How do I prevent the keyboard from switching to Spanish

Michael D Bailey 55 Reputation points
2026-09-13T01:25:02.2233333+00:00

I'm an advanced Word user and I'm translating a book from English to Spanish. The document I'm editing is set in Latin American Spanish. I don't have a Spanish keyboard, yet when I switch between a Spanish document and the original English pdf document, my keyboard keeps switching to Latin American Spanish and it's very irritating. I have not installed a Spanish keyboard layout, however I have installed the Latin American Spanish language pack into MS Word. I want my keyboard layout to ALWAYS remain in English. I've tried editing Widows 11 Pro keyboard setting to no avail. This is NOT a Microsoft 365 issue as the proble is with Windows 11 Pro.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Input and language
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author

AI answer

2026-09-13T01:25:13.7866667+00:00

Word is likely switching the keyboard because the document language is Spanish and the automatic keyboard-matching feature is enabled.

Use these steps:

  1. In Word, open File > Options > Advanced.
  2. Under Editing options, clear Automatically switch keyboard to match language of surrounding text.
    • This setting can cause the keyboard language to change while typing.

If Word is also auto-detecting language and contributing to the behavior:

  1. Go to Review > Language > Set Proofing Language.
  2. Clear Detect language automatically.
    • Automatic language detection can identify surrounding Spanish text and apply that language behavior.

If Spanish still appears as an available keyboard/input option in Windows, verify that only the English keyboard is installed:

  1. In Windows 11, go to Start > Settings > Time & language > Language & region.
  2. Select the language that contains the keyboard to keep, then select Options.
  3. Under keyboards, confirm only the English keyboard is present. If needed, use Add a keyboard only for the keyboard layout that should remain available.

If the language bar is visible and keyboard layouts are still switching manually, note that Alt+Shift switches keyboard layouts. Also, the Language bar appears only after two or more keyboard layouts are enabled.

References:

AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.