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I use Powerpoint 2010 on Windows 7. My keyboard layout is German, but I write my presentations in English.

Now I created a presentation with Default Language set to English, and I want it to use English for proofing. When I create a new slide/textbox/... the language is indeed English. However as soon as I start typing, the language changes to German. This happens because my system-wide keyboard layout is set to German. If keyboard layout is changed to English, everything is alright.

Now I want to stop Powerpoint from changing its proofing language to match my keyboard language. I tried changing the LangTuneUp key to Off or Prohibited in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResourcesas indicated here, but it didn't help. Any other ideas?

P.S. Oh how I hate it when application-developers try to be clever.

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  • I'm grateful for this question, as I did not realize, that the problems I had with the proofing language in PowerPoint were driven by the keyboard language. Knowing that, I can switch my keyboard to English, when I work with PowerPoint and use this as a cumbersome workaround.
    – Hilarion
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 15:19

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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To disable Powerpoint from matching the system language (which fixes this very annoying behavior), go to Options->Language, then under Choose Display and Help Languages move "Match Microsoft Windows" and "Match Display Language" to the bottom of the list.

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  • 4
    Any update for Windows 10 + PowerPoint 2016? What if the new default for Display and Help Languages is the same as the Windows Language?
    – reschu
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 11:01
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    This solution does not seem to work for me. I had it pretty low already and moving it to the end (and restating the application) did not resolve the problem.
    – Hilarion
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 15:17
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    This answer is not correct! Changing display language has nothing to do with the proofing language. PowerPoint is matching slide's language (proofing language) with your current keyboard layout and that is what you must change. See my answer below.
    – trejder
    Commented Jun 19, 2022 at 15:00
  • Here's an equivalent answer with helpful screen shots superuser.com/questions/1381821/…
    – Johann
    Commented Jan 20, 2023 at 10:56
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If you want to use your German keyboard layout while writing in English, you can create a new ”language” which uses the German layout but with English proofreading.

  1. In the windows settings, got to Time & Language → Language.
  2. Below Preferred Language, click on Add a preferred language.
  3. Choose the language you want for the proofreading (i.e. English).
  4. On the next page, unselect all checkboxes.
    (At least in my case, there were no checkbox for the proofreading, so the proofreading functionality will stay even if all checkboxes are disabled).
  5. On the next page, choose your keyboard layout (i.e. German).
  6. Follow the remaining steps of the assistent to create the new “language”.

Afterwards, you will have a new entry at the right of your taskbar where you can choose the German keyboard layout with English proofreading. You can also press Alt+Shift to switch between the “languages”.

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  • This solution works! In my case, I wanted to use my Hungarian keyboard for both English and Hungarian presentations. After setting the Hungarian keyboard for the English language, switching the proofing language did not switch to the English keyboard anymore -- it remained Hungarian. Thanks!
    – kol
    Commented Mar 24, 2023 at 18:08
  • This has been driving me insane. I work for an English speaking company, but I'm Dutch. I switched Windows and Office to Dutch a while ago and I could not get PowerPoint to automatically detect the writing language like Word does. Setting the proofing language does nothing either. This did work. Thank you!
    – Pieter van Ginkel
    Commented Jun 8, 2023 at 8:15
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I found the given answer to be incorrect. In my case to solve this problem I had to change current keyboard layout to the language that I want to use in PowerPoint.

This could be achieve temporarily, by pressing Win+Space that many times until selected keyboard layout matches your desired proofing language:

enter image description here

After that PowerPoint will auto-match proofing language to your selected keyboard layout.

You may try to force-set this permanently, by changing selection Use language list (recommended) to your desired language in Time & language → Typing → Advanced keyboard settings:

enter image description here

But I found this not permanent / not working at all and must use first solution each time I use PowerPoint.

Source: Prevent PowerPoint from auto-changing typing language.

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