Word: Macro to set the language for most elements

I needed to set the language for all elements of a Word 2007 template to English (Australia). I could set the language for the body of the document easily enough via a simple macro, but this didn’t set the language for the headers, footers, text boxes, or the styles (yes, you can set the language for a style!). (Update September 2018: I now have a macro for setting the language for all styles at once: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/word-macro-to-set-the-language-for-all-styles/)

So I asked over at the Microsoft Answers forums and the ever-helpful Greg Maxey came up with this macro, which sets the language for all elements of the document, except the styles. As I had fewer than 20 styles in the template, setting the language for those manually wasn’t an arduous task.

Here’s Greg’s macro — change the language from wdEnglishAUS (two places) if you don’t want Australian English (links to the available languages after the macro).

Public Sub SetLangAllRanges()
Dim rngStory As Word.Range
Dim lngJunk As Long
Dim oShp As Shape
lngJunk = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(1).Range.StoryType
For Each rngStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
  'Iterate through all linked stories
  Do
    On Error Resume Next
    rngStory.LanguageID = wdEnglishAUS
    Select Case rngStory.StoryType
      Case 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
        If rngStory.ShapeRange.Count > 0 Then
          For Each oShp In rngStory.ShapeRange
            If oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then
               oShp.TextFrame.TextRange.LanguageID = wdEnglishAUS
            End If
          Next
        End If
      Case Else
        'Do Nothing
    End Select
    On Error GoTo 0
    'Get next linked story (if any)
    Set rngStory = rngStory.NextStoryRange
  Loop Until rngStory Is Nothing
Next
End Sub

Languages available in Word, with their wd language ID code:

• Word 2007: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb213877(v=office.12).aspx
• Word 2010 and later (including 365): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/Word.WdLanguageID

[Links last checked April 2021; if this macro has helped you, consider making a small donation of thanks to Greg at http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm]