Word version, all what you state could be true. At the same time, I hope that you can believe that what Charles has been indicating and what I have been seeing is also true.
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
The key word is "should." It does not work even though it should work.
Please read my previous two posts.
This one tells you what happens.
https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php ... 08#p317108
The key is the situation reported by ErikJan. The Operating System language is different from the preferred Word language.
Please, test this yourself!
This is not just me, or ErikJan. We both wish there were something simpler than the cumbersome use of a different templates being used for a new document, but there is not.
This is not intuitive. It does not make sense, at least to me. I wrote that article on the Microsoft web site after much research and trial and after assisting many people with proofing language problems in Word. Please read it. Please test your solution with a different language setting in the OS.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
I should add that the first time this problem came up on a different forum, I was certain that what you propose would work. I was shocked when it did not. After the person asking for help insisted that it did not work, I tried it so I could prove to him it did. I was wrong; Word really is that messed up.
If this problem is deep in the code of Office, I can understand it being a low priority for MS. It is not often that someone wants to start a new blank document using a proofing language different from the language in the OS.
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
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- BronzeLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Off topic but I wonder about the last statement "It is not often that someone wants to start a new blank document using a proofing language different from the language in the OS".
I use the OS in English because it was developed in that language and translating everything makes (in my view) using an OS effectively sometimes a bit of a maze (as not everything is logical anymore).
Writing documents (for example) however is something many people do in their home language.
So I'd argue many people (OK, in absolute sense, maybe not relative) would really prefer MS to fix this obvious bug (because that's what this is of course). As I said, in email (Outlook desktop) there's even NO WAY to set the language for the subject line other than the OS language.
I use the OS in English because it was developed in that language and translating everything makes (in my view) using an OS effectively sometimes a bit of a maze (as not everything is logical anymore).
Writing documents (for example) however is something many people do in their home language.
So I'd argue many people (OK, in absolute sense, maybe not relative) would really prefer MS to fix this obvious bug (because that's what this is of course). As I said, in email (Outlook desktop) there's even NO WAY to set the language for the subject line other than the OS language.
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- 5StarLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
I agree that they should fix this.
I have no idea, though, as to how much coding that would require.
Office is an old program, in software age, and has had an incredible number of fixes. I doubt anyone at Microsoft has any idea of the entire suite's programming. I doubt anyone at Microsoft has a handle on the coding of even Word. This doubt is based on how often one of their new bells and whistles they add to make the program do something requested by corporate IT messes up a basic function in Word. (i.e. the "New Experience" and "Modern Comments") Do use the feedback mechanisms and be the squeaky wheel that gets fixed!
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... fb7fec96ba
I have no idea, though, as to how much coding that would require.
Office is an old program, in software age, and has had an incredible number of fixes. I doubt anyone at Microsoft has any idea of the entire suite's programming. I doubt anyone at Microsoft has a handle on the coding of even Word. This doubt is based on how often one of their new bells and whistles they add to make the program do something requested by corporate IT messes up a basic function in Word. (i.e. the "New Experience" and "Modern Comments") Do use the feedback mechanisms and be the squeaky wheel that gets fixed!
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... fb7fec96ba
Attorney Charles Kenyon
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
Templates in Microsoft Word
Modifying the QAT
The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
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- BronzeLounger
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Re: Can't set language default
Thanks again Charles. I disabled modern comments.
Wrt feedback: I did that twice already for the proofing problem. I think the wheel will remain squeaky here...
Wrt feedback: I did that twice already for the proofing problem. I think the wheel will remain squeaky here...