Topics in this chapter   Preparing for an International Deployment     International Deployment Scenarios     Localized Versions of Office XP

Preparing for an International Deployment

The core functionality of Microsoft Office XP and the plug-in language features of the Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI Pack) enable users worldwide to run the Office XP user interface and online Help in the users' own languages, and to create documents in many other languages.

Office XP offers a wide range of multilingual deployment options from which to choose, depending upon your organization's needs.

Office language versions and editing tools

To take full advantage of the international features that support Microsoft Office XP, you can deploy one of the following additional language resources:

• Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI Pack)
  
  
• Microsoft Office XP Proofing Tools
  
  
• Localized version of Microsoft Office XP

For administrators, the core functionality of Office XP allows you to deploy a single version of Office for your users, regardless of the users' language-speaking area. You can then customize Office to include local language capabilities, or to allow users to select their own language settings. Or, depending on your organization's needs, you can install only Proofing Tools for reading and editing text.

After you have installed Office, you can deploy Proofing Tools or Multilingual User Interface Pack files separately. By developing an integrated deployment plan, however, you can install either of these products at the same time that you install Office XP.

Note   The Multilingual User Interface Pack Setup program is available in English only. However, the Setup program for Office XP Proofing Tools is available in Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

In addition to the multilingual capabilities of Office XP and the Multilingual User Interface Pack, Office XP is also localized in many different languages. The localized versions are based on the same international core as Office XP and the MUI Pack, but they provide additional language-specific functionality in minor areas such as right-click menus.

Office XP Proofing Tools

Office XP Proofing Tools includes spelling and grammar checkers, thesauruses, AutoCorrect lists, Input Method Editors — all the tools users need to create and edit Office documents in more than 30 languages.

Proofing tools are included in the MUI Pack. The Office XP Proofing Tools product is also available separately. Unlike the Multilingual User Interface Pack, Proofing Tools works with localized versions of Office XP.

You can install Proofing Tools for one or more languages on users' computers. Each language set that you install allows a user to create and edit documents in that language by using tools such as spelling or grammar checkers and the AutoCorrect list.

Hard-disk space requirements for Proofing Tools vary by language. Proofing Tools for most languages requires about 20 MB of hard-disk space in addition to what Office requires. However, Asian languages require as much as 120 MB of hard-disk space in addition to what Office requires, to include the necessary fonts and Input Method Editors (IMEs).

You install Proofing Tools when your users need to read and edit documents in one or more other languages while continuing to use a standardized language for the user interface and Help text in their Office applications. It is not necessary to deploy the full Multilingual User Interface Pack unless your users also require different languages for the user interface or Help text.

Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack

Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack includes files for displaying the Office user interface and online Help in several languages. The MUI Pack is designed to enhance the English version of Office XP; it does not work with localized versions of Office XP.

Although Office is localized into specific language versions, with the MUI Pack, Office provides combined support for those languages in a single product. Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack is built on core code that you can run internationally. Language-specific user interface and Help text are stored separately, primarily in dynamic-link library (DLL) files. These features "plug in" to the core Office XP code; your users can install and run these features when they need them.

This plug-in language capability means that you can install English Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack on your computer, but view the Office XP user interface and Help in another language. You can even view Help in a specific language, while displaying the user interface in English. For example, you may want to keep the user interface standardized across your organization, yet let each region display localized Help content.

You can customize your Office installation to include MUI Pack files for several languages. You can then specify different user interface and Help text languages for different groups of users in your organization, or allow users to set their own language.

Localized versions of Office XP

The Multilingual User Interface Pack lets you change the user interface and Help to any of dozens of languages, and provides proofing tools for more than 80 languages. However, using Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack is not the same as using a localized version of Office XP.

Because not all features have plug-in language capability, Office XP is localized in many languages for users who want to use all Office features in their own language. Localized versions of Office XP are compatible with Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack; that is, users of one language version can easily share documents created in other language versions. However, MUI Packs must be installed on English Office XP, not on localized versions of Office.