The default language of your MS Word depends on the configuration of your computer or device.
Sometimes, you might want to change it to suit your preferred language. MS Word provides different methods on how you can achieve this, depending on your reasons.
Using pre-installed features, you can either change the display or editing language of your MS Word program.
2 Ways to Change the Language in MS Word
- Changing the Authoring Language
- Changing the Display Language
MS Word uses two language settings—authoring and display.
Authoring Language: It manages the proofreading options, such as the spelling and grammar of your documents.
Display Language: It pertains to the language of the menus and controls of MS Word.
Let’s get started!
Method 1: Changing the Authoring Language
If you need to check the spelling and grammar of a document written in a particular language, you need to set its proofing language. Before you can do so, MS Word requires you to change the authoring language.
Here are the steps on how you can do it.
Step 1: Open MS Word application.
Step 2: Open the Word Options dialog box.
The Start screen is the first window you will see upon opening MS Word. From here, you can already open the Word Options dialog box, which contains the controls you will need to change the authoring language. Click the Options control on the left panel of the Start screen to display the dialog box. If you have an open document already, you can always access the Start screen by clicking the File tab on the ribbon.
Step 3: Locate the Authoring Languages setting.
From the Word Options dialog box, you need to access the Language settings.
It contains two sections—the Office display language and Office Authoring languages and proofing.
Since you only need to change the authoring language, you will focus on the latter option.
Click on the Language option from the Word Options dialog box. This will display all the settings you will need.
Step 4: Add languages to the Office authoring languages and proofing section.
MS Word application offers a limited number of languages to choose from. If your preferred language is not on the list, you can always add it using the Add a Language command. Click it to display a list of available languages you can add.
From the list, click your preferred language. Finish adding your selected language by clicking the Add button.
Keep in mind that you can always add more than one in your authoring languages list by performing the same step.
Step 5: Install proofing tools of the newly-added language.
Upon adding your preferred language, ensure that its proofing tools are also installed. You can confirm this by looking at its status on the list. The status “Proofing installed” means that the tools are already installed. In this case, you can now use the proofing tools of the added language. If the status is “Proofing available”, it means that you still need to download and install its proofing tools.
You can download and install it by clicking the status. Doing so will redirect you to Microsoft’s official language pack download page. Download and install the language pack to your computer by following the instructions on the page.
Step 6: Finalize your preferred list of languages.
Review your list of authoring languages and make any necessary adjustments. Set your preferred language by clicking it and click the Set as Preferred button. Remove the language you do not need by clicking it and click the Remove button. Finish your setting by clicking the OK button on the dialog box. You can now use the proofing tools of your preferred language.
Method 2: Changing the Display Language
The display language influences the ribbon, tabs and controls of your MS Word screen.
You can change the display language by following these steps.
Step 1: Open MS Word Document.
Step 2: Display the Word Options dialog box
From the Start Screen, Open the Word Options dialog box by clicking the Options control on the left panel.
Step 3: Go to the Display Language setting.
In this step, you need to access the Office display language section.
You can find this by clicking the Language option from the Word Options dialog box.
Upon clicking, MS Word will redirect you to the Language Preferences page. This contains the setting you will need.
Step 4: Add a language to the Office display language section.
As stated earlier, MS Word already offers some pre-installed display languages. If your desired language is not on the list, you have the option to download and install it.
Click the download hyperlink below the Office display language section as shown in the image below. This will display a list of available languages you can download and install.
Step 5: Download and install the selected language.
From the list of languages, click your desired language and click the Install button.
This will redirect you to Microsoft’s official language pack download page. Download the installer by clicking the download button and wait until it completes.
Once done, install the language pack by double-clicking it.
Step 6: Finalize your display language.
Once the language pack is installed, you may need to reopen MS Word.
Again, locate and display the Language Preferences page
From the Office display language section, click the language you want to set as the default and click the Set as Preferred button.
Afterwards, click the OK button of the Word Options dialog box. A message box will prompt informing you that you need to restart MS Word to apply the changes.
Conclusion
We hope you found this article helpful!