In Word 2003, I type @, but “ appears. I type *, but ( appears.

[Dale H.]

Something funny is happening with Word 2003. I type @, but “ appears.
Likewise, I type *, but ( appears. This affects about a dozen other special
characters. At first I thought it was the keyboard, but I can type normally
in Outlook, so it's not the keyboard.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

It sounds like a different language/keyboard is selected. In the status bar
(and/or in the language bar in the Windows Taskbar), does it say something
other than EN? Certain key combinations can switch the language if you have
multiple languages installed. To prevent that from happening, I turned off
the keyboard shortcuts for switching languages.

 

[Dale H.]

At the bottom of the Word window, it says "English(U.S.)". I already have
Auto-Keyboard switching turned off.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

That is not an indication of the keyboard language that is being
implemented. To change it you need to go to the Windows Control Panel and
the open up the Regional and Language Options and go to the Keyboards and
Languages tab.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Not the Word window, but the status bar of the Desktop -- toward the
right end is where a two-letter language abbreviation will appear if
more than one keyboard is available. If it's something other than EN,
then your keyboard is set to a different language.

 

[Dale H.]

Whatever it was, the problem went away this morning without explanation. The
reason I thought this related to Word rather than Windows was that the
problem did not occur in Notepad, Outlook, or Excel. I did check Control
Panel/Regional and Language Options and it is set to US English. I don't
see "EN" anywhere, specifically not at the bottom of my Windows desktop. I
don't know if that is called the Windows Task bar or status bar, but there is
no "EN" there. By the way, this is Windows XP Home Edition 5.1.2600.
Anyway, thanks for your help and the problem went away.