Deploying Office in a Multinational Setting

Customizing Language Features

You can customize language settings when you deploy Microsoft Office 2000 by using the Office Custom Installation Wizard and the Profile Wizard. These wizards record your settings and modify the Windows registry on users’ computers when users install your customized version of Office.

When Office is installed, Office Setup creates the following registry subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\LanguageResources

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

• Microsoft Word checks LCID entries and turns on its language auto-detection feature for languages that are enabled for editing.
• Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access check the ExeMode entry to determine which Asian or right-to-left language to provide full support for.
• Word checks the InstallLanguage entry to determine how to create its initial Normal.dot file.

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Customizing the installation language

When you install Office 2000, an installation language setting is added to the Windows registry. When users start an Office application, the application reads this setting to determine default behavior, such as how to create the initial Normal.dot file for Word and whether to display language-specific capabilities.

In the Language Resources subkey, Office Setup creates an 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.

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

To customize the installation language during deployment, double-click INSTALLLANGUAGE on the Modify Setup Properties panel of the Office Custom Installation Wizard, and select a language in the Value box.

Toolbox   The installation language is set when you install Office. The Office Resource Kit includes the Language Version utility, which allows you to change the installation language after Office is installed. For information about installing this utility, see Language Version.

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Configuring language-specific defaults

In addition to using the installation language setting, Office 2000 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 Pure entry in the Language Resources subkey to ON.

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 2000\Language Settings\Other\Do not adjust defaults to user’s locale policy. For more information about the System Policy Editor, see Using the System Policy Editor.

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 Pure 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 Pure 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 2000 installation language.

Note   Because Office requires default Asian fonts when you set Asian user locales, do not set the value of Pure to ON for Asian user locales.

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Customizing the executable mode for Access and Excel

If an Asian or right-to-left language (Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, or Urdu) is enabled for editing, Access and Excel must run in a mode that supports Asian or right-to-left text. This mode is known as the executable mode. When you deploy Office, you can specify the executable mode for a group of users.

Note   For users running an Asian or right-to-left language version of Microsoft Windows, Access and Excel work best when the executable mode is set to match the language of the operating system.

To customize the executable mode during deployment, use the Microsoft Office Language Settings utility to set the executable mode, and then capture the setting by using the Profile Wizard.

To set the executable mode

1. On the Start menu, point to Programs, and then point to Microsoft Office Tools.
2. Click Microsoft Office Language Settings.
3. On the Enabled Languages tab, select the Asian or right-to-left languages you want to be available for editing documents.
4. In the Preferred Language box, select the preferred Asian or right-to-left language; this is the language that determines the executable mode.

In Excel, if you select one Asian language as the executable mode, you can still work in other Asian languages. However, some features (such as number formats) might be supported only by the preferred language. In both Access and Excel, if you want the applications to support right-to-left text, you must select a right-to-left language as the preferred language.

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Customizing languages for user interface, online Help, and editing

Office 2000 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, use the Microsoft Office Language Settings utility to select languages, and then capture the settings by using the Profile Wizard.

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.

   The User Interface tab is available only if the MultiLanguage 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 don’t 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 Installed version of Microsoft Office box, select a subset of the Office installation language, such as Canadian or U.S. English (optional).

   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.

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 2000\Language Settings\User Interface policies to determine user interface languages. To determine editing languages, set the Microsoft Office 2000\Language Settings\Enabled Languages\Show controls and enable editing for policies. For more information about the System Policy Editor, see Using the System Policy Editor.

When you set system policies for the user interface and online Help, be sure the languages you select are supported by users’ operating system, as follows:

• In English and European versions of Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0, 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 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0, 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 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0 can also select French as their user interface and online Help language.