BleepingComputer.com: Outlook 2007 switches to French spell check

I am aware of a very common problem concerning Outlook Express only being able to spell check in French after you install Office 2007 but, I am NOT USING Outlook Express. This is a fresh installation of Office 2007 with no prior Office installations existing on the system. The system is an iMac running Parallels 3.0 with Windows XP Pro installed on the virtual machine.

The symptoms: The user will be creating or responding to emails when suddenly, she realizes every word is underlined in jagged red as if it were misspelled. If you right-click for suggestions, every word suggestion is a french word. Auto-correct even auto-changes a few words into French format.

If you save the affected item as a draft, close the email, and then reopen it, the spell checking is back to normal. I've checked the Regional Language settings in XP + keyboard layout .. all English US. I've checked all of the language settings I can find inside of Word and Outlook, all read English US.

I'm at a loss! Recommendations? Thank you very much

Jonathan

Hi Sixstringr1981. Have you tried the steps here >> Turn on automatic language options ?

oh nice one Hillbillygreek. I will uncheck "detect language automatically" and see if the problem comes back. I'll have to post later in the week to allow enough time for testing so, you'll probably hear from me Friday.

Thanks for the help

And to my dismay, the problem still exists. I disabled "detect language automatically," made sure that the setting held, and an hour later the spell checker switched to Spanish this time. So, it seems as though when a new email is opened, it chooses a default language (based on what, I don't know). It goes back to normal if you save the email as a draft and reopen the item.

The crazy thing is that I still haven't been able to find any other person that has experienced the same type of problem. I'm going to run Office Diagnostics at 2:30 EST today and see what I find.

Just a quick update. I ran Office Diagnostics (under the help menu in Outlook) and it suggested that I install Office 2007 SP1 due to some memory errors that were found in some of my old log files. I installed SP1 and one other tweak:

in Outlook, go to Tools, Options, Spelling Tab, Spelling and AutoCorrection - In this new menu you will see in the middle section "Custom Dictionaries." Click this button and then use the drop down menu at the bottom of the next screen to set Dictionary Language to English US. This option is set to All Languages by default but, I'll report back if the problem was fixed by changing this little option.

I'm confident that the actions below remedied the issue.

"in Outlook, go to Tools, Options, Spelling Tab, Spelling and AutoCorrection - In this new menu you will see in the middle section "Custom Dictionaries." Click this button and then use the drop down menu at the bottom of the next screen to set Dictionary Language to English US."

I'm not sure what caused this issue in the first place. One user out of 800 - all with the same Outlook settings. Oh well, I hope this info helps someone.