Topics in this chapter   Upgrading Your MultiLanguage Pack Installation     Upgrading with Input Method Editors     Sharing Files Across Language Versions

Sharing Files Across Language Versions

Just as file compatibility affects how users share files between numbered versions of Microsoft Office, file compatibility also affects how users share files across different language versions of Office — for example, sharing files from the Japanese version of Microsoft Office 95 with files from Microsoft Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI Pack). Several strategies are available to help you share files across language versions of Office.

Sharing Office files across language versions

When all users in an international organization have upgraded to Microsoft Office XP, sharing files across languages is easy, whether the files are from Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack or from localized versions of Microsoft Office XP. Even during a gradual upgrade to Office XP, you can still share files with older localized versions of Office.

If you are upgrading gradually to Office XP, you can save Office XP files in formats that allow users of previous localized versions of Office to open the files, yet preserve the Office XP multilingual features. These file formats vary by Office application and are not the same as the formats used by previous localized versions. So, if you save Office XP files in the format of the previous localized version, multilingual features of Office XP are lost.

For example, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 can display multiple Asian languages in the same file. When these files are saved in versions of Office earlier than Office 2000, the multi-Asian language feature is lost and only one of the languages is displayed properly.

Unicode® allows you to share multilingual files between Office XP and Office 2000 or Office 97 without any loss of text. Older versions of Office might not properly display multilingual text from an Office XP file, because versions of Office prior to 97 are based on code pages, not Unicode For more information about Unicode and how it supports multilingual documents in Office, see Unicode Support and Multilingual Documents.

Your operating system can determine whether you can display Asian or right-to-left text (such as Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, or Urdu) between different versions of Office.

To display a right-to-left language, you must be running a right-to-left language version of your operating system. To display Asian languages, note the following:

• Office XP and Office 2000 provide files — including fonts — that extend an operating system's ability to support Asian languages.
  
  
• The Office 97 Asian support files — including fonts — extend an operating system's ability to support Asian languages.
  
  
• To display or edit Asian text in an older version of Office (earlier than Office 97), you must run a language version of the operating system that matches the Asian language with which you want to work.

Sharing Access database files across language versions

Microsoft Access 2002 can open databases created in any previous localized version of Access. For some languages, Access 2002 users who are running Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 might need to install language support available with Windows NT 4.0.

Note   Users of previous localized versions of Access cannot open Access 2002 databases.

Opening databases from previous localized versions in Access 2002

Because the default file format in Access 2002 is the same as in Access 2000, all Access 2000 database users can share databases with Access 2002 users. However, if you are using Access 97 or earlier and only part of your organization is upgrading to Access 2002, you might want to leave existing databases in the format of your previous version of Access so that all users can open the databases.

If you are using Access 2002 and want to open databases in Access 97 or earlier, you might not be able to open the older databases if the language version of your operating system differs from the operating system on the computer used to create the database. Access databases are saved in a particular sort order, and the default sort order matches the sort order used by the operating system on the computer used to create the database.

For example, a database created in Access 95 on a computer running the Arabic version of Microsoft Windows 95 uses the Arabic sort order by default and cannot be opened on a computer running the English version of Microsoft Windows 95/98 or the English version of Windows NT 4.0.

Note   Microsoft Windows 2000 includes international sort order support for multiple languages. Users running Access 2002 on Windows 2000 can open databases from previous versions of Access in the native sort order.

There are two ways to work around the difficulty of opening older databases. One solution is to install national language support (NLS) files that extend the ability of the operating system to support additional sort orders. The other solution is to recompact the database by using a sort order that is supported by multiple operating systems.

Supporting the default sort order on Windows NT 4.0

In Windows NT 4.0, you can install a MUI Pack for the operating system that includes NLS files that support the default sort order of the database.

To install MUI Pack files to support database sort order

1. At your installation source for Windows NT 4.0, go to the Langpack folder.
   
   
2. Right-click on the .inf file for the language you want, and then click Install.

Using the General sort order on Windows 98

In Windows 98, you cannot add the NLS files that support foreign language sort orders. Instead, you must compact the database by using a sort order that is supported by the operating systems on all computers concerned. The most commonly supported sort order is General.

The General sort order allows users running a variety of language versions of Windows 98 to open a database. However, this might not work well for your organization if you store data in Spanish and Asian languages, which do not support the General sort order. For such databases, it might be preferable to convert the database to the Access 2000 file format.

For example, Access 2002 users running the English version of Windows 98 might need to open an Access 95 database that originated on a computer running the Japanese version of Windows 95. In this scenario, it might be better to convert the database to the Access 2000 file format than to attempt to share it across language versions of the operating system.

Note   For a list of languages that support the General sort order, see Access Help.

To compact the original database by using the General sort order

1. Open the database in the original, localized version of Access.

   You must open the database on a computer running the same language version of the operating system as was used to create the database, or you can open the database on a computer running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 with language support for the original sort order.

2. Change the sort order to General, and recompact the database.

Steps for changing sort order and compacting the database vary with different versions of Access. For more information, see Access Help.

Opening forms and reports from previous localized versions

Access 2002 can open and read the English- and European-language content of forms and reports from any previous localized version of Access. However, if the database is based on a code page other than Latin 1 (code page 1252), and if you are using Access 2000 with an English or a Western European version of the operating system, some text might be rendered incorrectly.

For example, a database created in Access 95 on the Greek version of Windows 95 is based on the Greek code page. When an Access 2002 user running the English version of Windows 98 opens the database, the operating system maps code points to the new code page, so some Greek characters might appear as accented European characters, question marks, open boxes, or other unintelligible characters.

Converting databases from previous localized versions of Access

If Access 2002 users do not need to share a database from a previous localized version of Access with users of the older version, convert the database to the Access 2000 file format. If the database was saved in the default sort order on a computer running a non-English version of the operating system, convert it by opening it in Access 2002 and saving it in the Access 2000 file format. Access converts the data to Unicode.

Using the original language sort order

When you convert an older database to the Access 2000 file format, Access uses the sort order to determine which code page to use for converting the data to Unicode. Access 2002 associates the General sort order with the Western European code page, so if non-Western European data is stored in the General sort order, the data is corrupted when Access 2002 converts it.

Therefore, if the older database is based on a non-English version of the operating system, and it is saved in the General sort order, you must recompact it in the original language sort order before converting it to the Access 2000 file format. Otherwise, Access 2002 cannot properly convert the data to Unicode.

To convert a localized database to the Access 2000 file format

1. Open the database in the original, localized version of Access.

   You must open the database on a computer running the same language version of the operating system as that used to create the database, or you can open the database on a computer running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 with language support for the original sort order.

2. Change the sort order to match the language of the operating system, and recompact the database.

   Note that the steps for changing sort order and compacting the database vary with different versions of Access. For more information, see Access Help.

3. Start Access 2002, but do not open the database.
   
   
4. On the Tools menu, point to Database Utilities, point to Convert Database, and then click To Current Access Database Version.
   
   
5. In the Database to Convert From dialog box, select the database you want to convert, and click Convert.

Specifying the code page for the General sort order

If you do not have the necessary language version of the operating system, or if the data in the older database is in a language that had no sort order in earlier versions of Access, you can still convert the database to the Access 2000 file format.

For example, databases in earlier versions of Access that are based on Vietnamese, Farsi, or a Baltic version of the operating system (Estonian, Latvian, or Lithuanian) default to the General sort order because previous versions of Access did not support sort orders for those languages. To convert these databases, you must create a registry entry to prevent Access 2002 from corrupting the non-Western European data.

To convert non-Western European databases that use the General sort order

1. If you are converting an Access version 1.x or 2.0 database, go to the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Jet 2.x

   – or –

   If you are converting an Access 95 or 97 database, go to the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Jet 3.x

2. In the Jet 2.x or Jet 3.x subkey, create a new value entry named ForceCp and set the value to ANSI to use the computer's default code page.

   You can specify a different code page by setting the value to the code page number, such as 1257 for Windows Baltic Rim.

3. Convert the database to the Access 2000 file format.
   
   
4. Delete the ForceCP value entry from the registry so that Access 2002 reverts to using the sort order of a database to determine the code page.

Removing conflicting data to solve indexing problems

Access 2002 upgrades some sort orders so that they differ from previous versions of Access. In the new sorting, characters that were considered different in older databases might be considered the same in Access 2002. As a result, the converted database might contain conflicting data, making it impossible to create a unique index for some tables. To create a unique index on the affected tables, you must remove the conflicting data.

A similar problem might occur when changing the sort order of a database. Characters might be different in one language but equivalent in another language. For example, the Western European lowercase i and uppercase I are considered equivalent when sorting alphabetically. But in Turkish a lowercase i might be dotted or not dotted, and the two i characters are not considered equivalent when sorting alphabetically in Turkish. Because they are considered equivalent in the General sort order, however, these characters can create conflicting data when you upgrade a Turkish database to the Access 2000 file format.

Sharing Excel workbooks across language versions

In Excel 2002, you can open and edit any workbook created in a previous localized version of Excel, regardless of the language, provided the operating system supports the language of the file. For example, you can use Excel 2002 to open and edit a Korean Excel 2000 file on a Korean system. If you need to share files across languages (for example, opening a Korean Excel workbook on a Spanish system), it is recommended that you use Windows 2000 with its robust support for multiple languages.

Users of Excel 2002 and previous localized versions can share workbooks as follows. In Excel 2002, you can open and save:

• Localized Excel 5/95 files only on same language operating system (since these files do not use Unicode).

  On Windows 2000, this requires that the Default System Locale be set to the same language of the operating system.

• Any Excel 97 or Excel 2000 file without language limitations as long as the operating system includes support for the characters and fonts.
  
  
• European, Asian, and Complex Script (Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, and Vietnamese) files in the Excel 97/2000 format on any operating system that supports these languages.

Platform support for multilingual file sharing

Windows 2000 provides the best support for organizations with requirements for multilingual file sharing. In Windows 2000, you can enable support for multiple languages or even change your code page through the Default System Locale setting. If you must open and edit Excel workbooks in multiple languages on the same machine, it is recommended that you use the Windows 2000 operating system on your computer.

To view an Excel file in a different language from your default language on Windows 2000, simply ensure that the other language is enabled on your system. The proper characters are displayed when you open, edit, and save the file. This works for all Unicode Excel versions (Excel 97 and later, including Excel 2002).

Multilingual file sharing with non-Unicode files

Sharing multilingual files that do not support Unicode is problematic. Non-Unicode files include Excel files created in versions earlier than Excel 97 (including Excel 5 and Excel 95), files saved in one of these earlier formats, or Lotus files, for example. Opening these files on a computer with a different language will not work, even if the operating system on the computer is Windows 2000.

There are several workarounds for this. For example, you can set up your computer to perform a dual boot, configuring the second boot to use the appropriate language for the multilingual file. However, you must own a copy of Windows in each language that you wish to use for booting your computer.

With Windows 2000, there is an easier solution. You can change the code page to the other language by modifying the Default System Locale, then reboot your system. Now you can view and edit the non-Unicode file that was created in another language.

Sharing FrontPage files across language versions

Microsoft FrontPage® 2002 allows you to work with more languages and characters than you can with previous versions. FrontPage now has full Unicode support and recognizes more HTML 4.0 character entity references than do previous versions. However, file names and URLs are still dependent on operating system language support. To ensure that all users can access files on a FrontPage server, it is recommended that ASCII file names be used.

Character entity references make up a set of HTML characters that are represented by easy-to-remember mnemonic names. For example, the character entity reference å specifies a lowercase a topped by a ring. It's easier to remember å than it is to remember &229;.

In Microsoft FrontPage 2002, you can open and edit any document created in FrontPage 2000, FrontPage 98, or FrontPage 97, regardless of the language used in the document, provided the operating system supports the language of the file.

Note   FrontPage 2002 and Internet Explorer 5 encode URLs in UTF-8, a Unicode format. To use FrontPage 2002 to edit FrontPage-based webs that include non-ASCII URLs, you must either have a Web server that supports UTF-8 or turn off UTF-8 encoding.

The enhanced language features in FrontPage 2002 affect file sharing between FrontPage 2002 and previous versions in the following ways:

• In a folder list or view in FrontPage 2002, folder and file names are displayed correctly regardless of your default language.

  However, to open or save files, the code page of the file name must match the default system code page of the operating system. For example, to save a file with a Japanese name, the default system code page must be Japanese. This does not affect the content of the document, just the file name.

• If you use FrontPage 2002 to create a document in some languages, such as Thai, you cannot open or edit that document in FrontPage 97 or FrontPage 98.

  If you try to open it, both FrontPage 97 and FrontPage 98 display an error message.

• If you use FrontPage 2002 to create a document that contains a Unicode character, such as Β for the Greek capital letter beta, you cannot display that character in FrontPage 2000 or earlier versions.

  If you save the document in a version of FrontPage earlier than FrontPage 2002, the Unicode character is deleted.

• If you use FrontPage 2002 to create a document that contains an HTML 4.0 character entity reference, then you cannot edit that character in FrontPage 2000 or earlier versions.

The character entity reference appears as δ and is not deleted if you save the document in a version earlier than FrontPage 2002.

Exchanging Outlook messages across language versions

Enhancements in Microsoft Outlook® 2002 make it easier to exchange Outlook messages across language versions. You can enable multilingual display support for Outlook, and you can specify auto-select outbound encoding for all mail messages. As in Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002 supports Unicode in the body of mail messages.

Enabling multilingual display support for Outlook

There are two ways to enable Outlook to display content in multiple languages — through Office Setup or the operating system. Please note that multilingual support has to be installed on both the sending and receiving sides of an e-mail exchange to ensure full functionality.

The first way to install multilingual support is through Office Setup. Some of the files are automatically installed as part of the System Files Update if they are not already present on your system. Font support may have to be added manually by following these steps:

1. Rerun Setup, and then select Add/Remove components.
   
   
2. Expand the Office Shared Features section, and then under International Support, make sure that the font corresponding to the desired language is installed locally.
   
   
3. Select OK to apply the changes.

The second way to install multilingual support is through the operating system.

Installing multilingual support for Windows 2000 users

1. In Control Panel, double-click Regional Options.
   
   
2. Click the General tab.
   
   
3. In the list shown under Language settings for the system, select the check boxes next to the languages you want to use for sending and receiving messages.
   
   
4. Click OK.

Note   A system reboot is required after installing the support files.

Installing multilingual support for users of Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

1. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
   
   
2. Click the Windows Setup tab.
   
   
3. Select Multilanguage Support from the list and click Details.
   
   
4. From the list of languages shown, select the language you want to use for sending and receiving messages.

   Note that a system reboot may be necessary after installing the support files.

Note   Windows cannot be enabled for some languages by following the above procedure — for example, non-Asian versions cannot be enabled for Asian languages. For those cases, please follow the steps described under the first method of installing multilingual support.

Outlook data that is not in the body of the message — such as Contacts, Tasks, and the To and Subject lines of messages — are limited to characters defined by the system code page. Such characters might be unintelligible for a recipient whose operating system uses a different code page.

Specifying character encoding

In addition to enabling multilingual display support for Outlook, you can specify the character encoding (also known as the code page) of the message being sent.

It is recommended that you rely on the new Auto-Select Outbound Encoding feature, which Microsoft has introduced with Outlook 2002. This feature is automatically switched on when you have Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher installed. Auto-Select Outbound Encoding scans the entire text of outgoing messages to determine a minimal popular encoding capable of representing all characters and optimized that the majority of the receiving e-mail programs can interpret and render the content.

You can also manually select an encoding that supports the characters being sent and that the recipient's e-mail application can interpret. For example, if all users' e-mail applications support multilingual Unicode data, Unicode (UTF-8) encoding is an excellent choice, since it supports a big range of characters in different scripts.

Note   An Outlook 2002 user's default Preferred encoding for outgoing messages is the Internet encoding that corresponds to the user's Windows code page. For example, Japanese (JIS) encoding for a Japanese Windows code page, Western European (ISO) encoding for a Western European Latin1 code page, or Cyrillic (KOI8-R) encoding for a Cyrillic code page.

The active Windows code page of your operating system is defined by your system locale. On Windows 2000 it can be set in Regional Options in Control Panel by selecting the Set Default button, which opens the Select System Locale dialog.

To enable Auto-Select Outbound Encoding in Outlook 2002

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, then click the Mail Format tab.
   
   
2. Click International Options, and activate the Auto-Select encoding for outgoing messages check box.
   
   
3. Select a character encoding in the Preferred encoding for outgoing messages box.

   This encoding is used by Auto-Select Outbound encoding in cases where more than one minimal popular encoding can represent all the text. If you prefer, you can manually specify the character encoding.

To manually specify character encoding in Outlook 2002

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, then click the Mail Format tab.
   
   
2. Click International Options, and deactivate the Auto-Select encoding for outgoing messages check box.
   
   
3. Select a character encoding in the Preferred encoding for outgoing messages box.

   This encoding is now used for all messages you create, regardless of the text (characters) you type into them. Note that the Auto-Select encoding for outgoing messages check box is only available if you have Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher installed.

4. If you want message flags and Forward and Reply headers to be in English, select the Use English for message flags and Use English for message headers on replies and forwards check boxes.

If you clear these check boxes, message flags and headers match the language of the Outlook user interface, and e-mail applications that run in another language might not display the text properly.

System Policy Tip   You can use a system policy to set character encoding for Outlook 2002 messages. You set these policies in Microsoft Outlook 2002\Tools | Options\Mail Format\International Options. For more information about using system policies with Office applications, see How to Set System Policies.

When you click Send To on the File menu in Office applications to create e-mail messages, the content of the message is saved in HTML format. The Preferred encoding for outgoing messages setting in Outlook determines the character encoding for the message, or if Auto-Select Outbound Encoding is activated, Outlook automatically selects an appropriate encoding.

When you do not want to rely on Auto-Select Outbound Encoding, you can manually set the encoding of mail messages by picking an appropriate encoding from the Format.Encoding list. If you do rely on the Auto-Select Encoding feature, Outlook will always show Auto-Select in the Format.Encoding menu and will not allow users to manually overwrite the option.

Sharing PowerPoint presentations across language versions

Just as with non-localized versions of Microsoft PowerPoint®, localized PowerPoint 2000 can open and read PowerPoint 2002 presentations directly, but localized PowerPoint 95 must have the PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 95 installed, or PowerPoint 2002 presentations must be saved in PowerPoint 97-2002 & 95 format.

PowerPoint 4.0 users can open PowerPoint 2002 presentations if they install the PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 4.0.

Users of PowerPoint 2000 and previous localized versions can share presentations as follows:

• In PowerPoint 2000, you can open and edit any presentation created in a previous localized version of PowerPoint, regardless of the language, provided the operating system supports the language of the file.
  
  
• In localized PowerPoint 97, you can open and edit PowerPoint 2002 presentations, regardless of the language, provided the operating system supports the language of the file.
  
  
• In localized PowerPoint 95, in addition to an operating system that supports the language of the file, you need the following to open PowerPoint 2002 presentations:

  You must have the PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 95 converter installed.

  – or –

  The file must be in PowerPoint 97-2002 & 95 format.

• In localized PowerPoint 4.0, in addition to an operating system that supports the language of the file, you must have the PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 4.0 installed to open PowerPoint 2002 presentations.

Opening presentations from previous localized versions in PowerPoint 2002

When you open PowerPoint 95 or PowerPoint 4.0 presentations in PowerPoint 2002, PowerPoint 2002 converts the text to Unicode. Because PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 97 both support Unicode, PowerPoint 2002 does not need to convert PowerPoint 97 or PowerPoint 2000 text.

PowerPoint 2002 can display English and European text in presentations from any language version of PowerPoint 2000, PowerPoint 97, PowerPoint 95, and PowerPoint 4.0. If PowerPoint 2002 users have enabled the appropriate language in Microsoft Office Language Settings, PowerPoint 2002 can display text in any language provided the operating system supports the language of the file.

Note   Some unknown characters might appear when you open an English or European-language version of PowerPoint 95 or PowerPoint 4.0 presentation in the Korean, Simplified Chinese, or Traditional Chinese versions of PowerPoint 2002. To correct this problem, click Options on the PowerPoint 2002 Tools menu, and then click the Asian tab. Clear the Convert font-associated text check box.

Opening PowerPoint 2002 presentations in localized PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 97

PowerPoint 2002 files containing Unicode surrogate pairs will in most cases display correctly if you have the appropriate language support installed on your computer. Editing these characters, however, will not work correctly. PowerPoint 2002 files containing Hindi characters will in most cases display individual characters correctly if you have the appropriate language support installed on your computer. Layout for the Hindi text in PowerPoint 2000 might be different than it is in PowerPoint 2002, and editing will not work correctly.

Localized versions of PowerPoint 2000 can display PowerPoint 2002 text as shown in the following table.

Opening PowerPoint 2002 presentations in localized PowerPoint 97

PowerPoint 97 can directly open and read PowerPoint 2002 presentations. However, to display Asian or right-to-left (Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, or Urdu) text that doesn't match the language version of PowerPoint 97, you must have the appropriate language support installed on your computer.

For Asian text, you can install the Office 97 Asian support files, but for right-to-left text, you must use a compatible right-to-left language version of PowerPoint 97.

The layout for the Hindi text in PowerPoint 97 might be different than it is in PowerPoint 2002, and editing will not work correctly.

Localized versions of PowerPoint 97 can display PowerPoint 2002 text as shown in the following table.

Note   The layout for Asian text in PowerPoint 97 and PowerPoint 2000 might be different than it is in PowerPoint 2002.

Opening PowerPoint 2002 presentations in localized PowerPoint 95 and PowerPoint 4.0

Depending on the language, PowerPoint 95 can open and read PowerPoint 2002 presentations by using the PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 95 or if the presentations are saved in the PowerPoint 97-2002 & 95 format. Similarly, PowerPoint 4.0 can open and read PowerPoint 97, PowerPoint 2000, and PowerPoint 2002 presentations by using the PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 4.0, depending on the language.

Note   The PowerPoint 97 converter for PowerPoint 4.0 cannot be used with Asian versions of PowerPoint 4.0. Therefore, users of Asian versions of PowerPoint 4.0 cannot open PowerPoint 2002 presentations.

Localized versions of PowerPoint 95 and PowerPoint 4.0 can display PowerPoint 2002 text as shown in the following table.

Sharing Publisher files across language versions

Microsoft Publisher 2002 can open and read publications created in any localized version of Publisher. However, previous localized versions of Publisher cannot open Publisher 2002 publications.

Publisher 2002 supports editing right-to-left text (for languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, and Urdu) on versions of Windows that support right-to-left display and processing. Some right-to-left text as well as some formatting may not be preserved when saving a publication in an earlier version of Publisher if the version does not support editing right-to-left text.

When you use Publisher 2002 to open documents composed in Publisher 97 or earlier, Publisher converts the text to Unicode. Because Publisher 2002, Publisher 2000, and Publisher 98 all support Unicode, Publisher 2002 does not need to convert the text for documents created in those later versions.

Sharing Word documents across language versions

Each new version of Word can successfully open more language versions from older releases of Word. For example, English Word 2000 can open Asian Word 6.0-95 files correctly — something that English Word 97 cannot do. English Word 2002 now correctly opens and handles all legacy documents, including Thai Word 6.0-2000 documents, as well as Hindi/Tamil documents created in South Asian Word 2000.

Users of previous versions of Word can also share documents with Word 2002 users. Just as with non-localized versions, localized Word 97 can open and read Word 2002 documents directly, but localized Word 95 or Word 6.0 must have the Word 97-2002 converter installed, or the Word 2002 documents must be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF).

RTF allows you to exchange multilingual documents between Microsoft Office versions. In Office XP (as well as Office 2000 and Office 97), RTF files support Unicode and also allow Word 95 and Word 6.0 to use all Unicode characters that occur in single-byte code pages. As long as the Word 95 or Word 6.0 user does not save the file, the complete Unicode content of the document is preserved when the RTF file is reopened in Word 2002 (as well as in Word 2000 and Word 97).

Toolbox   The Office XP Resource Kit includes a spreadsheet that shows how documents are handled when they are opened in different versions of Word or different languages. The file Multilpk.xls is installed by default when you run the Office Resource Kit Setup program. For more information, see Supplemental Documentation.

Opening documents from previous localized versions in Word 2002

When you open Microsoft Word 95 or 6.0 documents in Word 2002, Word 2002 converts the text to Unicode. Because Word 2002, Word 2000, and Word 97 all support Unicode, these versions do not need to convert text when documents are opened in another version.

Word 2002 can display English and European-language text in documents from any language version of Word 97, Word 95, and Word 6.0. Word 2002 can display text in any language provided the operating system supports the language of the file, except for Unicode-only languages, such as Hindi, Georgian, and Armenian.

Opening Word 2002 documents in localized Word 2000

Word 2000 can directly open and read Word 2002 documents. The file format is essentially unchanged. However, there are a few new features in Word 2002 that are not accessible in Word 2000 (for example, new table styles).

Opening Word 2002 documents in localized Word 97

Word 97 can directly open and read Word 2002 documents. However, to display Asian or right-to-left (Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, or Urdu) text that doesn't match the language version of Word 97, you must have the appropriate language support installed on your system.

For Asian text, you can install the Office 97 Asian support files, but for right-to-left text, you must use a compatible right-to-left language version of Word 97.

Localized versions of Word 97 can display Word 2002 text as shown in the following table.

Note   The layout for Asian text in Word 97 might be different than it is in Word 2002.

Opening Word 2002 documents in localized Word 95 and Word 6.0

Depending on the language, Word 95 and Word 6.0 can open and read Word 2002 documents by using the Word 97-2002 converter, or Word 95 and Word 6.0 can open and read Word 2002 documents that are saved in RTF.

Localized versions of Word 95 and Word 6.0 can display Word 2002 text as shown in the following table.

Running macros from previous localized versions of Word

When Word 2002 opens older localized documents, it converts WordBasic to Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) and translates the commands to English. Converted macros use the form WordBasic.732. However, strings — including user-created strings and WordBasic strings — are not translated. If a command is a WordBasic command, the language of the arguments accepted by that command can be either English or the localized language.

In Word 2002, Word 2000, and Word 97, you can write macros that work in all language versions of Word 2002, Word 2000, and Word 97. Be sure to use enumerations in your VBA code, and do not refer to objects by the names used in the user interface, because these names are different in each language version.

See also

The Unicode standard provides unique character values for every language that Office supports and makes it even easier to share multilingual documents. For more information, see Unicode Support and Multilingual Documents.

You can use the Microsoft Office Language Settings tool to enable languages for editing. For more information, see Customizing Language Features.

For some languages, you need to have an operating system and fonts that allow you to display and edit the text. For more information, see Preparing Users' Computers for International Use.