March 22, 1999

Microsoft Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack allows you to deploy a single version of Office around the world. One core product now supports offices as far-flung as Tokyo and Toronto.

By taking advantage of the new international design of Office 2000, you can deploy a single version of Office to all users, regardless of their language-speaking area. You can customize the installation to include local language capabilities, or you can let users install and run language features when and where they need them.

Language-specific features in the Microsoft Office 2000 MultiLanguage Pack are stored separately from the core Office application, primarily in dynamic-link library (DLL) files. These plug-in language features give users new flexibility. For example:

• Users can work with the standard English user interface, but switch online Help to a more familiar language, such as Japanese or French.
• Offices that upgrade to Office 2000 can run multilingual macros created in previous versions of Microsoft Excel.
• Users in multilingual offices can type Asian characters in Microsoft Word documents created in English.

The combination of core functionality plus plug-in language capabilities offers particular advantages for busy administrators in large, multinational organizations.

More efficient deployment and maintenance   All Office 2000 installations look and behave the same way, regardless of the language area in which they are installed.

Flexible deployment strategies   You can deploy language-specific custom installations from a centralized location, or deploy Office across your international organization and allow each administrative department to customize the installation for its language-speaking area.

Smoother upgrade process   Office 2000 is based on Unicode, an international character-encoding standard. Unicode allows users who are upgrading to Office 2000 to more easily share documents across language versions of Office.

Better support for roaming users   Users who travel between international offices can run Office in their own language wherever they go – and you can remove unnecessary language files when users move on.

Localized versions of Office 2000 still available

In addition to the Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack configurations, Office 2000 is still localized in many languages for users who want to work with all Office features in their own language.

Localized versions of Office 2000 are compatible with Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack. Most localized versions are based on the same code as the international core. Users of one language version can easily share documents created in other language versions.

Related Links

For more information about customizing your deployment of Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack, see Deploying Office in a Multinational Setting.

For more information about the contents of the MultiLanguage Pack and the available language settings, see Overview of International Features in Office 2000.