Updated: 2009-03-05

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Although the most commonly deployed languages for the 2007 Microsoft Office system are released at the same time as the product, many other Single Language Packs (language packs) are released over time. The Multilanguage Pack, which includes all available language packs, is not released until after all the individual language packs are released. If you upgrade your multilingual organization to the 2007 Office system before all the language packs are released, however, you can add or remove languages later. The Multilanguage Pack and Proofing Tools CDs for the 2007 Office system are available for purchase in major retail stores and via their Web sites, and also through Microsoft volume licensing programs.

To add languages after you deployed the 2007 Office system, you deploy the language packs as separate products. To do this, there must be at least one 2007 Office system product installed on the computer. This method involves running Setup.exe for the language pack that you want to install, so that the full language pack is installed on the computer.

It is important to plan the languages at the beginning of your deployment. If you change users' configurations after the initial deployment and include additional languages as part of your customizations, you must first copy all the Single Language Packs (SLPs) you want to deploy to the network installation point that contains the Office product files; for example, \\server\share\Office12. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization patch. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing patch is not updated to reflect this change. Therefore, you must also re-create the customization MSP file that you want to deploy to users after you update the installation source with additional languages. Failure to do this might result in unexpected behavior, because the changes to the customization MSP file will not apply to the added languages. If you do not re-create the MSP file, it is possible that your deployment will test correctly in your lab, but users might not see the new language in their Office applications, or they might see only a subset of the language features. For more information, see Change users' configurations after installing the 2007 Office system.

Deploy language packs

If you deployed multiple 2007 Office system release products in your organization and you need to add more language support, you can deploy language packs as separate products. In this case, Setup installs language-specific elements for every product in the 2007 Office system. No matter which products users have installed, users can access the additional language versions.

For this deployment method to work, there must be at least one 2007 Office system product installed on the computer that you are deploying to.

When you deploy language packs separately, you must consider the amount of disk space that is required on users' computers. For example, the English language pack requires 600 MB for both the language pack and the installation files that are stored in the local installation source. The Japanese language pack requires 1,000 MB.

Deploy language packs

  1. Copy all the files and folders in the new language pack from the source media to a location on the network. If you are using a Multilanguage Pack, you can copy just the files and folders for the languages that you want to install. When you are prompted to overwrite Setup files, click No.

    You must complete the following steps for each language that you want to install.

  2. In the core product folder for the language pack that you are installing, locate the Config.xml file.

    For example, if you are installing the Russian language pack, find the Config.xml file in the OMUI.ru-ru folder.

  3. Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.

  4. Find the <Display> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

  5. Set the value of the Level to "basic" or "none", CompletionNotice to "yes", SuppressModal to "yes", and AcceptEula to "yes".

    The line should look like this:

      CopyCode imageCopy Code 
    <Display Level="basic" CompletionNotice="yes" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

  6. Find the <AddLanguage> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

  7. Set the value of the Id attribute to the language tag that corresponds to the language that you want to install.

    For example, to add the Russian language version, the line should look like this:

      CopyCode imageCopy Code 
    <AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" />

  8. Save the Config.xml file. Run the language pack Setup from the root of the network installation point for the Multilanguage Pack or Single Language Pack (SLP), and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file on the command line. For example:

    \\server\share\Office12\SLP\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office12\SLP\RU\OMUI.ru-ru\Config.xml

    where Office12\SLP is the root of the network installation point for the language packs and RU is the language folder name.

    You must complete the previous steps for each language that you want to install.

Language-specific elements for Microsoft Office Project 2007 and Microsoft Office Visio 2007 are installed separately. In each language pack, the core product folder for Office Project 2007 is PMUI.ll-cc. The core product folder for Office Visio 2007 is VisMUI.ll-cc.

For information about how to create a network installation point with multiple languages, see Customize and deploy multiple language versions of the 2007 Office system.

For a complete list of language tags, see Language identifiers in the 2007 Office system.

To deploy these languages for new 2007 Office system installations, see Specify which languages to install and re-create any existing customization MSP files. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization patch. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing patch is not updated to reflect this change.

Remove language packs

The steps to remove language packs are similar to the deployment of language packs. Instead of using the <AddLanguage> tag, use the <RemoveLanguage> tag.

You must complete the following steps for each language that you want to remove.

Remove language packs

  1. If the language was deployed with the Office product (not as a separate product), locate the Config.xml file in the core product folder for the product that you are updating.

    For example, if you are removing languages from an installation of Microsoft Office Standard 2007, find the Config.xml file in the Standard.WW folder.

    Otherwise, locate the Config.xml file in the core product folder for the language pack that you are removing.

    For example, if you are removing the Russian language pack, find the Config.xml file in the OMUI.ru-ru folder.

  2. Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.

  3. Find the <Display> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

  4. Set the value of the Level to "basic" or "none", CompletionNotice to "yes", SuppressModal to "yes", and AcceptEula to "yes".

    The line should look like this:

      CopyCode imageCopy Code 
    <Display Level="basic" CompletionNotice="yes" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

  5. Find the <AddLanguage> element. If it is in the file, comment out the line by adding opening <!-- and closing --> tags around the element.

    The line should look like this:

      CopyCode imageCopy Code 
    <!-- <AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" /> -->

  6. Add the <RemoveLanguage> element.

  7. Set the value of the Id attribute to the language tag that corresponds to the language that you want to remove.

    For example, to remove the Russian language version, the line should look like this:

      CopyCode imageCopy Code 
    <RemoveLanguage Id="ru-ru" />

  8. Save the Config.xml file.

  9. If you edited the Config.xml file in the core product folder, run Setup.exe and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file.

    You must use a fully qualified path. For example:

    \\server\share\ Office12\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\ Office12\Standard.WW\Config.xml

    where Office12 is the root of the network installation point.

    Otherwise, run the language pack Setup from the root of the network installation point for the Multilanguage Pack or Single Language Pack (SLP), and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file on the command line. For example:

    \\server\share\Office12\SLP\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office12\SLP\RU\OMUI.ru-ru\Config.xml

    where Office12\SLP is the root of the network installation point for the language packs and RU is the language folder name.

    You must complete the previous steps for each language that you want to remove.

Identify installed languages

You can view a list of languages installed for the 2007 Office system either during the initial installation or during a separate installation of a language pack at the following registry key, which displays the LCID for each enabled language:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\LanguageResources\EnabledLanguages

You can view the user interface (UI) language and fallback languages at the following registry key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\LanguageResources

Although all applications in the 2007 Office system use a shared set of registry data to determine their UI language, they do not necessarily all appear in the same UI language. Applications in the 2007 Office system usually appear with the UI language indicated in the UILanguage value of this registry key, but there are circumstances where this might not be the case. For example, some deployments might have Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 installed in French, but another Office application installed in a different language. In this case, the other application will look at the UIFallback list in this registry key, and use the first language that works with its installed configuration.

See Also