Customize deployment of language setup and Proofing Tools in Office 2010

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2015-05-17

Banner stating end of support date for Office 2010 with link to more info

Setup automatically deploys Microsoft Office 2010 in the language version of the Windows user locale, but you can customize language setup and settings.

In this article:

  • Overview

  • Before you begin

  • Deploy a default language version of Office

  • Specify which languages to install

  • Deploy different languages to different groups of users

  • Identify installed languages

  • Customize language settings

  • Customize and install the Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit

Overview

By default, Setup automatically installs the language version that matches the Windows user locale that is set on each user's computer. However, you can override this default behavior and manage the distribution of multiple language versions more precisely. For example, you can:

  • Install more than one language on a single computer.

  • Specify which languages to install on users' computers, regardless of the language of the operating system, which is specified by user locale.

  • Specify custom settings once and then apply them to all language versions that you deploy in your organization.

  • Deploy different languages to different groups of users.

  • Deploy the Microsoft Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit for additional languages.

For more information, see Plan Setup in Plan for multilanguage and Proofing Tools deployment for Office 2010.

When a user starts an Office 2010 application for the first time, Setup applies default settings that match the language installed on the computer and the language specified by the Windows user locale setting. However, you configure language settings by using Group Policy, the Office Customization Tool (OCT), or the Language Settings tool. For more information, see Plan customizations in Plan for multilanguage and Proofing Tools deployment for Office 2010.

If users will have to edit in a language or a companion proofing language that will not be installed, you can customize and install the Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit. For more information, see Plan for proofing tools in Plan for multilanguage and Proofing Tools deployment for Office 2010.

Before you begin

To determine which of the following procedures to use for your deployment and which customizations that you might have to make, see Plan for multilanguage and Proofing Tools deployment for Office 2010.

Deploy a default language version of Office

If users in your organization work with Office files that are in the same language, or in a language that matches the language of their operating system, you can deploy a default language version of Office.

The following steps are the same as the standard steps for deploying Office 2010 and included for testing. The only difference in the steps is that you must copy the language packs to the same network location as the installation files.

To deploy a default language version of Office to every client computer

  1. Create a network installation point for the primary Office 2010 product by copying all the files and folders from the source media to a shared network location.

  2. Copy all the files and folders from the source media for each language pack to the same network location, and when you are prompted to overwrite duplicate files, click No.

  3. Use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to configure the installation to match your organization's requirements.

    Because most of the customizations apply to the core product, you do not typically have to customize each language separately. Setup applies your customizations during the installation regardless of the language being installed. For information about how to customize language settings, see Customize language settings.

    Language packs that are obtained through a volume license agreement do not require a unique product key; only one volume license key is required for the installation.

  4. On the Setup command line, specify the Config.xml file for the primary Office product that you are deploying.

    For example, the following command line installs Microsoft Office Standard 2010 in any language:

    \\server\share\Office14\Setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office14\Standard.WW\Config.xml

    where Office14 is the root of the network installation point.

  5. Run Setup from the root of the network installation point.

    Setup installs only the language-specific elements that are needed for the Office product that you are installing. Setup does not install the complete language pack unless you deploy the language pack as a separate product.

Specify which languages to install

If users in your organization work with Office files in more than one language, or if they need an Office language that does not match the language of their operating system, you can install all the languages they need at the same time.

The following steps are the same as the standard steps for deploying Office 2010 and included for testing. The only difference in the steps is that you must copy the language packs to the same network location as your installation files and edit the Config.xml file to specify which languages to install.

To specify one or more languages to install on a client computer

  1. Create a network installation point for your primary Office 2010 product by copying all the files and folders from source media to a shared network location.

  2. Copy all the files and folders from the source media for each language pack to the same network location, and when you are prompted to overwrite duplicate files, click No.

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

    For example, if you are installing Office Standard 2010, find the Config.xml file in the Standard.WW folder.

  4. Open the Config.xml file by using a text editor, such as Notepad.

  5. Add the <AddLanguage> element.

  6. Set the value of the Id attribute to the language tag that corresponds to the language that you want to install. You can specify more than one language by including additional <AddLanguage> elements and attributes.

  7. Specify which language to use for the Shell user interface (Shell UI) by setting the <ShellTransform> attribute of the <AddLanguage> element.

    For example, to specify that Setup install both English and French, with English as the default installation language, add the following elements:

    <AddLanguage Id="en-us" ShellTransform="yes"/> <AddLanguage Id="fr-fr" />
    

    If you want the default installation language and the Shell UI to match the operating system language, and you also want every user to have Office in both English and French, the code in the Config.xml file looks as follows:

    <AddLanguage Id="match" ShellTransform="yes"/> 
    <AddLanguage Id="en-us" />
    <AddLanguage Id="fr-fr" /> 
    

    You are required to specify a value for the ShellTransform attribute when you add more than one <AddLanguage> element. Skipping this step causes the installation to fail.

  8. To specify that Setup also match the language of the user's Windows user locale, add another line in the Config.xml file:

    <AddLanguage Id="match" /> 
    

    In this case, Setup installs all specified languages plus the language that matches the user locale, if that language is different.

  9. Save the Config.xml file.

  10. Use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to configure the installation to match your organization's requirements.

    For information about how to customize language settings, see Customize language settings.

  11. Run Setup.exe and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file.

    Note that you must use a fully qualified path; for example: \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office14\Standard.WW\Config.xml

    where Office14 is the root of the network installation point.

Deploy different languages to different groups of users

You can give different groups of users different sets of Office languages. For example, a subsidiary based in Tokyo might have to work with Office Standard 2010 documents in English and Japanese, whereas users in the European subsidiary need English, French, and German. In this scenario, you create a unique Config.xml file for each group of users.

The following steps are the same as the standard steps for deploying the Office 2010 and included for testing. The only differences in the steps is that you must copy the language packs to the same network location as the installation files, create and edit the Config.xml file for each group to specify which languages to install, and then deploy the appropriate Config.xml file to the different groups.

To deploy different languages to different groups of users

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

    For example, if you are installing Office Standard 2010, find the Config.xml file in the Standard.WW folder.

  2. Open the Config.xml file by using a text editor, such as Notepad.

  3. Locate the <AddLanguage> element and specify the set of languages that you want to install for this user group, as described previously.

    Note

    You must also set the <Shell UI> attribute of the <AddLanguage> element, as described previously.

  4. Save the Config.xml file by using a unique file name.

  5. Repeat these steps for the next user group.

  6. Use the OCT to configure the installation to match your organization's requirements.

    For information about how to customize language settings, see Customize language settings.

  7. Deploy Office to each group of users separately, and in each case specify the correct Config.xml file on the Setup command line. For example:

    \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office14\Standard.WW\SubAConfig.xml, or

    \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office14\Standard.WW\SubBConfig.xml

    where Office14 is the root of the network installation point.

Identify installed languages

You can view a list of languages installed for Office 2010 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\14.0\Common\LanguageResources\EnabledLanguages

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

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources

Although all applications in the Office 2010 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 Office 2010 usually appear with the UI language indicated in the UILanguage entry of this registry key. But there are circumstances where this might not be the case. For example, some deployments might have Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Excel 2010 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.

Customize language settings

Use Group Policy to enforce language settings

Policies enforce default language settings. Users in your organization cannot permanently modify settings managed by policy. The settings are reapplied every time that the user logs on.

To use Group Policy to manage language settings

  1. Copy the Office 2010 policy template files to your computer.

  2. Under Computer Configuration or User Configuration in the console tree, right-click Administrative Templates.

  3. Click Add/Remove Templates, and then click Add.

  4. In the Policy Templates dialog box, click the template that you want to add, and then click Open.

  5. After you add the templates that you want, click Close.

  6. Open the Group Policy object (GPO) for which you want to set policy.

  7. Double-click Computer Configuration or User Configuration and expand the tree under Administrative Templates.

  8. Locate language-related policies in the Microsoft Office 2010 system\Language Settings node.

  9. Select the languages that you want to use for each setting.

  10. Save the GPO.

Use a Setup customization file to specify default language settings

You use the OCT to create a Setup customization file (.msp file) that Setup applies during the installation. Settings specified in the OCT are the default settings. Users can modify the settings after the installation.

To use the OCT to customize language settings

  1. Start the OCT by running Setup with the /admin command-line option.

  2. On the Modify User Settings page, expand the tree to Microsoft Office 2010 system\Language Settings.

  3. Open the folder that you want in the navigation pane. Double-click the setting in the right pane, select Enable, and then specify a value.

  4. Save the Setup customization file in the Updates folder at the root of the network installation point.

    Setup applies the file automatically when you install Office on users’ computers.

For more information about how to use the OCT, see Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

Use the Language Preferences tool to modify language settings

If you are not enforcing language settings by policy, users who work in Office applications can use the Language Preferences tool to change their language preferences.

To change language preferences by using the Language Preferences tool

  1. On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office, and then point to Microsoft Office 2010 Tools.

  2. Click Microsoft Office 2010 Language Preferences.

  3. At the bottom of the Choose Editing Languages section, in the language list box, select the language that you want to be available for editing, and then click the Add button. Repeat this step for each editing language that you want to add.

  4. In the Choose Editing Languages section, select the language that you most often use for Office applications and documents, and then click Set as Default.

  5. In the Choose Display and Help Languages section, under Display Language, select the language that you want to use to view Office application buttons and tabs, and then click Set as Default.

  6. Under Help Language, select the language that you want to use to view Office application Help, and then click Set as Default.

    If you do not specify a language for Help, the online Help language uses the display language.

Note

Users can enable functionality for working in languages that are not installed on the computer. For example, if you select Korean as an editing language, you enable Asian and Korean features in Word even if Korean proofing tools are not installed. You must enable support for that language in the operating system.

Customize and install the Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit

This section covers how to customize and install Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit.

Note

If you only need a few proofing languages, the installation of one or two language packs might provide all the proofing tool languages that you need. Each language version of Office 2010 includes proofing tools for a set of companion languages. For more information, see Plan for proofing tools in Plan for multilanguage and Proofing Tools deployment for Office 2010.

Customize the Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit

You can specify which proofing tool languages to install by using the Proof.WW Setup file config.xml. For a list of the OptionState attributes and IDs to use, see Plan for proofing tools in Plan for multilanguage and Proofing Tools deployment for Office 2010.

To customize Setup for proofing tools

  1. In the ProofKit.WW folder, locate the Config.xml file.

  2. Open the Config.xml file by using a text editor, such as Notepad.

  3. For each set of proofing tools that you do not want to install, in the OptionState element, set the State attribute to Absent. For example, if you do not want Catalan proofing tools installed, use this syntax:

    <OptionState Id="ProofingTools_1027" State="Absent" Children="force"/>
    
  4. Set the State attribute for each set of proofing tools you want to deploy to Local (or Advertise, if preferred). For example, to deploy Basque (Basque) proofing tools, you can use this syntax:

    <OptionState Id="ProofingTools_1069" State="Local" Children="force"/>
    
  5. Save the Config.xml file.

  6. Run Setup.exe, and then specify the path of your modified Config.xml file.

    Note that you must use a fully qualified path; for example: \\server\share\Office14\Proof.WW\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office14\Proof.WW\Config.xml

    where Office14 is the root of the network installation point.

Installing the Office Proofing Tools Kit 2010 on a single computer

If you have one or two users who need proofing tools, you can install proofing tools from the Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit to individual computers.

To install the Office Proofing Tools Kit 2010 on a single computer

  1. On the Office 2010 Proofing Tools Kit CD, run Setup.exe.

  2. Read and accept the Microsoft Software License Terms, and then click Continue.

  3. To install the proofing tools for all available languages, click Install Now. The installation will begin. Otherwise, to install individual languages, click Customize.

  4. If you selected Customize, click the File Location and User Information tabs to change the information as needed. On the Installation Options tab, click the node (plus (+) sign) for the languages that you want to install, and then use the drop-down arrows to set the appropriate installation states.

  5. Click Install.