• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Erin Wright Writing

Writing Tips for the Real World

  • Microsoft Word Tutorials
  • Adobe Acrobat Tutorials
  • Writing Tips
  • Editing Tips
  • YouTube Videos
  • Contact

How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Microsoft Word

By Erin Wright 44 Comments

This tutorial shows how to change the proofing language for comments in Microsoft Word.

But first, why would you want to change the proofing language for comments? Because …

Comments in Word Inherit Proofing Languages

When you use Word’s Track Changes to edit someone else’s document, the comment tool automatically inherits the original author’s proofing language along with spelling and grammar-check settings. Normally this inheritance isn’t a problem. However, if the author wrote the text in another language and then translated it to English, your comments may be ignored by the spelling and grammar check (now called the Editor) until you change the comments to your desired proofing language.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than fifty other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.

Please note that the images below are from Word for Office 365, which is currently the same as Word 2019. The steps are the same for Word 2016 and Word 2013; however, the interface in these older versions may look slightly different.

How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word

1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Home Tab | Step 1 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 1. Home tab in the ribbon

2. Select the dialog box launcher in the Styles group.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Styles Dialog Box Launcher | Step 2 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 2. Styles dialog box launcher

3. Select the Options button in the Styles task pane.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Options Button in the Styles Task Pane | Step 3 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 3. Options button in the Styles task pane

4. Select All styles in the Select styles to show drop-down menu in the Style Pane Options dialog box.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Styles to Show Menu in the Style Pane Options Dialog Box | Step 4 in How to Change to Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 4. Styles to Show Menu in the Style Pane Options dialog box

5. Select the OK button to close the Style Pane Options dialog box.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 OK Button in the Style Pane Options Dialog Box | Step 5 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 5. OK button in the Style Pane Options dialog box

6. Scroll to Comment Text in the Styles task pane; hold your cursor over Comment Text to reveal the options arrow.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Comment Text Option in the Styles Task Pane | Step 6 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 6. Comment Text in the Styles task pane

7. Select the options arrow and then select Modify from the drop-down menu.

Image of the Modify Comment Text Option in the Styles Task Pane | Step 7 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 7. Modify Comment Text in the Styles task pane

8. Select the Format button in the Modify Style dialog box.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Format Button in the Modify Style Dialog Box | Step 8 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 8. Format button in the Modify Style dialog box

9. Select Language in the drop-down menu.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Language Option in the Format Menu of the Modify Style Dialog Box | Step 9 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 9. Language option in the Format menu of the Modify Style dialog box

10. Select English (or another preferred language) in the Mark selected text as drop-down menu in the Language dialog box.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Language Dialog Box | Step 10 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 10. Mark Selected Text As menu in the Language dialog box

11. Uncheck Do not check spelling or grammar to ensure that Word will include your comments in spelling and grammar checks.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 Language Dialog Box Checkboxes | Step 11 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 11. Do No Check Spelling or Grammar checkbox in the Language dialog box

12. Select the OK button to close the Language dialog box.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 OK Button in the Language Dialog Box | Step 12 in How to Change the Proofing Lanuage for Comments in Word
Figure 12. OK button in the Language dialog box

13. Select the OK button to close the Modify Style dialog box.

Image of Word 365 / Word 2019 OK Button in the Modify Style Dialog Box | Step 13 in How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Word
Figure 13. OK button in the Modify Style dialog box

14. Save, close, and then reopen the document to activate your new comment review settings.

Recommended Reading: How to Change the Font and Font Size of Comments in Word

44 Comments Filed Under: Microsoft Word Tagged With: Track Changes, Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, Word 2019, Word 365

Home » How to Change the Proofing Language for Comments in Microsoft Word

Meet the Author

Technical Writer and Editor Erin WrightHello! My name is Erin. I am a technical writer and editor who shares step-by-step software tutorials and writing tips for the real world on this blog and YouTube

You can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Peter says

    March 14, 2018 at 9:03 am

    Thank you for this post. It’s obscure enough that I would never have figured it out.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      March 14, 2018 at 9:15 am

      I’m glad you found it helpful. Thank you for reading my blog!

      Reply
  2. Katharina says

    June 30, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    Thanks. It was driving me crazy to have German correction in an English text This is really buried so deep in Word’s option, I would have had no chance to find it without your help. Thank you for taking the time to explain it so well.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      July 8, 2018 at 4:43 pm

      I’m glad you found the post helpful! Thank you for your feedback!

      Reply
    • Don says

      October 11, 2018 at 4:36 pm

      Same here. Comments were stuck in German. Finally resolved! Thanks!!!!!!

      Reply
      • Erin Wright says

        October 12, 2018 at 7:43 am

        I’m glad the tutorial helped, Don. Thank you for reading my blog!

        Reply
  3. Emily says

    October 19, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    Erin, thanks for this. Is there any other reason Word might stop proofing the comments? I have followed these instructions, yet Word does not underline misspelled words in the comment field.

    Reply
  4. Erin Wright says

    October 19, 2018 at 5:43 pm

    Hi, Emily. Thank you for reading my post! You may want to make sure that “Do not check spelling or grammar” is not checked in the Language dialog box (Review tab > Language). Also ensure that “Hide spelling errors in this document only” is not checked in the Word Options dialog box (File tab > Options > Proofing >Exceptions section). I hope that helps!

    Reply
  5. Maria-I Acosta says

    February 25, 2019 at 1:36 pm

    Thank you so much for this tutorial! I was going crazy changing the language of each comment I made.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      February 25, 2019 at 4:32 pm

      I’m glad the tutorial helped you. Thank you for reading my blog!

      Erin

      Reply
  6. Z.M. says

    July 21, 2019 at 8:07 am

    Bless your goodness and light. I was going banana-crackers trying to figure this out on my own. The step-by-step instructions and screenshots are invaluable. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      July 21, 2019 at 2:13 pm

      Thank you for your kind words. I’m so glad these instructions helped you!

      Reply
  7. Jay says

    August 10, 2019 at 2:04 am

    Thank you so much for this post. Was manually trying to change language for each comment balloon until I gave up. You really made things easy.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      August 10, 2019 at 6:45 am

      I am happy to hear that. Thank you for stopping by my blog!

      Reply
  8. Sarah Mobley says

    August 23, 2019 at 8:50 pm

    THANK YOU SO MUCH! I was editing a project, and the comments kept defaulting to Swiss German, and it was making me crazy. I can’t believe how convoluted it is to change the language! Thank you thank you for sharing!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      August 24, 2019 at 7:14 am

      I’m so glad this post helped you. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  9. Jonathan says

    November 4, 2019 at 5:59 am

    Thanks for the tip, very useful – hope I remember it for the future :)

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      November 4, 2019 at 7:04 am

      Thank you for visiting my blog!

      Reply
  10. Andy Quan says

    November 28, 2019 at 3:32 pm

    This is such an obscure issue that I had little hope of finding help for. But you’re my angel. I’m editing a newletter for an Italian agency, and while I changed all the text in the main body to English, the comments were still coming up as Italian! This would interfere with my last automatic proofread, and also be annoying to look at, since it was marking each word as an error. So, grazie mille to you from me. I would have never figured this out on my own!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      November 28, 2019 at 4:59 pm

      Hello, Andy. Thank you so much for your positive feedback; I really appreciate it!

      Erin

      Reply
  11. Simon says

    December 2, 2019 at 6:34 pm

    What a nice tutorial for an annoying problem! Thank you very much!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      December 3, 2019 at 6:58 am

      Thank you for reading my post!

      Reply
  12. Alex Marsh says

    December 4, 2019 at 12:33 am

    I use Microsoft word regularly and I used to proofread by pasting the text to online proofreading tools. Reading this will surely reduce my efforts. Very helpful, Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      December 4, 2019 at 3:44 pm

      Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  13. Gintautas says

    January 9, 2020 at 4:37 am

    Saved my day. Good tutorial!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      January 9, 2020 at 2:31 pm

      Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  14. Jacob says

    May 8, 2020 at 7:32 am

    Erin, thanks a lot for your guide. I was wondering if there is an option of how to apply this change for all the documents I will work with in the future, as I often comment on papers that are sent to me by other colleagues. I see the option to tick “New documents based on this template” but I guess that will just apply on the documents that I create.
    Is there a way of how to make this language change ultimate, lets say bound to my account?
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      May 8, 2020 at 3:42 pm

      Hi, Jacob. Thank you for visiting my blog! The proofing options are user-specific, so I’m not aware of a way to automatically change the proofing language on other people’s documents. If I stumble across a solution, I will be sure to post an update here. Thanks again for stopping by!

      Reply
  15. keith ougden says

    May 14, 2020 at 9:10 am

    Thank you Erin. It is so good of you to give away a “trick of the trade” to all and sundry!

    Keith.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      May 14, 2020 at 9:21 am

      You are very welcome. Thank you for stopping by!

      Erin

      Reply
  16. Dave says

    May 24, 2020 at 2:53 am

    Thank you very much indeed. You saved my sanity and my computer, which almost flew out the window.

    Reply
    • Extra Admin says

      May 24, 2020 at 1:38 pm

      Thank you for stopping by my blog. Flying computers are no good!

      Reply
  17. Dimitris Theodossopoulos says

    July 17, 2020 at 11:14 am

    Very helpful, thanks! The format is just right and without the long and useless introductions that curiously appear in many other tip pages.

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      July 17, 2020 at 12:05 pm

      I appreciate your positive feedback. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  18. Jill Ginsburg says

    July 18, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    Copy editor thanks you for assistance in converting Polish characters in a document already translated from the Nahuatl!

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      July 19, 2020 at 10:15 am

      I’m glad to hear that this post helped you. Thank you for stopping by!

      ~Erin

      Reply
  19. Alex Hawkins says

    July 29, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    Thanks so much! I often proof-read English documents written by non-English clients and this has seriously rescued my sanity. Baffling why this is so well hidden in Word…

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      July 29, 2020 at 3:49 pm

      I’m so glad to hear that this post helped you. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  20. Renaud says

    October 12, 2020 at 4:59 am

    Thank you Erin, really helpful !

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      October 12, 2020 at 3:46 pm

      I’m glad to hear it. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  21. Dr. A says

    March 1, 2021 at 6:50 pm

    thank you!! I have gone on a foray to figure this out multiple times over the years when annotating papers of non-english speaking students and I have finally found the right keywords! (but lost the excuse to make typos in my comments…)

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      March 2, 2021 at 7:05 am

      Thank you for stopping by. I’m glad you found what you were looking for!

      ~Erin

      Reply
  22. Stacie O says

    April 10, 2021 at 10:43 pm

    Hi Erin,
    Can you tell me why ONLY my readability statistics is showing up in Spanish? All defaults for proofing and language show English.
    Thanks,
    Stacie

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      April 11, 2021 at 7:01 am

      Thank you for visiting my blog, Stacie. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why that is happening. It sounds like you might have a software glitch. I encourage you to report the issue to Microsoft (along with a screenshot, if possible) in case others are having that issue, also. Best of luck!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Never Miss a Tutorial!

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts.

Recent Blog Posts

How to Create a Cover Page in Microsoft Word (Built-In and Custom)

How to Insert and Modify Image Watermarks in Microsoft Word

How to Open Links in Separate Tabs in Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

How to Create Newspaper-Style Columns in Microsoft Word

How to Insert and Modify Text Watermarks in Microsoft Word

Tags

Acrobat Standard Adobe Acrobat DC Adobe Acrobat Reader AMA style APA style AP style blogging book review business editing business writing capitalization Chicago style copyediting CSE Style dictionaries editing tips figures and tables formatting Google Docs grammar marketing Microsoft 365 MLA style proofreading punctuation readability spelling structure style guides substantive editing Track Changes Turabian style usability usage Word 365 Word 2010 Word 2013 Word 2016 Word 2019 writing resources writing tips

Footer

  • Resources
  • About Me
  • Microsoft Word Tutorials
  • Adobe Acrobat Tutorials
  • Writing Tips
  • Editing Tips
  • YouTube Videos
  • Contact
Email: erin@erinwrightwriting.com
Phone: 708-669-9503

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

© Erin Wright, 2012–2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this website’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Erin Wright with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.