Changing Word to Work in English

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 27, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Zack is an American working in China and will be doing a lot of writing and design work in Word. The only problem is that his copy of Word (and Windows, for that matter) is in Chinese, which Zack cannot read. He wonders if there is a way to change the default so he can actually use this at work without having to look up the file paths for tools at home every night.

The short answer is that there is no setting or way to do this. You can get language-specific versions of Microsoft products, or you can get multi-language versions. The latter are more expensive, and most companies don't get them. Further, you can't change a language-specific product into a multi-language product; there is just no way to do it that we've discovered.

For more information on internationalization, from a Microsoft perspective, you might want to check out various articles by "Dr. International" at this page:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/DrIntl/default.mspx

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3395) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Creating a Worksheet Copy by Default

Excel makes it relatively easy to copy worksheets to a different workbook. That doesn't mean it couldn't be made simpler ...

Discover More

Setting a Length Limit on Cells

Limiting what can be entered in a cell can be an important part of developing a worksheet that other people use. Here are ...

Discover More

Calculating Page Count for a Range of Sections

When adding page numbers to a header or footer, you may find it helpful to modify how Word determines its "Page X of Y" ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Word Freezes When Working with Lots of Clip Art

Don't you hate it when Word freezes? Laurie has that problem when she works with clip art in her documents. There are any ...

Discover More

Understanding ASCII and ANSI Characters

Two of the most common character coding schemes used in computers go by the acronyms ASCII and ANSI. This tip explains a ...

Discover More

Misbehaving Rulers

When upgrading from Word 2000 to 2002, many people have a problem with the Ruler function. This tip explains how to fix ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is five more than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.