28 April 2012. Updated with a solution to the rant in italics below.
To solve a problem in MS Word, the obvious solution is to leave MS Word. In Windows XP, you go to the task bar > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options. Inside that control panel you click on the tab Languages > Details, and you come to the "Text Services and Input Languages" control panel.
When you Add English (United Kingdom) as Input Language, by default, XP installs the "Keyboard layout" United Kingdom. However, one can activate the choice of keyboard by clicking on the checkbox next to it. Then one needs to manually choose "US" as keyboard layout. To make it appear as default in MS Word and other applications, select the combination "English (United Kingdom) - US" as "Default input language".
I still do not understand why Word insists on changing language with layout, but it is admittedly not causing much of a problem any more.
....
I have no idea.
Usually, I try to come with solutions to problems in my blogs, and occasionally whining complaints. Today is the time for a desperate question.
I'm not American. Neither am I UKian, but I am used to UK English, and I want to go on typing UK English, as I have been doing the last forty years of my life.
My Windows XP laptop has a US keyboard. Every time I type in Microsoft Word 2010, the computer awards me a US green card or citizenship and the spelling turns into US English.
I have set UK English to default language of MS Office. MS Word proudly displays that language as default, when I start a new document. However, as soon as I actually type, it switches to US English.
I have tried the UK English keyboard layout, and then the text stays UK English. However, there are plenty of keys that do not correspond to the physical keyboard. Besides, I suspect one key is missing, as I cannot find backslash anywhere with a soft UK English keyboard layout.
Dear mr. Microsoft,
Am I really the only person in the world who wants to type UK English with a US keyboard? Is it really an unforgivable sin to mix the twain? If it is, can you not grant me absolution in secret, and let me, just me, type UK English with my US keyboard? It can stay between us. I could promise not to tell anyone else that you granted me this generous favour. Or favor.
To solve a problem in MS Word, the obvious solution is to leave MS Word. In Windows XP, you go to the task bar > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options. Inside that control panel you click on the tab Languages > Details, and you come to the "Text Services and Input Languages" control panel.
When you Add English (United Kingdom) as Input Language, by default, XP installs the "Keyboard layout" United Kingdom. However, one can activate the choice of keyboard by clicking on the checkbox next to it. Then one needs to manually choose "US" as keyboard layout. To make it appear as default in MS Word and other applications, select the combination "English (United Kingdom) - US" as "Default input language".
I still do not understand why Word insists on changing language with layout, but it is admittedly not causing much of a problem any more.
....
I have no idea.
Usually, I try to come with solutions to problems in my blogs, and occasionally whining complaints. Today is the time for a desperate question.
I'm not American. Neither am I UKian, but I am used to UK English, and I want to go on typing UK English, as I have been doing the last forty years of my life.
I have set UK English to default language of MS Office. MS Word proudly displays that language as default, when I start a new document. However, as soon as I actually type, it switches to US English.
I have tried the UK English keyboard layout, and then the text stays UK English. However, there are plenty of keys that do not correspond to the physical keyboard. Besides, I suspect one key is missing, as I cannot find backslash anywhere with a soft UK English keyboard layout.
Dear mr. Microsoft,
Am I really the only person in the world who wants to type UK English with a US keyboard? Is it really an unforgivable sin to mix the twain? If it is, can you not grant me absolution in secret, and let me, just me, type UK English with my US keyboard? It can stay between us. I could promise not to tell anyone else that you granted me this generous favour. Or favor.
2 comments:
Some things that did not work:
Go to File > Options > Advanced and verify the setting "Automatically switch keyboard to match language of surrounding text". This setting does not switch the language but the keyboard.
Second thing that did not work: Go to Review > Language > Set Proofing Language and verify the setting "Detect language automatically". That setting seems to use magic to detect language, but it is apparently overridden by the chosen keyboard layout.
Third thing that did not work: Go to File > Options > Language and set English (U.K.) as default language. I do not know what use that setting is, as the language anyhow is overridden by the chosen keyboard layout.
This has been driving me insane. I work with a Swiss-German keyboard, but like to enter US-English. Everything I did in PowerPoint had no effect. Each new word I typed in had the angry red squiggly line under it because MS was reading it as German.
This was the solution I have been looking for - Thanks!
Jon Medding,
Baden, Switzherland
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