Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 7, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Allan quite often copies and pastes into Word from other documents and from web pages. When he pastes such content, he has to select what he pasted and then format it as UK English. (Word seems to default on his system to US English.) Allan wonders if there is a way to paste and have Word automatically format what he's pasting as UK English so that he doesn't have to go through the extra step.
In Word, the language associated with text is considered a format of that text, just like bold, italic, or font size. This means that if you have text you want to use a particular language when you paste it, the easiest way is to follow these two general steps:
The drawback to this approach, of course, is that any other formatting in the text being copied is lost when the pasting is complete. This means you'll need to go back and reapply any formatting you want in the pasted text. Because of that drawback, you may decide it is easier to change the language after pasting than it is to change the other formatting—the decision is going to depend entirely on the nature of what you are pasting and the results you hope to achieve.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13512) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.
Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!
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 MoreWant to convert your usage of Word from one language to another? It's not as easy as one would hope, as you'll discover ...
Discover MoreGetting languages to work correctly in Word can be a challenge at times. In this tip you'll find some ideas for how to ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2018-04-09 04:59:03
Richard Price
Styles can help with this issue, particularly if the target document already has a style with the same name as that used for the text to be copied from the source document. For example, suppose the target document has a style called Body Text that has its proofing language set to UK English, and the text in the source document is in a style also called Body Text, where that has a proofing language of US English. In that case you can copy from the source and do a default paste into the target, which keeps any character formatting from the source (e.g. some superscripts) while acquiring all of the paragraph formatting of the target (UK English in this case).
The OP (Allan) should also address the issue that "Word seems to default on his system to US English". If Office doesn't follow the Windows Region & Language settings, you need to explicitly set the Office Language Preferences, e.g. in Word 2016: File -> Options -> Language, then under Choose Editing Languages click English (United Kingdom) then click "Set as Default". It might be worth checking that the Normal style in the template (Normal.dotm by default) doesn't have an explicit language setting, which I believe is no longer necessary.
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments