Windows – How do you change Word 2016’s Display language

languagemicrosoft-office-2016windows 10

(Note that I am referring to the Display language, not the keyboard.)

I have configured the default language in a Windows 10 Pro user profile to Spanish (Mexico). It's working fine. All Start menu text is in Spanish and even Chrome displays everything in Spanish.

But when I run Word 2016 all of its menus are in English. In Word Options > Language the editing language is set to default to Spanish (Mexico). Under "Choose Display and Help Languages" the default is "Match Microsoft Windows," which suggests to me that all Word menus should be in Spanish, just like Chrome and Windows are doing. A second, greyed out choice is English.

The very last sentence on this Options page is says, "View display languages installed for each Microsoft Office program. Click on it and a table appears. Word and Outlook are listed. Under the "Office Display Language" is English for both. Nothing appears in the "Other Display Languages". I see no option to add another display language.

Earlier versions of Office had downloadable Language packs but I can't find one for Office 2016, not even in the volume license downloads.

I've tried this on two W10Pro Ofc2016 computers and get the same results in both. What step or trick am I missing?

Best Answer

What step or trick am I missing?

You need to install the language pack.

  1. Click Here

  2. Navigate to the list of languages, which by default, has Which language do you need? written in it.

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  1. Install whichever language accessory pack you just downloaded.

  2. Once the language is installed, within the Office Language Preferences, configure the display language you desire.

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  1. In order for the changes to take effect, you need to restart all Office programs

It might be worth pointing out that, while the language appears to be grayed out, you can actually click on it.

Earlier versions of Office had downloadable Language packs but I can't find one for Office 2016, not even in the volume license downloads.

According to the article I found, they should exist, provided you have the appropriate volume license.

If you're an administrator who has deployed a volume licensed version of Office 2016 to your users, you can download an ISO image of the language packs, language interface packs, and proofing tools from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC).

Sources:

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