Asian Language Settings Office 2007: Remove the Carriage Return Marks and Revert to a U.S. interface in Microsoft Word

Categories: Techwriter

 

So you snagged work at an international company in China or Taiwan and assigned an English workstation at the office.  Suddenly, you start noticing that something isn't quite right in Office 2007 but your Language settings are in United States (English). 

 

Although the Language settings of Windows XP/7/8 determine the global interface of your desktop, an Office and Windows installation in a country like China or Taiwan will still carry specific customizations.  Everything will be in English as you run Word, Outlook, or Excel, but there are certain differences.  You will quickly notice if you are using an Office Installation set to Asian Languages when you notice the following in any of the Office applications:

 

1. The Default font styles for Heading and Body are Asian fonts like Batang Che, Gulim, and the font size has Han characters instead of numbers.

 

 

 

2. There's a different type of Paragraph mark on each carriage return that won't disappear even if you toggle the Show/Hide Editing marks button on the Home Ribbon.  And its not a Pilcrow.

 

 

 

In general, using an Office installation set for another language really won't affect your workflow unless the arrow that appears after each carriage return aggravates you to no end or scrolling to an appropriate Serif font is too much of a hassle.  Disabling the carriage return mark and to permanently revert to a U.S. Word interface you're comfortable with takes just a few steps.

 

To remove just the paragraph marks:

 

1. Click the Windows Orb button in Microsoft Word.

2. Click Word Options then Display on the left panel.

3. Clear the Paragraph marks box which is checked by default when using an Asian installation of Word.

 

 

 

To switch to a completely U.S.-style Word interface:

 

1. In Word Options, click Popular.

2. Click Language Settings.

3. The Systems Administrator will probably not allow you to remove Chinese or additional languages from the Enabled editing languages box.  However, users can select English (United States) on the Primary editing language box.  Click Ok.

4. Relaunch Microsoft Word.