How to Change the Language of a Microsoft Word Document

If you are writing an essay at a UK university, chances are you will have to write in British English. Likewise, if you’re in the UK and writing for an international audience, you should make sure to adapt your language use accordingly.

Most word processors, including Microsoft Word, are automatically set to US spelling. This is fine if you’re writing for an American (or even international) audience. But otherwise you might need to make a change. In this post, we explain how to change the language of a document in Microsoft Word.

Step One

Select all of the text in your document. To do this quickly, use ‘Ctrl + A’ (or ‘command + A’ on Mac). If you want to use different language settings in different parts of the document, simply selected the text you want to modify.

Step Two

On a Windows PC, go to the ‘Review’ tab, click ‘Language’ and select ‘Set Proofing Language’.

On a Mac, go to ‘Tools-Language’.

Alternatively, you can click on the ‘Language’ setting at the bottom of the screen.

This will open a new dialogue box.

Step Three

In the window that opens, choose your preferred language from the list. Click ‘OK’ to change the proofing language of the selected text.

Step Four

If you usually use this language for your documents, click ‘Set As Default’. And that’s it! Good luck!