Forum Discussion
Language settings in Word online
Is there a way to make the default dictionary/spelling language in Word Online not US and honour the actual regional settings of the tenant/user?
It's quite annoying in an English (UK) environment as users don't always spot the difference. Particularly problematic in an education setting where it's telling students that "colour" etc are wrong.
I would just like to clarify that Word Online is not Word 365, and Office Online is not Office 365, even though Office 365 can be used online. Office Online is the free, scaled down version of Office.
To change the interface language of Office Online, go www.office.com, click on one of the applications, such as Word or Excel, then click at the bottom of the screen. Or you can go to OneDrive, click the menu icon at the top, then select the current language.
Changing the language at the bottom of my Microsoft account page did not change the Office Online interface language.
I'm not sure if this is what Michael was looking for when he asked his question, but I'm sure there will be plenty of people trying to switch Office Online's language that could benefit from this reply.
- thanks man, this is what is was looking for for 2 months without a luck until now!
- I have the same problem as the original post describes. Microsoft Word Online does not respect my language choices.
In the account settings I have chosen: "Languages
Display language
English (Canada)
Preferred languages
English (Canada)"
Whether in the app or in the M365 account settings, all my choices for region and language are set to CANADA. And yet Word shows errors for such spellings as "Colour" and "Centre" etc.
I suspect this is an error in the system related to the wide varieties of English one can select. The software is otherwise very good so it makes this very troubling. Please fix this.
Hi Michael,
Word Online should follow the user's language settings (to be found in the general settings for the user).
If I set the preferred language to Dutch in the Office 365 settings then Word Online defaults to the Dutch spelling, unless specified differently in Word Online itself (by marking text and selecting a diffirent language for spelling).
Administrators can bulk change the language for a user to Dutch. If that is needed then PM me and I will send you the Powershell script to do so.Do you mean this page (attached)? If so it's always been set to UK but Word still defaults to US.
Hi Michael,
No, the settings that I refer to are to be found from the General Settings from Office 365:
1. Go to the Office 365 start page
2. Click the Settings wheel
- hi,
I like to know if there's a powershell to change the default language for all users.
thanks for advance!
Adam.
Office Online is not the same as Office 365, even though Office 365 can be used online. Office Online is the scaled-down, free version of Office that you can only use online.
To change the language of Office Online, see How to change the display language used for the Office Online website (OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Sway), about halfway down this page.
