Any experiences with Microsoft Office Language Pack?
While I am very happy with my German Office (2003 that is, not 2007), and would not want to change anything due to me being very comfortable with the interface, it would be great to have an additional Excel available to produce files and screen cast in English.
Very often I see absolute basic problems and amateur solutions of how to work with Excel that I just want to scream “this is how it is done!” – but with my German Office I only can produce “German” files.
In search for a solution I came across a product called “Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007” and it seems as if I could use this to have both worlds aka both languages. I was wondering if anybody had experiences with this? From what I understand from the Microsoft page, you just take your office and install the language files on top.
But looking at some other search results it seems as if there is a need to have the English version in order to use it. Anyone out there who could confirm that this is really needed? It also seems as if I would need to have an 2007 in order for this to work properly and there is no way other than to buy an additional English Excel 2003 to get Excel 2003 in English.
In case you are wondering why I am so insisting on 2003: The interface has changed in 2007 – drastically. In case you are just a simple user of three functions, this works great for you. As a power user though it drives me nuts.
To give you a comparison of how much I do not like 2007: I despise Open Office – yes, it is a free tool and it is a great choice for a lot of people, but I am very very efficient in using Excel. I bump into so many UI glitches in OO that I just can’t stand working with it. But if I had the choice between Office 2007 only and Open Office – I would choose OO.
Thankfully I still have my older version of 2003 available. But, as noted above, only in German. Hence the language pack.
I would not mind installing another version of Excel on my machine – that would be the third then, but I assume that I cannot run Excel 2003 in German and English on the same machine. Anyone having experiences with this, please comment too, thanks. :)
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As with most of the Microsoft branding this issue gets confusing pretty fast. Here’s what I’ve been able to decipher based on my experiences.
There are 3 classes of Office products to deal w/languages:
1) Proofing Tools
– This is an add-on to the base Office product that provides spelling and grammar check is several languages but doesn’t change the UI
2) Language Interface Pack (LIP)
– LIP’s provide localized versions of the UI for specific languages only. These are usually the result of a government request (e.g., Inuktitut in Canada). They change the menu, dialogs, etc.. More info at office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/HA011133501033.aspx
3) Multi User Interface (MUI)
– MUI is really what I think you’re looking for. It’s a massive edition (6 cd’s) of Office that provides all of the UI’s that Microsoft makes. Essentially you pick and choose any of the UI’s you want.
I’ve used this version of Office to provide clients with an install of Office that allows them to switch between the English and French UI. All installed UI’s provide the spelling/grammar tools that are installed on the system, just change the language setting for the document in question.
More info on MUI is available at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HP052558331033.aspx.
Unfortunately I can’t provide too much info on how to acquire MUI other than to suggest you speak w/a local Microsoft reseller (not just a local tech shop). I’ve always acquired the products through MSDN or their corporate programs.
One additional tip: In MUI the error numbers are the same across the different UI’s but in different localized versions the error numbers change!
Hello, I have a copy of the CD you are after. During the installation you choose which languages you want Office to be displayed in and can change between them easily. Drop me a line @ pbungay @ armymail.mod.uk (without the spaces!) and I will organise a copy for you. It is 224MB so emailing it is out of the question but I’m sure we can work around it somehow?
Regards,
Paul