Ensuring Multilingual Compatibility

Multilingual compatibility issues can arise when you use Windows XP Professional with Active Directory objects, Terminal Services, or in mixed operating system environments. Also, special considerations arise when you use the multilingual versions of Office XP and Windows XP Professional together. You will need to be aware of these and other global compatibility issues as you prepare to deploy Windows XP Professional in a multilingual environment.

Multilingual Compatibility with Active Directory Objects, Clients, and Domain Controllers

Because Active Directory supports Unicode, there are few multilingual compatibility problems with Active Directory in any language version of Windows XP Professional. Typically, if Active Directory objects are named using Unicode characters, and both the Complex Script and Right-to-Left Language Collection and the East Asian Language Collection are installed, no problems occur in displaying Active Directory object names that combine different languages and fonts.

If you use Active Directory in a mixed operating system environment, consider the following limitations when implementing multilingual features:

• Active Directory supports a single sort order, which might not be the sort order specified by the default language version or settings of the server. If you store objects that have localized names, the returned sort order might not be what you expect.

• If your Active Directory domain controller uses a different language from that of a client computer that is a member of the same domain, you can use only the character sets common to both code pages in Active Directory naming conventions. Otherwise, the two computers might not be able to initialize a trust relationship.

• If an Active Directory client computer does not have the correct language support and fonts installed to interpret localized names in a different language used for objects stored in the directory, the client might not be able to render the names.

• For example, if an Active Directory client computer in Boston does not have the East Asian Language Collection installed, it might not be able to display the Kanji characters in the Japanese name of an object stored in an Active Directory server in Tokyo.

• Localized language domain and computer names might not be supported by Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 3.51, and previous DNS servers because those systems do not support UTF 8.

For more information about Active Directory, see Connecting Clients to Windows Networks in this book. For more information about authentication, see Logon and Authentication in this book.

Using Office XP and Windows XP Professional Together

Like Windows XP Professional, the English (U.S.) version of Office XP is built on an international core, meaning that it combines support for different language versions into a single product that you can run worldwide. Also like Windows XP Professional, Office XP is available in the International English and other localized language versions, and with the Multilingual User Interface Pack.

When you install Office XP on a computer running an International English or localized language version of Windows XP Professional, Office XP detects and uses the same default input language that the Windows XP Professional operating system uses. Office XP also enables support for scripts created on the Windows XP Professional operating system configuration.

Localized Versions of Office XP

Licensing localized versions of Microsoft Office, such as Microsoft Office XP Spanish Edition, is the best option if you need completely localized functionality and the additional content, such as templates and wizards in Word, that comes with some fully localized versions. Each localized version includes at least two sets of appropriate proofreading tools for the languages you are likely to use most (for example, the Norwegian version includes Norwegian, German, and English proofreading tools). To expand that support to more than 30 languages, you can install the Microsoft Office XP Proofing Tools CD together with any localized version.

Organizations that work in very few languages, or that have completely decentralized IT departments that work with only the local languages, might choose to use the localized versions of Office XP.