Overview of International Features in Office 2000

Using Many Languages in One Office

In previous versions of Microsoft Office, Office is localized to work with different languages, so there is a separate version of Office for every language. Office 2000, however, combines support for all languages into a single product. Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack is built on core code that you can run internationally. Language-specific features are stored separately, primarily in dynamic-link library (DLL) files. These features “plug into” the core Office 2000 code; your users can install and run these features when they need them.

This plug-in language capability means you can install Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack on your computer, but view the Office 2000 user interface and online Help in German, or even view Help in German while displaying the user interface in English.

Installing the Microsoft Office 2000 MultiLanguage Pack

Plug-in language capability in Office 2000 is provided by the MultiLanguage Pack. The MultiLanguage Pack and Office 2000 are installed from different CD-ROMs; the MultiLanguage Pack has its own Setup program.

The procedure for installing the MultiLanguage Pack is the same as the procedure for installing Office 2000. You can create an administrative installation point for the MultiLanguage Pack, and you can use the Office Custom Installation Wizard to customize installations of the MultiLanguage Pack for different groups of users.

When you install the MultiLanguage Pack, you can make language files available to users on demand, instead of copying files to users’ computers. (You can also choose to copy the language files to users’ hard disks.) The MultiLanguage Pack works with the Windows installer to install the necessary files only when users run Office 2000 with a particular language configuration.

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Installing localized versions of Office 2000

The MultiLanguage 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 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack is not the same as using a localized version of Office 2000.

Because not all features have plug-in language capability, Office 2000 is localized in many languages for users who want to use all Office features in their own language. Localized versions of Office 2000 are compatible with Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack; that is, users of one language version can easily share documents created in other language versions.

Note   Localized versions of Office 2000, except the Thai and Indic language versions, are based on the same international core code as Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack. The Thai and Indic language versions are based on a separate, shared code base that also supports Vietnamese. The Indic languages supported include Devanagari-based languages (Hindi, Konkani, Marathi, Nepali, and Sanskrit) and Tamil.

Toolbox   You can look up information about which Office 2000 features cannot change the language of their user interface and online Help in the Microsoft Excel workbook Intlimit.xls. For information about installing this workbook, see International Information.

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See also

You can deploy Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack across your entire organization, or you can deploy a combination of Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack and localized versions of Office 2000. For more information, see Deploying Office in a Multinational Setting.

Your decision to deploy Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack or a localized version is determined in part by your users’ operating system. For information about operating system compatibility and international features of Office 2000, see Configuring Users' Computers in an International Environment.