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lucd6634402
lucd6634402
Participant
March 3, 2016
Answered

How to change the language in InDesign to do a spell check

Anyone know how I can change the language setting in InDesign? I'm doing up a document in French and need to do a spell check but the dictionary is in English.

 

Thanks

 

{Renamed By MOD}

Rishabh_Tiwari
Rishabh_TiwariCorrect answer
Legend
November 23, 2023

Hi All,

 

To change the language setting in InDesign for spell check, please try the following:

 

Language as Character Attribute:

  • Language is a character attribute in InDesign, not a global setting.
  • Set it in paragraph and character styles (Advanced Character Formats).
  • Locally adjust in the Control panel in Character mode with the Type tool selected, considering potential multiple languages within a document.

Work with Paragraph Styles:

  • Change the language of Paragraph Styles in Extended Character Attributes.

Advanced Character Formats for Styles:

  • Double-click each style and choose Advanced Character Formats to set the language.

Be aware that the Language property could be overridden, so it's not a guarantee for the same language for all text.


Additional Suggestion:

  • Follow the steps in this article for additional guidance.


Thanks

Rishabh

View reply

27 replies

Rishabh_Tiwari
Rishabh_TiwariCorrect answer
Legend
November 23, 2023

Hi All,

 

To change the language setting in InDesign for spell check, please try the following:

 

Language as Character Attribute:

  • Language is a character attribute in InDesign, not a global setting.
  • Set it in paragraph and character styles (Advanced Character Formats).
  • Locally adjust in the Control panel in Character mode with the Type tool selected, considering potential multiple languages within a document.

Work with Paragraph Styles:

  • Change the language of Paragraph Styles in Extended Character Attributes.

Advanced Character Formats for Styles:

  • Double-click each style and choose Advanced Character Formats to set the language.

Be aware that the Language property could be overridden, so it's not a guarantee for the same language for all text.


Additional Suggestion:

  • Follow the steps in this article for additional guidance.


Thanks

Rishabh

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    linusr31378619
    linusr31378619
    Known Participant
    May 25, 2023

    what about parking this smartass setting somewhere where the 5% who juggle 3 languages in one document can google that

    Translate
      linusr31378619
      linusr31378619
      Known Participant
      May 25, 2023

      and default a stratforward global autocorrect

      Translate
        Dave Creamer of IDEAS
        Community Expert
        Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 14, 2017

        If styles were not used, change the language on the Basic Paragraph style in the Paragraph Style panel. (Do this anyway even if styles were used.)

        If Styles were used, I would not use Find & Change. Hopefully based-on styles were used. Look at the styles panels and track down the "parent" styles. Change them and any based-on styles will change too. (If based-on setting is set to No Paragraph Style, you will have to change the language on a style-by-style basis.)

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        David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
          taywray88
          Participant
          December 13, 2017

          What if I need accents on my text for words in the Hawaiian Language? Hawaiian is not an option in advanced character format. I do not need it to translate, I just want to properly write the words with their typographical mark. For example aina needs to be 'āina.

          Translate
          Abambo
          Community Expert
          AbamboCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 13, 2017

          if Hawaiian is not an option, you cannot spellcheck, but you still can write the language. And there is an option to install a hunspell dictionnary, if you have one. I think, Mozilla has pretty a lot of dictionaries. I’ve read once an article installing a Luxembourgish hunspell-dictionary to Indesign. If that could help you, I will try to find it back.

          You only need the correct character set for this and most probably a keyboard to help you inputing those characters. I’ve typeset Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Turkish and Russian by simply doing copy/paste of the translations of my text I got from the translators in Word. Languages that cannot be checked may be marked with “none”. Works ok for me.

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          ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
            Abambo
            Community Expert
            AbamboCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            May 26, 2017

            My hair grows grey thinking that people set-up documents like on a typewriter. One of the worst sins is not setting the correct language. You can even include non-standard dictionaries, as InDesign uses Hunspell, which is great because even exotic language dictionaries are available.

            As stated before, the language of InDesign text is an attribute that is attached to the character. You should set the language as a paragraph style parameter at the very beginning of your work. The language style setting does not only influence the dictionary, but also the hyphenation rules, quotes etc.

            If you have, inside a paragraph, a few words of some different language, you should use a character style to mark up those words.

            Translate
            ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
            Josh Harwood
            Participant
            May 25, 2017

            Hi lucd6634402

            I just found the solution to help you (next time), you can easily convert multiple textframes between two languages using the "Find/Change" feature.

            1. Edit > Find/Change
            2. Click the magnify icon next to "Find Format" and then "Change Format":
              1. Define the Find attributes, choose ‘Advanced Character Formats’. Change the language to “English: UK”.
              2. Define the Change attributes, choose ‘Advanced Character Formats’. Change the language to “French”
            3. Check the format settings are correct, e.g. "+ language: English: UK" and "+ language: French".
            4. Press "Change All"
            Translate
              Willi Adelberger
              Community Expert
              Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              May 26, 2017

              No, not so.

              Work with Paragraph Styles. Change the language of the Paragraph Styles in Extended Character Attributes.

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                Camryn5E3C
                Participant
                July 20, 2021

                I spent A WEEK with my indesign stuck on polish, everything would spell check in polish, didn't matter the document or size, it was stuck in polish. My PARAGRAPH STYES were polish!! No one else had this solution, thank you so much random guy from adobe support!!!

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                  Steve Werner
                  Community Expert
                  Steve WernerCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  March 3, 2016

                  Language is a character attribute in InDesign. It's not a global setting.

                  It can be set in paragraph and character styles (Advanced Character Formats), or locally in the Control panel in Character mode with the Type tool is selected. (This is because you may have multiple language text within a document.)

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