Installing Office Language Resources that Upgrade or Coexist with Existing Language Resources

It is straightforward to upgrade to the Microsoft Office 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI Pack) from earlier language packs—such as the Office 2000 MultiLanguage Pack (LPK) or the Office XP MUI Pack—but it is also possible to have MUI Packs coexist with MultiLanguage Packs on the same computer. The same is true for Microsoft Office 2003 Proofing Tools, which can be installed on a computer with an existing installation of earlier proofing tools.

The need for language resources to coexist on the same computer typically arises when different versions of Office or Office applications—for example, Microsoft Word 2002 and Word 2000—coexist on that computer. If you are upgrading to Office 2003 and not keeping any applications from earlier versions of Office, you can upgrade to Office 2003 MUI Packs or proofing tools and remove the existing multilingual files from users’ computers. Deleting the files avoids using extra hard disk space or potentially confusing users with unneeded software on their computers.

Note

If you must install Office 2003 to coexist with an earlier version of Office, be aware that each version must be installed in version-specific folders on users’ computers. Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 cannot coexist with any earlier versions of Outlook.

In both scenarios—upgrading to a new version of Office 2003 and having Office 2003 coexist with earlier versions of Office—user settings are migrated automatically.

Upgrading an earlier language pack installation

When you upgrade a language pack installation as part of your Office 2003 deployment, you need to decide whether to keep existing language pack files or remove them from users’ computers.

By default, when Office 2003 MUI Packs are installed, all previous MultiLanguage Pack and MUI Pack files are deleted. However, if you are upgrading an existing MultiLanguage Pack or MUI Pack installation after you have deployed Office 2003, you must use a method other than the Custom Installation Wizard—such as using the Office Removal Wizard —to remove existing language pack files from users’ computers.

You may want to keep earlier versions of language packs on users’ computers if you plan to have Office 2003 applications coexist with earlier versions of Office applications.

To customize your deployment of Office to retain earlier language pack support

1. In the Custom Installation Wizard, on the Remove Previous Versions page, click Remove the following versions of Microsoft Office applications.

2. Double-click Microsoft Multi-Language Packs, and clear the box next to Microsoft Multi-Language Packs.

Upgrading a Proofing Tools installation

When you upgrade an Office 2003 Proofing Tools installation, there are several issues to consider.

When you install Office 2003 Proofing Tools, older proofing tools files are removed by default. However, you may want to retain those older versions on users’ computers if you plan to have Office 2003 applications coexist with earlier versions of Office applications. To keep all proofing tools files from earlier releases, specify KEEPPTK9=1 in the Setup settings file (Setup.ini) or on the Setup command line.

In addition, custom dictionaries have been improved. Dictionaries included in older versions of Office Proofing Tools were in ANSI format. These dictionaries have been upgraded to support custom dictionaries created and written in Unicode. This allows organizations to have multiple languages from different code pages in the same dictionary file. Existing dictionaries will migrate to the new format when you install Office 2003 Proofing Tools.

Upgrading an Input Method Editor installation

The Microsoft Office 2003 MUI Pack includes Input Method Editors (IMEs) for the languages that you choose to install. If your organization uses IMEs, you can install and use any of the updated IMEs supplied with the Office 2003 MUI Pack.

Upgrading to Office 2003 with the MUI Pack could result in multiple Input Method Editors on your users’ computers. Existing IMEs may not be uninstalled by the Office installation process, but instead could be unregistered from the Active keyboard when Office 2003 Setup runs.

To migrate with language-specific IMEs, install the MUI Pack languages that your organization needs. The corresponding IMEs will be installed automatically with the languages.

Note

If your users have Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP, they must enable the language for the IME before installing the IME. To do this, go to Regional Options (Regional and Language Options in Windows XP) in Control Panel. Under the Language settings for the system area in the General tab, choose the language of the IME. This process will install the appropriate language support files.

Resources and related information

Procedures for various MUI Pack deployment scenarios are included in Chapter 15, “Sample Office 2003 Multilingual Deployments.”

Patching an existing MUI Pack installation is straightforward. For more information, see “Distributing Multilingual User Interface Pack Updates” in Chapter 16, “Maintaining an Office 2003 Multilingual Installation.”

You can use the Office Removal Wizard to remove applications or files after completing your initial Office installation. For more information about using the Removal Wizard, see “Customizing Removal Behavior” in Chapter 4, “Customizing Office 2003.”