documents open in Chinese

Try these checks in order:

1. If the Word app interface is in Chinese, change the Office display language:
   • Close all Office apps.
   • Open Start > All apps > Microsoft Office 2016 Tools > Office 2016 Language Preferences.
   • In Display Language, select the preferred language and choose Set as Default.
   • Do the same in Help Language.
   • Click OK, then restart Word.
2. If only the document text appears wrong, the file may be opening with a different text encoding.
   • In Word, use File > Save As.
   • In Save as type, select Plain Text.
   • Click Save.
   • In the File Conversion dialog, choose the correct encoding standard.
   • If unsure, start with Windows (Default).
   • Word uses Unicode by default, which supports most languages.
3. If Chinese characters or spacing look wrong, install the needed East Asian fonts in Windows 10:
   • Open Start > Settings > Time & language.
   • Select Region & language.
   • Choose Add a language.
   • Add the East Asian language needed for the document. The related fonts are downloaded with it.
4. If the file opens but cannot be edited, check whether it is read-only:
   • Right-click the file in File Explorer.
   • Select Properties.
   • If Read-only is checked, clear it and select OK.
   • If files from the internet or email open read-only, they may be in Protected View.

If the problem is that old documents show Simplified Chinese when Traditional Chinese is expected, Word may not change existing text just by changing the font. In that case, use Word’s Simplified/Traditional Chinese conversion feature instead of retyping the document.

• Office displays in English instead of Chinese or Serbian | Microsoft Support
• Choose text encoding when you open and save files | Microsoft Support
• Add East Asian fonts in Windows 10 for use with Office documents | Microsoft Support
• Why did my file open read-only? | Microsoft Support
• How to fix Chinese traditional font on the old word document to appear in the new Word - Microsoft Q&A