# MS Word gurus-- multiple language dictionaries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 6, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981 "2008-08-06T01:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/1 "2008-08-06T01:38:12Z")
Maybe someone can help. Say you’ve written a long .doc in Word, but it has big sections in other languages: So, for example, the text is primarily English but with a great deal of German, Dutch, and French sprinkled throughout. Is there a way to have spell-check use four language dictionaries at once? Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/2 "2008-08-06T08:20:22Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Maybe someone can help. Say you’ve written a long .doc in Word, but it has big sections in other languages: So, for example, the text is primarily English but with a great deal of German, Dutch, and French sprinkled throughout. Is there a way to have spell-check use four language dictionaries at once? Thoughts? [/QUOTE] Word 2003 uses automatic language detection (I used to package, distribute and test multiple language packs for MS Office installations, so I played with this a bit). Spell check will automatically switch dictionaries (a quick check seems to confirm this in Word 2003), but I think you can manually set the language for a block of text, too. Si ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/3 "2008-08-06T12:44:27Z")
My version of MS Word (2003) doesn’t do that, but it does allow me to select pieces of text in a document and set the language of that selection to some other language than the language the entire document is written in. Just select it, then double click on the language marker on the status bar (where it indicates that overwrite is on, what page you’re on, etc.) and change it around. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/4 "2008-08-06T13:55:54Z")
Thanks for the solutions; still more tedious of a process than in my fantasies (why can’t I just have it check four dictionaries at once without tagging each bit, sigh-- marking each foreign snippet in a 300 page document is laaaame.). Unless, Si Blakely, your “automatic language detection” doesn’t need the language tagging, in which case, I’m very interested in what you are saying and would like to peruse your pamphlets. . . Mine doesn’t seem to be working without the tagging. Ok, I’ve set up some hot keys, which helps a lot. I guess this is indeed something I need to do, though (I’ve already found a few errors that my eyeball wasn’t catching. . .) And the German spelling dictionary appear to. . . suck? (whaddya mean, no “einen”?!) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/5 "2008-08-06T14:21:27Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Thanks for the solutions; still more tedious of a process than in my fantasies (why can’t I just have it check four dictionaries at once without tagging each bit, sigh-- marking each foreign snippet in a 300 page document is laaaame.). Unless, Si Blakely, your “automatic language detection” doesn’t need the language tagging, in which case, I’m very interested in what you are saying and would like to peruse your pamphlets. . . Mine doesn’t seem to be working without the tagging. Ok, I’ve set up some hot keys, which helps a lot. I guess this is indeed something I need to do, though (I’ve already found a few errors that my eyeball wasn’t catching. . .) And the German spelling dictionary appear to. . . suck? (whaddya mean, no “einen”?!) [/QUOTE] Maybe there is something in the water here (which might explain why I keep coming back to work). I certainly remember MS talking about auto language detection in Word at a TechNet many moons ago, and some foreign words I added into a document don’t seem to trigger the spell checker, but maybe it is actually a bit more manual than I thought. My copy of Word is a bit dodgy anyhow. Ahh - I see where I got confused. If you paste from a document in one language, the pasted fragment retains the original language within the new document. Si ETA: According the the Office 2003 Help file > [@](#): > > Microsoft Word can automatically detect the following languages: > … ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/6 "2008-08-06T14:25:29Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] And the German spelling dictionary appear to. . . suck? (whaddya mean, no “einen”?!) [/QUOTE] maybe it should be ‘eine’ or ‘ein’ or some such. What’s the sentence? But then, I don’t really have any experience with the German dictionary but the Dutch can be very unhelpful in spotting some mistakes that make you look stupid yet that people make all the time anyway. Rather than telling you it’s wrong when it’s not, it usually tells you it’s ok when it’s not. Other than for correcting obvious typos resulting in non-existent words, it’s not to be relied on. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-gurus-multiple-language-dictionaries/458981/7 "2008-08-06T20:33:02Z")
Well, it caught “Ereignissse” so I’m happy. I do wish there were a Latin dictionary. . . (God, in my dreams:“Language\>Mark selected text as \>15th century Flemish”)