Topics in this chapter   Deploying Office with the Multilingual User Interface Pack     Sample Customizations for Office with the Multilingual User Interface Pack     Installing Proofing Tools     Customizing Language Features

Customizing Language Features

When a Microsoft Office XP application starts up for the first time on a user's computer, Office XP chooses default language settings that are appropriate for the language version of Office you are installing and the operating system language on the computer. However, you can configure these language settings yourself rather than letting Office select default settings. You have several choices for customizing language settings. You can:

• Set a value in the Windows registry before any Office applications are started.
  
  
• Configure language settings in a transform, by specifying language settings in the Custom Installation Wizard.
  
  
• Modify language settings on a user computer through the Microsoft Office Language Settings utility.

The language features you can specify include the:

• Install Language: Sets language defaults for Office applications and documents.
  
  
• User Interface Language: Determines the language used for end-user Help.
  
  
• Help Language: Determines the language used to display menus and dialogs.
  
  
• Editing languages: Exposes functionality to edit documents in those particular languages.
  
  
• In addition, some applications use the SKU language setting to determine some behavior. This language setting is based on the original SKU that was installed and cannot be modified.

Note   Administrators can elect to disable the Taiwanese date format in Office XP by configuring the Disable Taiwan Calendar setting through the Custom Installation Wizard during deployment, or through the Custom Maintenance Wizard after deployment. To change this setting, go to the Change Office User Settings page in the appropriate wizard. Under Microsoft Office XP (user), navigate the tree to Language Settings. Select Other, then double-click the setting for Disallow Taiwanese calendar to open the Disallow Taiwanese calendar Properties dialog box. Select Apply Changes, then click OK to configure the new setting.

Setting values in the Languages Resources subkey

The first time any Office application runs after Office is installed, Office creates the following subkey in the Windows registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\LanguageResources

When Office applications run, they read value entries in the LanguageResources subkey to determine language-related default behavior. For example:

• Microsoft Word checks locale ID (LCID) value entries and turns on its language auto-detection feature for languages that are enabled for editing.
  
  
• Word checks the InstallLanguage value entry to determine how to create its initial Normal.dot file.

Instead of letting Office create the LanguageResources subkey, you can set language settings in the Custom Installation Wizard and deploy them as part of your Office XP installation. If Office detects that the language settings are already defined (in the LanguageResources subkey), Office will not override the existing settings when an Office application starts for the first time.

Customizing the installation language

When users start an Office application, the application reads an installation language setting in the Windows registry to determine certain default language-based behavior. For example, this setting is checked to set the default spelling checker for Microsoft Outlook® and to determine how to create the initial Normal.dot file for Microsoft Word.

Office initializes language settings when an Office application first runs on the user's computer. In the LanguageResources subkey, Office creates a value entry named InstallLanguage with a value equal to the locale ID (LCID) for the installation language of Office. For example, if the value of InstallLanguage is 1041, the installation language is Japanese. In this case, Normal.dot in Word is based on Japanese settings, and Office applications run with Japanese settings as their default.

To view a table mapping languages to their corresponding locale ID numbers, see Deploying Office with the Multilingual User Interface Pack.

Office automatically sets the installation language to correspond to the language version of the operating system. You can customize the installation language for foreign offices, however, so that Office runs with defaults that match foreign locations.

Note   If you plan to select an installation language for your Office deployment (rather than let Office choose the installation language based on the language version of the operating system), it is best to make your selection before you install Office. It is possible to change the installation language afterwards, but you will lose customizations. For example, you will lose macros added to Normal.dot, buttons added to toolbars, and so on.

To customize users' default installation language (or other language feature choices) during deployment, you can use one of two methods: use the Microsoft Office Language Settings utility to select languages, and then capture the settings by using the Profile Wizard (described later in this topic); or, specify language settings on the Change Office User Settings page in the Custom Installation Wizard.

To customize the installation language when deploying Office

1. In the Custom Installation Wizard, go to the Change Office User Settings page and click Microsoft Office (User).
   
   
2. Navigate the tree under Language Settings to Enabled Languages.
   
   
3. Double-click Installed version of Microsoft Office to open the Properties page for this setting.
   
   
4. Click Apply changes, then select a language from the Installed version of Microsoft Office drop-down menu.
   
   
5. Click OK.

You can specify other language feature settings under Language Settings as well, such as choosing languages to be enabled for editing.

Configuring language-specific defaults

In addition to using the installation language setting, Office XP also configures language-related defaults, such as number format, to match the user locale of the operating system. If you want Office to use defaults based on the installation language regardless of the user locale, you can set the value of LangTuneUp in the LanguageResources subkey to ON. (To prevent Office from using the defaults, set the value of LangTuneUp to PROHIBITED.)

System Policy Tip   You can use system policies to prevent Office from adjusting defaults to the user locale for any group of users in your organization. In the System Policy Editor, set the Microsoft Office XP\Language Settings\Other\Do not adjust defaults to user's locale policy. For more information about using system policies settings with Office, see How to Set System Policies.

For example, if your organization is based in the United States and you want to standardize settings internationally, you can deploy Office with the InstallLanguage entry set to 1033 (U.S. English) and the LangTuneUp entry set to ON. Users would get the same set of defaults regardless of their user locale.

An advantage of preventing Office from configuring to the user locale is that macros are more compatible internationally when all settings are consistent. A disadvantage of setting the LangTuneUp entry to ON is that, if you are upgrading from a previous localized version of Office, you cannot migrate user settings from a language version that differs from the Office XP installation language.

Note    Users who read and enter Asian characters in Office documents must have the corresponding Asian fonts available on their computers in order for the characters to display properly. Typically, the installation language on a user’s computer matches the language used in the documents. In this case, Office uses the appropriate Asian font, regardless of the value of the LangTuneUp registry subkey.

If a user needs to open documents that require Asian fonts not supported by the installation language, however, setting the LangTuneUp registry subkey to ON may prevent the user from being able to view the fonts of the non-default language. If you need to enable your computers to support multiple Asian language locales, you will need to set the value of LangTuneUp to Prohibited, not ON, for these installations.

Customizing languages for the user interface, online Help, and editing

Office XP allows users to choose different languages for displaying menus and dialog box text, Help text, and for editing documents. To customize users' default language choices during deployment, you can use one of two methods: use the Microsoft Office Language Settings utility to select languages, and then capture the settings by using the Profile Wizard; or, specify language settings on the Change Office User Settings page in the Custom Installation Wizard (as described earlier in this topic).

To select language settings

1. On the Start menu, point to Programs, and then point to Microsoft Office Tools.
   
   
2. Click Microsoft Office Language Settings, and then click the User Interface tab.

   Note that the User Interface tab is available only if the MUI Pack has been installed.

3. In the Display menus and dialogs in box, select the user interface language.
   
   
4. In the Display Help in box, select a language for online Help.

   If you do not specify a language in the Display Help in box, the online Help language defaults to the language that you selected as the user interface language.

5. Click the Enabled Languages tab, and select languages that you want to be available for editing documents.
   
   
6. In the Default version of Microsoft Office box, select the Office installation language (optional), which sets the installation language.

Note that if the installation language of Office is English, French, German, Norwegian, or Serbian, selecting the local variety of the language makes utilities such as spelling checkers more useful.

After selecting language settings in the Microsoft Office Language Settings tool, you can capture the settings by using the Office Profile Wizard to save an OPS file. Then you can deploy the settings to your users when you deploy Office by including the OPS file in your custom Office transform. If you want to make additional changes to the settings after you have captured the settings in the OPS file, you can make modifications on the Change Office User Settings page of the Custom Installation Wizard (as described earlier in this topic).

Enabling languages without the Multilingual User Interface Pack

The options on the User Interface tab in the Microsoft Office Language Settings dialog box include all the languages installed from the Multilingual User Interface Pack. However, the options on the Enabled Languages tab include all the languages supported by Office, regardless of what is installed from the Multilingual User Interface Pack.

Consequently, you can enable functionality for working with certain languages regardless of whether the MUI Pack is installed. For example, by selecting Korean as an editing language, you enable Asian and Korean features in Word regardless of whether Korean proofing tools from the MUI Pack are available.

If you installed Microsoft Office XP Proofing Tools instead of the MUI Pack, Office uses Proofing Tools for the languages you enable for editing.

System Policy Tip You can use system policies to specify default language settings for any group of users in your organization. In the System Policy Editor, set the Microsoft Office XP\Language Settings\User Interface policies to determine user interface languages. To determine editing languages, set the Microsoft Office XP\Language Settings\Enabled Languages\Show controls and enable editing for policies.For more information about using system policy settings with Office, see How to Set System Policies.

When you set system policies for the user interface and online Help, be sure the languages you select are supported by users' operating system. Note that:

• In Microsoft Windows 2000, most languages are supported for the user interface and online Help.
  
  
• In English and European versions of Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), and Microsoft Windows NT 4, users can run the user interface and online Help in English and all European languages.
  
  
• In Greek, Asian and right-to-left language (Arabic, Hebrew) versions of Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4, users can run the user interface and online Help in English or the language of their operating system.

Note   Users running an Arabic version of Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4 can also select French as their user interface and online Help language.

See also

Each Office application uses language settings differently for making changes in user interfaces and other language-specific areas of the application. For more information, see Managing Language Settings for Each Application.

You can change the installation language or other language settings after you have installed Office. For more information, see Changing Language Settings.