Microsoft Overhauls OneNote Proofing Tools to Fix Multilingual Editing Headaches

Microsoft has officially begun rolling out a significant update to OneNote on Windows as of December 16, 2025, directly addressing long-standing friction for users who work across multiple languages. The update, identified as version 16.0.17928.20000, introduces granular control over proofing languages, allowing users to move beyond system-wide defaults that previously hampered multilingual note-taking.

According to the official announcement on the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, this rollout is currently available to 100 percent of Insiders in the Current Channel (Preview) and has reached approximately 50 percent of general Microsoft 365 subscribers as of December 17.

Granular Control Replace System Defaults

For years, OneNote relied heavily on the operating system’s global language settings to dictate spell-check behavior. This often resulted in a frustrating experience for the estimated 20 percent of the user base working in multilingual environments, where valid text in a secondary language would be flagged as incorrect.

The new feature set dismantles this dependency by introducing three distinct levels of control:

• Global Default: Users can now set a specific proofing language for all new pages within OneNote settings, overriding the Windows system language.
• Page-Level Application: A new right-click menu option allows users to apply a single proofing language to an entire existing page.
• Paragraph/Selection Precision: Users can highlight specific sections of text to apply one of the 158 supported proofing languages, enabling accurate checking within mixed-language documents.

Microsoft’s internal benchmarks indicate that applying these language settings is significantly optimized, with processing speeds measuring 2-3 times faster than previous iterations. Applying a language profile to a full page of text now executes in under two seconds on standard hardware.

Integration with Editor and Copilot

This update is not merely a UI adjustment; it integrates deeper into Microsoft’s broader productivity stack. The enhanced proofing tools leverage Microsoft Editor and AI-driven detection to improve accuracy. Unlike competitors such as Evernote or Google Keep, this update includes integration with Copilot, allowing for real-time language translation suggestions and automated detection that improves over time.

The feature supports a massive library of 158 languages, ranging from major global languages like English, Spanish, and French to regional languages including Hindi and Swahili. Microsoft confirmed that for the European market, the update is fully compliant with EU accessibility standards (EN 301 549), ensuring screen reader compatibility for the new language selection menus.

User Reception and Known Issues

Early adoption metrics suggest strong demand for these features. The announcement post on the Microsoft 365 Insider community garnered over 15,000 views within 24 hours. Feedback on platforms like Reddit has been largely positive, with users describing the ability to stop manual corrections as a significant time-saver.

However, the rollout has not been entirely flawless. Some users have reported inconsistencies when working with digital ink. specifically, the language detection appears to struggle during ink-to-text conversion, occasionally reverting to system defaults rather than the selected page language.

Rollout Timeline

Microsoft is executing a staged rollout. While English-speaking markets (US, UK, Canada) received priority access starting December 16, support for EU languages is scheduled to be fully operational by December 18, 2025.