10/24/21, 3:19 PM windows - Change the language of fields in Microsoft Word - Super User

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Change the language of fields in Microsoft Word

Asked
11 years, 4 months ago Active
5 years, 4 months ago Viewed
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I am using Word 2010 and some built-in features with fields, such as bibliography.

15 My Word installation is English and I am writing a report in US English. However, my computer has
its locale set to Denmark. This affects the formatting of dates and some of the text in the auto-
generated fields (e.g. in bibliography it says "citeret:" instead of "cited:").

How can I change the language of the fields to US English?

3

Thanks,

Martin

windows microsoft-office microsoft-word

Share Improve this question Follow asked Jun 23 '10 at 11:59

Martin Wiboe
336 1 3 10

+1. I have just written a very long English-language article in Word 2010, and I am pretty annoyed over the
fact the automatic bibliography says "5 uppl." ("uppl." [upplaga] is Swedish for "ed." [edition]).
– Andreas Rejbrand
May 2 '11 at 22:48
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10/24/21, 3:19 PM windows - Change the language of fields in Microsoft Word - Super User

5 Answers Active Oldest Votes

Right-click the field and select "Change field..." (or whatever the item is called in your language of
Word).
11
In my case, the field is BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1053 . 1053 is the Microsoft Locale ID (LCID) for Sweden. I
just changed it to BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 2057 , where 2057 is the LCID for English - United Kingdom.

Then the bibliography changed language, so there is no more "Fifth upplagan" instead of "Fifth
edition"!

Reference:

Locale IDs Assigned by Microsoft

Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 2 '11 at 22:55

Andreas Rejbrand
777 2 15 33

2 I have a date field (DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy") . I've tried adding \l 2057 to it, but Word doesn't save the
LCID value. It also says that \l is to insert the date in last format of the insert tab, in other words, it doesn't
change the language. Do you know how to force the DATE field to be in English? I have MS Word 2010 and
a .doc file.
– Bogdan0x400
May 18 '11 at 14:30

I've got English UI in Windows and in MS Office applications. But I prepare a document in Word in Russian. I
tried to 1. Create a field via Ctrl+F9 2. In the new field I've entered "=235555 *CardText \l 1049" 3. Pressed
Alt+F9 to show the field values. Got " !Syntax Error, L" What is wrong in the formula? I cannot find any clear
official description of this approach.
– Burst
Dec 13 '17 at 15:18

You can also just delete the language code in the field, then the bibliography will update with the
language of the rest of the document
2
Share Improve this answer Follow answered Oct 5 '15 at 7:55
user42510
21 1

If you wanna change the language of the date field ( as Bogdan0x400 wanted to do ) here's the thing
(word 2013):
1
Don't use a general "field" (and then data category)!

Go to Insert → text → date and time.

In the popup window you can choose the language on the right Don't forget to check 'automatic
https://superuser.com/questions/155752/change-the-language-of-fields-in-microsoft-word 2/5
10/24/21, 3:19 PM windows - Change the language of fields in Microsoft Word - Super User
In the popup window you can choose the language on the right. Don t forget to check automatic
actualisation' on bottom right.
This actually also changes the general "field" language.

date and time window

Please note that the names might not be 100% correct as I was just translating the names from a
german version of word 2013.

hope that helps.

Cheers,
Raffa
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10/24/21, 3:19 PM windows - Change the language of fields in Microsoft Word - Super User

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Dec 7 '15 at 10:19 answered Dec 6 '15 at 19:16
clhy Raffa
5,975 8 29 63 11 1

Select the whole field and define spell checking language (Tab Review -> Group Language ->
Language splitbox). Then press update field.
1
Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jun 6 '16 at 23:36
anefeletos
111 3

Or you can go References -> Manage sources -> Edit source and change it one by one. But my
questions is, can I set this language for ALL of the sources once, without the need to do it
0 individually for all of the sources (100+)?

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10/24/21, 3:19 PM windows - Change the language of fields in Microsoft Word - Super User

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Jun 14 '16 at 12:27 answered Jun 14 '16 at 8:04
techraf Pauli
4,702 11 22 38 9 1

This is not an answer to the original question. If you have a new question please ask your own question
(referencing this one for context if it helps).
– DavidPostill ♦
Jun 14 '16 at 11:54

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