Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Keyboard Changes to Unwanted Foreign Language.

Keyboard Changes to Unwanted Foreign Language

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 11, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


11

Erica wonders why Word all of a sudden change the keys to "foreign" lettering. For example, without warning when she presses the question mark she'll get an "e" with an accent, and the "~" (tilde) produces a "#". All of the keys seem to be remapped to the foreign language and Erica don't understand why. The only way she knows to stop it is to close the document and open it again.

In all likelihood, this problem needs to be addressed in both the operating system and in Word. Windows systems can have multiple language configurations installed on them. For instance, it is not unusual to have both English and French installed on a given system. (This may happen when the user is in a country—such as Canada—that has two dominant languages.)

When there are multiple languages installed in the operating system, then the system provides a way to easily switch between the languages. On most systems this is instigated by pressing Alt+Shift. If you press this shortcut inadvertently, you can find yourself typing in a language you didn't intend. The solution is to press the shortcut again so that you return to the language configuration you want to use.

You should remember, however, that the Alt+Shift shortcut may not work on all systems. For some language combinations Windows may use a different shortcut (such as Ctrl+Spacebar), and it is possible that a different shortcut than these was specified by a previous user of your system. (The shortcut can be modified in the Control Panel, under the heading of regional and language options.)

The thing that you might check within Word is whether the program is configured to automatically detect languages or not. If it is, then it is possible that the language switching is occurring because of the words you are typing within your document. You can check this configuration setting by following these steps. (These steps will only work in Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003. The feature was not available before Word 2002.)

  1. Choose Language from the Tools menu, then Set Language from the resulting submenu. Word displays the Language dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  2. Figure 1. The Language dialog box.

  3. Clear the Detect Language Automatically check box.
  4. Click OK.

When you make the language setting change in Word, it is applicable only to the document or template that you have open at the time. If you want the change to be applicable to all your future documents, you'll want to open the Normal template before making the change and then save the template after the change is made.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7534) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Keyboard Changes to Unwanted Foreign Language.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Finding the Date Associated with a Negative Value

When working with data taken from the real world, you often have to determine which certain conditions were met, such as ...

Discover More

Documenting Changes in VBA Code

Your company may be regulated by requirements that it document any changes to the macros in an Excel worksheet. Your ...

Discover More

Default Cell Movement when Deleting

Delete a cell or a range of cells, and Excel needs to figure out how to rearrange the void left by the deletion. You can ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Selecting a Language

Need to format a paragraph (or some selected text) so that it is a language other than English? You can do so easily by ...

Discover More

Word Operates Backwards

What is someone to do when all of a sudden Word starts displaying text from right to left instead of left to right? The ...

Discover More

Stubborn Foreign Languages

Word is a program designed to work in and with multiple languages. This can lead to some problems, however, for those ...

Discover More
Subscribe

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.

What is 6 - 0?

2022-04-26 09:10:30

L.J.

Scratch that. it changed back to Spanish again. Argh.


2022-04-26 09:05:19

L.J.

Your directions to uncheck "detect language automatically" have saved me from further frustration. I had spent about a half hour fighting with it and looking for the solution. Thank you!!!!!!


2018-05-16 16:23:41

Frank Dauenhauer

Thank you, Allen. I learn something new about Word 2002 almost every day from your Word Tips.
Frank Dauenhauer


2018-05-15 12:23:14

Rap

This has been driving me nuts since Office 2016. I've tried everything I could think of including the tips on this page and nothing does it. When I (manually) switch the language to English, the Keyboard changes in the English parts of the text in my emails in Outlook. This doesn't happen in Word. It's really annoying.


2016-07-21 07:53:54

Tele2 - Sweden

Great tip! That solved the problem


2016-04-18 21:40:17

Ben

Hi All, in Excel 2010 my Shift 3 combo switched to £ instead of #. So Frustrating!

The fix in Excel is to press L-Ctrl + L-SHIFT simultaneously. This changed my keyboard setting back to normal. Obviously works in in reverse as well.


2016-01-28 13:38:37

Rudolf

Thanks!
Solved a major frustration, having lost a lot of time in the past trying other solutions to circumvent the changed layout - including trial-and-error/blind-typing all keys to find the one I need... NOT a time-saving solution.


2015-10-12 01:58:42

Ioannis Karadimitropoulos

Although I unchecked the "Automatically switch keyboard to match language of surrounding text", in Outlook the keyboard changes automatically. I found no option in outlook 2013 to solve this issue.
I would appreciate should you have any recommendations.
Kind regards,
Ioannis Karadimitropoulos


2015-08-31 05:54:28

Willem

Neither of the shortcuts help in my case.After selecting the whole document, I set the language to Dutch and to be sure, press the 'default'knob. Still after typing a few lines the language is set to English. It drives me crazy, because my autotext does not work with this setting.


2015-06-12 00:46:27

Frank

Thank you very much. alt+shift switched my keyboard back to the normal layout for MS Word 2010.


2014-11-20 07:13:48

Sarah

Thanks for this. I use Alt+Shift regularly for moving items up and down lists and accidentally pressed instead of held+arrow up/down, resulting in a # every time I tried to type £. Very frustrating as I didn't know what had caused it. This sorted it! :)


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.

Videos
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.