When you type text in an Office application, Office uses proofing tools to check the document. Depending on which Office application you are using, proofing tools can check spelling or grammar, hyphenate text, and look up words in the thesaurus.
You can switch between proofing tools by selecting a different language for your document. To learn how to select a different language, see Check spelling and grammar in a different language.
When you use the keyboard layout for a language that comes with proofing tools, you can also use the proofing tools for that language. For example, if you change the keyboard layout in Word from English to German, Word automatically begins using the German dictionary, the German AutoCorrect list, and the German grammar checker. The German thesaurus appears in the Reference Tools panel.
Some of the content in this topic may not be applicable to some languages.
Which tools are available?
The English (U.S.) version of Office for Mac 2011 comes with proofing tools for the following languages:
Language |
Proofing tools |
---|---|
Catalan |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Czech |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Danish |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Dutch |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
English (AUS) |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
English (CAN) |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
English (UK) |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
English (U.S.) |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
Finnish |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
French |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation You can set the spelling and grammar preferences of Word and PowerPoint to use traditional (pre-reform) or new (post-reform) spelling rules. |
French Canadian |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
German |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation You can set the spelling and grammar preferences of Word andPowerPoint, to use post-reform spelling rules. Excel uses the setting in Word. |
German (Austrian) |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
Italian |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
Japanese |
Rules for full grammar and consistency checking |
Norwegian (Bokmål) |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Norwegian (Nynorsk) |
Spelling, hyphenation |
Polish |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Portuguese |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Portuguese (Brazil) |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Russian |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Spanish |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Swedish |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
Swiss German |
Spelling, thesaurus, grammar, hyphenation |
Turkish |
Spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation |
Proofing tools for these languages are installed in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Shared Applications/Proofing Tools/.
If the proofing tool that you want is not installed, use the Office Installer on your original installation disk to perform a custom installation and select only the check boxes for the proofing tools that you want.
See also
Change the language Office uses in its menus and proofing tools