July 16, 1999

In international editions of Microsoft Office 2000, you can use the MultiLanguage Pack to switch the language of the user interface or Office Help from English to any other supported language. For example, you might standardize on an English user interface, but allow users to switch Office Help to a more familiar language.

If your organization works in a multilingual environment, the new Office 2000 Command Translator can assist users who want to find commands in Help, or who need to use the information they find in Help to work with the user interface.

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Toolbox   The Office Resource Kit includes the Office 2000 Command Translator (CmdLang.exe). See the Office 2000 Command Translator section of the Toolbox and download the file CmdLang.exe.

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Using the Command Translator

As an administrator, you can use the Command Translator to create a list of command names and translations, and then distribute the list to users. Users consult the list to look up translations for menu and toolbar commands.

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 Note    The Office 2000 Command Translator can help you translate commands for any language version of Office 2000, even U.S. English. You can use the Command Translator whether you are using standard Office 2000 or the MultiLanguage Pack, and whether you are an administrator for a large organization, a small business owner, or a standalone user.

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The Office 2000 Command Translator includes more than 4,300 commands with translations in the following 29 languages.

When you install the Command Translator, the tool creates a translation database and saves it on your hard drive. You use Microsoft Access 2000 to open the database and view translations for menu and toolbar commands. You can also export the database to Microsoft Excel 2000 to view translations in more than two languages.

Translate command names between languages

You use Microsoft Access 2000 to find the translation for one or more Office 2000 commands between any two supported languages.

To look up translations by using Access 2000

1. In Microsoft Access 2000, open the CmdLang.mdb database.
2. In the Source language box, select the language to translate from.
3. In the Target language box, select the language to translate to.
4. In the Please type a command in source language to search box, type the command you want to translate.

   For example, to translate the Open command (File menu) from English to German, select English as the source language, German as the target language, and type Open as the source language command.

Look up command names in two or more languages

You can look up translations between two or more languages by using the Create Translation Workbook command in the Command Translator tool, and then viewing the workbook data in Excel 2000.

To look up translations for two or more languages

1. In Access 2000, open the CmdLang.mdb database and click Create Translation Workbook.
2. In the Available Languages box, select the languages you want to translate between, and use the arrow buttons to add them to the Select Languages and Order box.

   The first language listed in the Select Languages and Order box is the designated source language, and this language is listed first in the translation workbook.

3. Click the Excel button to create the translation workbook.

   The workbook is named O2000cmd.xls and is automatically saved in the same directory as CmdLang.mdb. If a workbook already exists with the same name, it is overwritten with the new workbook.

4. In Excel 2000, open the O2000cmd.xls file and view the translations.

   Translations are listed in the sort order for the source language. For example, if the source language is English, the translations are sorted from A to Z according to the English command name.

Viewing translations for languages that use a nonLatin alphabet

The Microsoft Office Language Settings tool, which comes with Office 2000, installs the fonts and code page information that are necessary to view characters from Asian, Eastern European, and right-to-left languages. If your translations include commands in any of these languages, you must add the languages to Language Settings.

To add languages to Language Settings

1. On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office Language Settings.
2. Click the Enabled Languages tab, and select the check boxes next to the languages you want to add.

Related links

For more information about using the Office 2000 MultiLanguage Pack in your organization, see Features of the MultiLanguage Pack in the Office 2000 Resource Kit.