Add or remove language packs after deployment of Office 2013

Article
04/21/2016

Applies to: Office 2013

Summary: Add or remove Office 2013 language packs by modifying an existing installation or by deploying them as separate products.

Audience: IT Professionals

You can add or remove language packs for an existing Office 2013 installation. This article describes the two methods that you can use to complete these tasks and how to view a list of the languages that are installed.

Important

This article describes methods to deploy and manage language packs for the Windows Installer-based (MSI) delivery format of Office 2013, available for enterprise organizations through volume licensing. If you have an Office subscription and you are deploying Office 365 ProPlus (which uses the Click-to-Run delivery format), see Plan for multilanguage deployment of Click-to-Run-based Office installations.

In this article:

Overview
Before you begin
Modify an existing installation
Deploy language packs
Remove language packs
Identify installed languages

Overview

Office 2013 language packs enable Office applications to display menus, dialog boxes, Help topics, and other text in the user interface in multiple languages. Although the most frequently deployed languages for Office 2013 are released at the same time as the product is released, many other Office 2013 Language Packs are released over time. The Office 2013 Multi-Language Pack, which includes all available language packs, is not released until after all the individual language packs are released. However, if you upgrade your multilingual organization to Office 2013 before all the language packs are released, you can always add or remove additional languages at any time. The Office 2013 Multi-Language Pack and Office 2013 Proofing Tools Kit CDs for Office 2013 are available through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs.

There are two methods that you can use to add languages after you deploy Office 2013:

Modify an existing installation. When you use this recommended method, a language is treated as another feature to add to a deployment of Office 2013. This method involves combining the language resources with the source of the original installed Office 2013 product, changing the Config.xml file to add the appropriate languages, and rerunning Setup.exe from the Office 2013 installation source. This method installs only the necessary language parts for the products that are installed on the user's computer. For example, if you add Japanese to a basic installation of Office 2013 that does not include Visio 2013, the Visio 2013 resources for Japanese are not installed.

However, if the computer has both Office 2013 and Visio 2013 installed on it, you must add the Japanese resources for each product through two separate operations because there are two separate installation sources, one for Office 2013, and the other for Visio 2013.
Deploy language packs as separate products. This method involves running the language pack’s Setup file so that the full Language Pack is installed on the computer rather than modifying an existing installation of Office 2013, which is what the first method does. Deploying language packs is appropriate when you want to add languages after a deployment of Office 2013 but do not know which Office 2013 products are currently installed on users' computers. To use this method, you must have at least one Office 2013 product installed on the computer.

Note

Language-specific elements for Project 2013 and Visio 2013 are installed separately. You must rerun the Language Pack setup for these products. For more information, see Deploy language packs later in this article

Before you begin

It is important to determine which languages will be used 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 Office 2013 Language Packs that you want to deploy to the network installation point that contains the Office product files. For example, \\server\share\Office15. A static list of the products that are contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization .msp file. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing .msp file is not updated to reflect this change. Addressing this issue involves the following steps:

Create a new customization file by using the Office Customization Tool (OCT).
Import your existing customization .msp file by using the File \| Import command in the OCT.
Make any additional customizations that you want and then save the .msp file.
After you update the installation source with additional languages, deploy the new .msp file to users.

Failure to create and deploy a new .msp file might result in unexpected behavior, because the changes to an existing customization .msp file do not apply to the languages that are added. If you do not create a new .msp file and import the existing .msp file into that file, your deployment may test correctly in your lab. But users might not see the new language in their Office 2013 applications, or they might see only a subset of the language features. For more information, see To import a customization .msp file to add languages to an existing installation in the article Import an Office 2013 Setup customization file (although this article was written for Office 2010, the concepts and procedures it provides also apply to Office 2013) and Use Office Customization Tool (OCT) to change users' configurations after installing Office 2013.

For information about how to create a network installation point with multiple languages, see Customize language setup and settings for Office 2013.

Modify an existing installation

The recommended method for adding languages to an existing installation of Office 2013 is to run Setup again and modify the existing Office installation. Because you are only modifying the original installation, no new entry appears in Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

You cannot replace the language of the shell user interface (Shell UI) that was installed during the initial installation. The Shell UI includes core elements of Office that register with the operating system, such as file name extensions, Tool Tips, and right-click menu items.

When you update a multilanguage installation, you can specify that the new language matches the user locale that is set on the local computer. For example, if your organization includes both English-speaking and Russian-speaking users, you might first deploy English to everyone. Later, when the Russian language pack becomes available, you can add the following line to Config.xml:

<AddLanguage Id="match" />

In this case, Setup installs Russian language elements on any computer that has the user locale set to Russian. Users who have an English user locale are not affected.

To deploy additional languages after Office is installed

Copy the files and folders in the new language packs from the source media to the original network installation point. When you are prompted to overwrite Setup files, choose No.

Each language pack includes language-specific elements for every product in Office 2013. However, Setup installs language-specific elements only for the Office product that you are updating.
In the core product folder for the product that you are updating, locate the Config.xml file.

For example, if you are adding languages to an installation of Office Professional Plus 2013, find the Config.xml file in the ProPlus.WW folder.
Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.
Find the <AddLanguage> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening  tags.
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.

For example, to add the Russian language pack, the line should resemble the following example:
```
<AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" />
```
If you add more than one language in Config.xml, you must specify one language as the language for the Shell UI. For example:
```
<AddLanguage Id="ru-ru" ShellTransform="yes" />
<AddLanguage Id="en-us" />
```
You must specify a ShellUI language, even though Setup does not change the ShellUI language that was set for the initial installation.
Save the Config.xml file. Run Setup.exe and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file.

You must use a full qualified path. For example: \\server\share\Office15\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office15\ProPlus.WW\Config.xml

where Office15 is the root of the network installation point.

Because Setup also recognizes language packs as separate products, make sure that you specify the Config.xml file for the Office product that you are updating, and not the language pack.

To deploy these languages for new Office 2013 installations, see Specify which languages to install in the article Customize language setup and settings for Office 2013 and import existing customization .msp files into a new customization .msp file. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization file. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing customization file is not updated to reflect this change. For more information, see To import a customization .msp file to add languages to an existing installation in the article Import an Office 2013 Setup customization file (although this article was written for Office 2010, the concepts and procedures it provides also apply to Office 2013).

Deploy language packs

If you deployed multiple Office 2013 products in your organization and you must add more language support, you can deploy language packs as separate products. In this case, Setup installs language-specific elements for every product in Office 2013. 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 Office 2013 product installed on the computer that you are deploying to.

When you deploy language packs separately, you must consider the disk space that is required on users' computers. Language pack requirements range from 800MB to 1.5 GB of hard disk space that is needed.

Language-specific elements for Project 2013 and Visio 2013 are installed separately. In each language pack, the core product folder for Project 2013 is PMUI.ll-cc. The core product folder for Visio 2013 is VisMUI.ll-cc.

To deploy language packs

Copy all files and folders in the new language pack from the source media to a location on the network. If you are using an Office 2013 Multi-Language 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, choose No.
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.
Run the language pack Setup from the root of the network installation point for the Office 2013 Multi-Language Pack or Office 2013 Language Pack, and specify the path of the Config.xml file on the command line. For example:

\\server\share\Office15\LP\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office15\LP\RU\OMUI.ru-ru\Config.xml

where Office15\LP is the root of the network installation point for the language packs and RU is the language folder name.

Complete the previous steps for each language that you want to install.

To deploy these languages for new Office 2013 installations, see Specify which languages to install in Customize language setup and settings for Office 2013 and import existing customization .msp files into a new customization .msp file. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization file. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing customization file is not updated to reflect this change. For more information, see To import a customization .msp file to add languages to an existing installation in the article Import an Office 2013 Setup customization file (although this article was written for Office 2010, the concepts and procedures it provides also apply to Office 2013).

Remove language packs

If the Office 2013 Language Packs were deployed as separate products, they can be removed by using Windows Add or Remove Programs.

If the Office 2013 Language Packs were deployed with Office 2013 and not as separate products, the procedure to remove them resembles the deployment of the Language Packs. Instead of using the <AddLanguage> tag, use the <RemoveLanguage> tag. See the following procedure for the specific steps.

You must follow these steps for each language that you want to remove.

To remove language packs

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 Office Professional Plus 2013, find the Config.xml file in the ProPlus.WW folder.
Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.
Find the <Display> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening  tags.
Set the value of the Level to "basic" or "none", CompletionNotice to "yes", SuppressModal to "yes", and AcceptEula to "yes".

The line should resemble the following example:
```
<Display Level="basic" CompletionNotice="yes" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />
```
Find the <AddLanguage> element. If it is in the file, comment out the line by adding opening  tags around the element.

The line should resemble the following example:
```

```
Add the <RemoveLanguage> element.
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 pack, the line should resemble the following example:
```
<RemoveLanguage Id="ru-ru" />
```
Save the Config.xml file.
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\Office15\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office15\ProPlus.WW\Config.xml

where Office15 is the root of the network installation point.

\\server\share\Office15\LP\Setup.exe /Config \\server\share\Office15\LP\RU\OMUI.ru-ru\Config.xml

where Office15\LP 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

In the registry, you can view a list of languages that are installed for Office 2013 either during the initial installation or during a separate installation of a language pack.

Although all applications in Office 2013 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 Office 2013 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 Word 2013 and Excel 2013 installed in French, but another Office 2013 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.

To identify installed languages

Open the registry.
Expand the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources\EnabledLanguages.
The LCID for the language is displayed. To identify the language, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2013.
To view the UI language, view the following registry key values and refer to Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2013.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources\HelpLanguage
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources\UILanguage
To view the fallback languages, view the registry key value for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources\UIFallback. To identify the language, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2013.