Office Compatibility Issues

How to Fix Thai Text Appearing Too Small in Microsoft Office

Tauseeq Magsi Sep 28, 2026 870 views

Question details

Users are experiencing an issue where Thai characters appear significantly smaller than English or Japanese text within the Microsoft Office interface.

How to Fix Thai Text Appearing Too Small in Microsoft Office

Product: Microsoft Office
Device & OS: Windows
Scenario: Navigating the interface or viewing multi-language text in Microsoft Office applications like Excel and Outlook.
Observed behavior: Thai text in the application interface is rendered much smaller than other languages, although manually typed Thai text appears normal in the document.

Before you start

Check if your Windows PC is managed by your organization. If you have restricted permissions, you will need to consult your IT administrator before modifying system-wide regional settings.

Solution 1Recommended

Toggle the Unicode UTF-8 Setting in Windows Region Settings

Adjusting the Beta UTF-8 feature in Windows can resolve font scaling discrepancies for Thai characters in Office interfaces.

Windows handles character encoding for applications through system locale settings. Disabling the Beta UTF-8 setting has been shown to make Thai text larger in Microsoft Office interfaces, though it may affect how older legacy applications display text.

Open Control Panel

Press the Windows key, type 'Control Panel', and press Enter.

Navigate to Region Settings

Click on 'Clock and Region', then select 'Region' to open the regional settings dialog box.

Change System Locale

Go to the 'Administrative' tab and click the 'Change system locale...' button.

Adjust UTF-8 Settings

Check or uncheck the box for 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support'. Disabling it often resolves the small Thai text issue in Excel and Outlook. Click 'OK' and restart your computer to apply the changes.

Toggle the Unicode UTF-8 Setting in Windows Region Settings

Legacy Application Compatibility: If you frequently work with older documents or applications that require UTF-8 to display correctly, disabling this setting may cause those files to show garbled text. Test your daily workflow to ensure this fix works for you.

Solution 2

Collect Diagnostic Data and Escalate to IT Support

If you are on a managed device and cannot change regional settings, gather the necessary diagnostic information for your IT team to investigate.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Thai text look so small in Excel and Outlook?

This is often due to how Microsoft Office handles font rendering and interface scaling for specific Unicode ranges on Windows. In some Windows builds, interface scaling for Thai characters does not match Latin or Japanese scripts.

Will changing the Windows UTF-8 setting affect my other documents?

Yes, it might. If you disable the 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8' setting, older documents created in legacy applications might display garbled text, even though it may fix the Thai text size in newer Office apps.

Can I fix this without changing Windows system settings?

If you are on a restricted company device, you cannot change system locale settings yourself. You will need to contact your IT administrator to deploy a fix, or consider using alternative office software like WPS Office.

Office App Problems