Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 31, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365
Sharon received a document that includes many tables in it. She selected the entire document using Ctrl+A and then changed the language setting for the document. However, this did not change the language setting for any of the text contained within the tables. Sharon wonders if there is a way to really change the language setting for all text in the document.
In doing some testing, we found that if you have a document that includes tables, when you press Ctrl+A and change the language setting, those paragraphs in the table are also affected, just like regular paragraphs. The only time that this did not occur is if the table was in a "non-body" portion of the document, such as a text box, a shape, header, footer, endnotes, or footnotes. In those instances, the text in those elements was not affected.
The only way to affect each of these areas is to use a macro. For instance, here is a simple macro that will go through each of the StoryRanges in the document and change the language for each paragraph:
Sub ChangeLanguage() Dim r As Range Dim p As Paragraph For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges For Each p In r.Paragraphs p.Range.LanguageID = wdEnglishUK Next p Next r End Sub
The language setting, in this macro, is set to UK English. If you would like it set to a different language—and there are scores of them—you can use one of the enumerations listed on this page:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/VBA/Word-VBA/articles/wdlanguageid-enumeration-word
Note:
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