Effects of Customizing Language Settings on Office Applications | Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit (Pro-Resource Kit)

Applications in the Microsoft Office System have six main elements that are affected by language settings.

Installation language Default language for Office applications and documents.
User interface language Language used to display menus and dialog boxes.
Help language Language used in Help.
Enabled languages Functionality required to edit documents in various languages.
SKU language (localized language) Default language version of Office purchased by the end user.
System locale Base language the operating system was installed to use.

Each of these six language elements serves various functions—how each application responds to user input, how files are formatted for display on the screen, which languages have precedence over others when used in a mixed-language file, how the overall interface will respond to user commands, what languages are used in the user interface, and so forth.

In some cases, language settings only affect the user interface, but in others it can also change what is installed as part of the application—including Help files, supporting programs, and reference files such as the dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar checker. Generally, each of these can be set independently of the others. For example, it is possible to have the installation language set to English, the user interface set to Russian, the Help language set to Chinese, and the editing language set to French, German, Japanese, and Arabic.

How language settings affect Office applications

Microsoft Office 2003 uses language elements during installation to set a base configuration of Office application language settings. Four of the six language elements in Office applications react to settings controlled by the Language Settings tool that is installed with Office. This section of the chapter attempts to document how language elements affect Office applications based on the settings the operating system is set to use during installation, and the changes a user or administrator can make by using the Language Settings tool after Office applications are installed.

The following four language elements are controlled by the Language Settings tool after Office is installed.

Installation language The installation language is set initially by the SKU language of the product. It can be changed by the Choose the language that defines default behavior in Microsoft Office applications option in the Language Settings tool, which changes the InstallLanguage registry entry and sets the default language for the user interface of the application and the files it creates. If a language that is not supported by the application, or has not been added from a Microsoft Office 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI Pack), is encountered in a received file, by default the application will use the installation language when it attempts to display the file.
User interface language When the product is installed, the user interface language is set to the same value as the SKU language. The user interface language sets the language used in menus, dialog boxes, toolbars, task panes, and error messages. Changes to this value update the registry entry UILanguage. The user interface language is controlled by the Display Office 2003 in combo box in the Language Settings tool.
Help language When the product is installed, the Help language is set to the same value as the SKU language. This sets the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID) used to determine which language to display Help in. Changes to this value update the registry entry HelpLanguage. The Help language is controlled by the Display Help in combo box in the Language Settings tool.
Enabled languages (editing languages) When the product is installed, this is set to the same value as the SKU language. This setting is directly controlled by the Enabled languages list box in the Language Settings tool. It exposes functionality for editing documents in the selected language. In cases where multilingual files need to display more than one language or character set, it is necessary to use a Unicode font to support this feature.

When a MUI Pack is installed and the Language Settings tool is used to change to a different language, the user interface and Help languages are automatically set to the same settings as the installation language. However, this is only if the user interface language and Help language are each set to (same as the system) on the User Interface and Help tab.

The following two language elements are controlled by the operating system and the SKU language of the purchased product (the localized language of the Office application).

SKU language This is the default language version of Office purchased by the end user. This registry entry is set to the LCID for the fully localized version of the application being installed.

Note
To use a MUI Pack you must use the 1033 (English) SKU language of Office.
System locale The base language the operating system was installed to use. This is controlled by the Regional and Language Options tool in Microsoft Windows XP and by the Regional Options tool in Windows 2000.

These language elements may be changed based on the settings in either the Windows Installer package used to install Office (for example, Pro11.msi), or a custom transform (if provided). It is also possible for these settings to be changed during installation of a MUI Pack or when an Office profile is applied to the target computer. For more information about changing language settings, see “Customizing Office Language Settings” in the previous section.

It is possible that the SKU language setting will not allow for changes to some of the language settings. In the case of a localized version of Office it is possible that some language and regional settings cannot be changed. However, the English version with MUI Packs is fully customizable for all languages supported in the various MUI Packs. There are a few languages that are not fully supported in the MUI Packs (do not provide complete dictionaries, grammar checkers, etc.).

Related operating system dependencies

Office 2003 must be installed on a computer running either Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or Windows XP. Because the operating system is a crucial element in how data is input into the computer and is also dependent on regionally configured language settings, it affects how Office applications function. The operating system determines the keyboard layout to use, how currency, dates, and time are formatted, and possibly how the mouse responds to user input. Though the regionally configured language settings are not set by Office applications directly, the applications do inherit these settings from the operating system. Users must take into consideration the keyboard regional setting as well as the selected languages they want to use. In some cases, characters from the selected language cannot be input until the keyboard input layout is changed to support the selected language. Use the Regional and Language Options tool in Windows XP or the Regional Options tool in Windows 2000 to create new keyboard input locales for use with the languages you add to your Office applications. If you will only need to view text, but never edit or create new text for a specific language, you do not need to load a specific keyboard regional input setting to support that language. Font support for complex script, right-to-left languages, and East Asian languages is also provided by the operating system (see the Supplemental language support section of the Languages tab in the Regional and Language Options tool—Windows XP only—to set these options).

How Office applications use language settings

Each Office application uses language settings differently based on the specific default behavior programmed for the selected language. The following lists describe the basic changes in behavior of each application as language settings are changed.

Microsoft Office Word 2003

Installation language

Sets the Normal.dot template default template language during installation.

The language settings in the Normal.dot template determine how Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) functions when creating and running macros. It also sets the specific language-related default settings for Microsoft Word when it starts and loads the template. If you have a customized Normal.dot template created for use with a specific language and you choose to copy it to a computer configured with a different language, the customized Normal.dot template may or may not be compatible with the language you intend to use it with. In this case, it is usually best to allow the installation process to create a new Normal.dot and then use the template organizing utility to migrate styles, macros, autotext, and toolbar configurations to the new template. Or, if you prefer, rename your customized Normal.dot template and load it as a global template.
Sets the default toolbar graphics and text to display.
Sets the default language and regional preferences to use.
Sets which preset gallery to use for bullets and numbering.

User interface language

Sets the language of the menu options, dialog boxes, toolbars, and task panes.
If a MUI Pack is installed, enables or disables various language-related options based on the default language specified in the Regional and Language Settings utility in Control Panel. Specifically, right-to-left language options, East Asian language options in the Options dialog box, and special options related to the Find dialog box.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Enabled languages

Exposes additional user interface elements. For example, Input Method Editors (IMEs), spelling and grammar checkers, or unique elements for localized fonts.
Used by Language AutoDetect to help determine the possible languages it should check for.
Set by users from the Set Languages subcommand (Tools menu, Language command).
Inherits the language and regional settings of the operating system but can automatically switch between languages depending on the location of the insertion point within the document.

SKU language

Only used for the initial installation. Superseded by the Choose the language that defines default behavior in Microsoft Office applications option in the Language Settings utility after installation.

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

Installation language

If an installation of a localized East Asian version of Office is performed, it may offer support for additional features such as localized templates or localized add-ins.

It also provides more country-specific fallbacks for font handling, different default number formats, and VBA backward compatibility for localized versions of Microsoft Excel.

Installation of a localized East Asian version of Office should be chosen only if the majority of work in an organization is performed in an East Asian language.

Excel supports Input Method Editors (IMEs) and East Asian fonts. However, an installation of a localized version is set to install fonts and defaults that more closely match the locale.

Because of the amount of memory required to support East Asian fonts, support for Asian languages generally is limited to a smaller set of East Asian fonts. Typically, it is recommended that you install no more than four Unicode or double-byte character set–enabled fonts at any one time. If there is sufficient RAM, it is possible to support more without serious system performance degradation.

User interface language

Sets the language of the menu options, dialog boxes, toolbars, and task panes.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Enabled languages

Excel inherits the language and regional settings of the operating system.

SKU language

Only used for the initial installation. Superseded by the Choose the language that defines default behavior in Microsoft Office applications option in the Language Settings utility after installation.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003

Installation language

When set to East Asian values:

Sets the default state of the IME to “on.”
Adds “composite” font structure to the Font dialog box (Format menu) and default East Asian font values.
Adds locale-specific toolbar buttons.
Enables and sets linguistic feature defaults.
For example, setting the installation language to Japanese causes Microsoft PowerPoint to use Asian rules for controlling first and last characters.
Affects sorting order in the font lists—in the font toolbar control on the formatting toolbar as well as in the Font dialog box (Format menu).
Converts the backslash character to a Yen symbol when the installation language is Japanese.

When set to a language with right-to-left values:

Adds “composite” font structure to the Font dialog box (Format menu) and default right-to-left fonts.
Sets the default text direction from left-to-right to right-to-left behavior.
Sets the default state of the Auto-Keyboard switching option to “on”; otherwise, the default state is “off.”

All languages:

Sets the Design Template behavior.
You can create Design Templates with a single set of defaults (a “global” template). Based on the installation language, PowerPoint uses plug-in user interface support to insert the correct text defaults in the template.
Sets the default behavior of the document.
For example, if the language is set to an East Asian language, a presentation will have East Asian defaults. This includes fonts, East Asian typography rules, and so on.
Used as the tie-breaker in certain cases to manage font conversion for East Asian (except Japanese) text in PowerPoint 4.0 files.
Sets vertical underline behavior for East Asian languages.
For example, with Chinese (either Traditional or Simplified), the vertical underline is on the left, and for Korean or Japanese, the vertical underline is on the right.
Sets the default language used for date formats and the types of calendars available.
Sets the default language tag for text when converting presentations from PowerPoint 3.0, 4.0, and PowerPoint 95 files that did not have a language tag saved with the file.
Sets the rule by which font names for East Asian fonts are handled, whether they are managed by using their English name or their localized name.
When the installation language is set to an East Asian language, PowerPoint expects East Asian font names to be localized. When the installation language is set to a non-East Asian language, PowerPoint expects East Asian font names to be in English.
Sets how non-ANSI characters are displayed during file sharing operations with earlier versions of PowerPoint.
For example, setting the installation language to Greek allows Greek characters written on the slide master to be saved in PowerPoint 95 format. The Greek PowerPoint 95 user can then view and edit the Greek characters correctly. The presentation can later be opened again in PowerPoint 2003 with the Greek characters included properly on the slide master.
Corrects language variation conflicts (for example, French vs. French/Canadian) in Content Templates when those templates are opened by using the New command (File menu) or by the AutoContent Wizard.
Sets the default text language for new text objects on new presentations if the user has not set the default language by using the Language command (Tools menu).
Sets the text language identifier (LID) for Language AutoDetect integration with plain-text pasting.
Sets the locale bullet schemes in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box (Format menu).
Causes Blank.pot (if it exists) to be renamed to Oldblank.pot when the installation language changes.
If the installation language or the system locale is set to Japanese, lists the JIS paper sizes in the Page Setup dialog box (File menu).
Determines the order of font slots displayed in the Font dialog box (Format menu).
If the installation language is set to an East Asian language, the font list displays East Asian fonts first.
Determines the correct defaults for Style Checker options for East Asian and some European languages.

The defaults are set as follows:

The correct value for Slide Title Style is Sentence case (0x01) instead of “Title case” (0x04).
Languages affected: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, French/Canadian, Greek, Hungarian, Iberian Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish (Modern Sort), Swedish.
The correct value for Number of fonts should not exceed: is 0x04 instead of 0x03.
Languages affected: Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese.
The correct value for Body punctuation is 0x00 instead of 0x01; 0 turns the setting off and 1 turns the setting on.

Languages affected: Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese (but not Japanese).

User interface language

Changes the language of the user interface.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Enabled languages

If enabled, may expose an additional user interface in PowerPoint.

For example, these languages add extra controls to the user interface:
East Asian (Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)
Complex scripts (including bidirectional languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, and other complex script languages, such as Thai and Hindi)
Influences font association conversions if Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean editing languages are set.
If you enable editing languages other than code page 1252 languages (that is, code pages for languages that are not in the Western European code page) and you are creating Presentation Broadcast lobby pages, the lobby pages will use Numeric Character References (NCRs) for the text.

For example, if you enable Greek (code page 1253) and you create lobby pages, the lobby pages will use NCRs for the text.
If enabled, causes date formats for those languages to appear in the Date and Time dialog box (Insert menu).

Note

Setting East Asian editing languages does not influence the Input Method Editor default startup behavior and does not change document defaults.

SKU language

Only used for the initial installation. Superseded by the Choose the language that defines default behavior in Microsoft Office applications option in the Language Settings utility after installation.

System locale—Language and Regional Options

Used as a tie-breaker in determining text language identifiers for Language AutoDetect integration with plain-text pasting.
If the Embed characters in use only option is selected (Tools menu, Options command, Save tab), examines a preset list of fonts for the current system locale and determines which fonts should not be embedded, preventing the default fonts typically used in that locale from being embedded in the file.

Microsoft Office Access 2003

Installation language

Used to expose Japanese-specific properties and enable wizards specific to East Asian languages.
Sets the default spelling dictionary language according to the installation language setting.

User interface language

When using MUI Packs for East Asian languages, allows East Asian wizards to function when the user interface language and the operating system language are set to the same corresponding East Asian language.
Sets the language of the menu options, dialog boxes, toolbars, and task panes.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Enabled languages

Not used.

SKU language

Only used for the initial installation. Superseded by the Choose the language that defines default behavior in Microsoft Office applications option in Language Settings utility after installation.

System locale—Language and Regional Options

Used to determine default datasheet fonts and default sort order for the database.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

Installation language

Determines default spelling options (Tools menu, Options command, Spelling tab).

User interface language

Sets the language of the menu options, dialog boxes, toolbars, and task panes.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Editing Languages

Makes additional mail encodings available.
Makes an additional property page available in the Options dialog box (Tools menu) with miscellaneous right-to-left calendar settings (for Arabic and Hebrew).

SKU language

Only used for the initial installation. Superseded by the Choose the language that defines default behavior in Microsoft Office applications option in the Language Settings utility after installation.

Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

Installation language

Not used by FrontPage 2003.

User interface language

Sets the language of the menu options, dialog boxes, toolbars, and task panes.
Determines the language of the templates FrontPage loads for a new page or Web site.
Sets the default Language Control Identifier (LCID) for any new page not tied to a specific template.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Enabled languages

Exposes additional user interface elements.

For example, Arabic and Hebrew have extra options in the Find dialog box (Edit menu); right-to-left paragraph buttons are added to a toolbar; and the Right-to-left direction in all new pages option is added.

If the East Asian MUI Packs are installed, Revise Hangul ending, Hangul Hanja Conversion, and TCSC converter options are enabled.

SKU language

Not used.

System locale—Language and Regional Options

Sets the default speller.
Uses the default system code page to determine which character set to support when opening and saving files, since FrontPage does not support Unicode file names.
Used to determine the language and encoding of a page.

Microsoft Office Publisher 2003

Installation language

Sets language for helpful pointers (cursors).
If set to Japanese, prints Japanese crop marks.
Changes the default justification options that appear in Publisher 2003 menus and on the Formatting toolbar.
Changes the Input Method Editor (IME) status to text flow.
If set to an East Asian language, controls whether an IME is enabled.
Sets date and time format for print marks.
Sets default business card size.
Sets default font size, paragraph alignment, tab stop, bullet font, and bullet characters.
Used as the Language Control Identifier (LCID) applied to text in some cases where the text file format does not contain language information.
Set as the default language for some features when multiple East Asian languages are installed.

Determines the defaults for some text formatting preferences, including East Asian hanging punctuation default and character-spacing control (CSC) default.
Controls the exposure of Simplified Chinese–named font sizes.

User interface language

Sets language for Publisher wizards, font schemes, and color schemes.

Japanese-specific wizards are only available with a Japanese user interface.

Enabled languages

If East Asian languages are enabled, exposes the East Asian formatting features (such as Ruby and Text Direction).
If East Asian languages are enabled, exposes the East Asian proofing tools.
If East Asian languages are enabled, exposes the East Asian font and formatting properties in the Font dialog box (Format menu).
If complex script languages are enabled, exposes the complex script features and options.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

SKU language

Not used.

System locale—Language and Regional Options

Changes the calendar format.
Default input locale determines the default text language for new text frames.
As the user types, current input locale/keyboard setting is used to assign language to text.

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003

Installation language

The document and template language settings for XML are dependent on this setting. Users can change the document and template language through the Set Language dialog box (Tools menu).

Document language: This is the default language for the XML document. It controls the proofing tools for all of the XML data.

Template language: This is the language for the XML template. This value sets the default font, font size, text direction, text justification, and paragraph alignment.

User interface language

Sets the language of the menu options, dialog boxes, toolbars, and task panes.

Help language

Changes the Help Language Control Identifier (HLCID). This is used to determine which localized Help files are displayed either from the application Help or from the Microsoft Office Online Web site assistance center. It also determines which language is respected by the natural language Help interface in Office applications (Type a question for help).

Enabled languages

Exposes additional East Asian user interface features, such as:

Asian Typography Pane
Line breaking in Options dialog box (Tools menu)
Grid Pane
Japanese Find and Replace check boxes
Japanese Find and Replace dialog Options button
Korean Find and Replace check boxes
If the default language for Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 is Turkish, the Turkish find and replace feature is used (a user interface for this is not available).

SKU language

Not used.

Where language settings are stored

Microsoft Office 2003 stores the majority of language settings in the registry. Those settings not stored in the registry might be in templates, a language-specific folder—usually identified by a locale identifier (LCID) number, for example, \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 2003\1033—or within special language-specific wizards and support files.

Language settings that determine how specific Office applications respond to the user are generally stored in the registry and can be found in both the HKLM and HKCU nodes under \Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\LanguageResources. The registry values in this key relate to the various language settings mentioned in this chapter. Language settings are configured initially by the current operating system regional and language settings. Any changes to the operating system language settings using the Regional and Language Options tool in Windows XP or the Regional Options tool in Windows 2000 can also affect how Office reacts to language settings in the registry. After installation of Office, most language settings are controlled by the Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings tool. Various options within some applications, such as the Set language option in Word, also affect language settings.

When a specific language is added to the installation of Office by using a Microsoft Office Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI Pack), usually a new folder is added to the folder locations \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 2003 and \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office 2003 and is designated by the LCID for that language. For example, the path to the Greek folder would be \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 2003\1032. The language-specific elements of each application—such as Help files, user interface dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), and dictionaries—are stored in the 1032 folder.