Word: Set the language for a style

As a follow-up to my post about setting the language for all elements of a Word document, except styles, here’s how you set the language for a style. Do this in the template and it will apply to all documents you create from that template.

You have to set the language one style at a time. If you don’t have a lot of styles, this shouldn’t take too much time, and, if you do it in the template, it’s a one-off task.

By the way, if the style is based on another style (e.g. Normal), then changing the language in the one it’s based on, seems to change it for the linked styles too.

1. Display the Styles pane:
   • Word 2003: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/styles-task-pane-in-word-2003/
   • Word 2007: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/word-2007-what-happened-to-the-styles-and-formatting-task-pane/).
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the style you want to change.
3. Select Modify.
4. Click the Format button, then select Language.
5. Select the language you want to apply to this style, then click OK twice to exit.
6. Repeat Steps 2 to 5 to set the language for each other style.

[Links last checked October 2011]

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