Proofing language of Visio turns always to English

Question

Proofing language of Visio turns always to English

Henrik K 0

My Office display language has been set to English and the Office proofing language to Finnish. The keyboard language is Finnish.

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After adding a new shape to Visio, it's proofing language shows as Finnish:

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However, when starting to write, the proofing language changes to English:

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The proofing language of a selected text can be set back to Finnish. However, new text added to the same shape still uses English as proofing language. This is different than in Word that uses the language of existing text as default, or OneNote that uses the keyboard language.

Manually changing the language of all new text seems hence to be the only way to make proof reading work in Visio in any other language than English. That is unpractical, of course.

I have tried to find fixes for this problem on different forums. Reports of similar issues have been found, however, no solution. Apparently, this is a bug.

Please update the next release of Visio so that the Office proofing language always overrides all other settings concerning the proofing language of new text written into Visio shapes. If that is not possible, please implement Vision to use the proofing language of existing text, as Word does.

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Answer 1

Good day Henrik,

Thank you for the detailed information and screenshots.

I tested this behavior on my side and experienced the same result. When I type in a Visio shape or text box, the proofing language automatically changes to English. After I click outside the text box, the language switches back to the language configured in Visio.

As a workaround, I recommend entering all required text first, then updating the proofing language for all relevant shapes at once:

Press Ctrl + A to select all shapes, or hold Ctrl and select the specific shapes you want to update.
Select the language displayed on the Visio status bar.
Double click Finnish to set it as the proofing language.
Run Review > Spelling when you are ready to check the document.

For further investigation, I recommend contacting your Microsoft 365 administrator and asking them to create a support request through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support. In case you do not know who is your IT admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.

As a fellow user in this community forum, I can only share public documentation, testing observations, and general troubleshooting guidance. I don't have access to internal diagnostic tools, engineering investigations, or product development records, so I cannot determine whether this behavior is a known product issue.

Alternatively, I understand that contacting your organization's IT admin may not be convenient, you can submit feedback through the Visio · Community. This is the most effective way to ensure your voice reaches the product team and can be considered for future improvements. Once you've submitted your feedback, feel free to share the link here in the comments. I’ll be happy to upvote it to help bring more visibility.

Also, as many members of the community may not yet be aware of this behavior. Sharing or highlighting this response can help bring greater visibility to the issue, making it easier for others who are experiencing similar challenges to find relevant information.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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