The Office XP Alternative User Input Update: KB832668 (Updated Nov. 9th, 2004) provides the latest updates to the Alternative User Input. This update contains significant security enhancements as well as stability and performance improvements. This update requires a reboot of the users' computer after it is applied, and it does not apply to users of Microsoft® Windows® XP or Windows Server 2003.

For complete information please, see Description of the Office XP Input Method Editor Update: March 9, 2004.

Toolbox   The full-file version of Office XP Alternative User Input Update: KB832668 (Updated Nov. 9th, 2004) consists of one Windows Installer patch file packaged in a self-extracting executable (officexp-kb832668-v2-fullfile-enu.exe). You can find this downloadable file on the Office XP Resource Kit Downloads page.

Strategies for updating your Office XP installations

Administrative updates provide full-file replacement of all files changed by a service pack or product update. They can be used in one of two ways:

• To update an administrative installation point.

  After the administrative image is patched, users recache and reinstall Office on their computers from that point. Users must be able to connect to the administrative image on the network.

• To update client computers directly.

  Because administrative updates install complete files, rather than patched files, the administrative update can correctly replace any files that have been modified with previous updates without requiring the source. So users can apply them even when they do not have access to an administrative installation point or the CD.

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   Note    In some cases, users applying a full-file patch might be prompted for the source. For example, if a user has a corrupt Office file and a new version of that file is not included in the update, then Office will prompt the user for the source. In Office 2000, unversioned files and multilingual files can also result in a source requirement.

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Applying full-file patches to clients

The recommended method for distributing the administrative version of the Office XP Alternative User Input update is to apply it directly to client computers. This approach allows you to maintain an unmodified baseline administrative image and manage the patching process on the client side. In this scenario, client computers do not become unsynchronized with a patched administrative image, and tasks such as install on demand and detect and repair continue to work correctly regardless of which patches users have applied.

 Note   In Microsoft Office XP, only full-file updates released after Office XP Service Pack 2 (including Office XP SP2 itself) can be applied directly to client computers. Previous full-file updates were designed to update administrative images and fail when applied to client installations.

For more information about applying administrative patches directly to client computers, see Strategies for Updating Office 2000 Installations.

Patching an administrative installation point

If you support users in an environment where Office can be recached and reinstalled promptly each time the administrative installation point is patched, you may choose to apply the Office XP Alternative User Input update to the administrative image and then recache and reinstall Office on client computers. If you can impose a consistent update process throughout your organization, this method has the additional benefit of automatically giving new clients who install from the administrative image the updated version. However, if there is a delay in updating some clients, they become unsynchronized with the patched administrative image.

For detailed procedures on how to update an administrative installation point and then recache and reinstall Office on client computers, see Deploying Product Updates from an Administrative Installation Point.

Applying binary patches to clients

An alternative to using the administrative update is to apply the binary (client) version of the Office XP Alternative User Input update directly to users' computers within your organization. This approach may be useful if you have experienced synchronization problems between your administrative installation points and your client computers. Details on this strategy are covered in the topic Distributing Office 2000 Client Updates to Users. The client version of the Office XP Alternative User Input Update: KB832668 is available from the Microsoft Download Center.

 Note    To install client update files, you must be running Windows Installer version 2.0 or later on your computers. Windows Installer 2.0 is included by default in Microsoft Windows® XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. For organizations running previous versions of Windows, it is available as a separate download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Windows Installer 2.0 for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME

Windows Installer 2.0 for Windows NT 4.0 (SP-6) and Windows 2000

Files changed by the Office XP Alternative User Input update

The following table lists the files changed by the full-file Office XP Alternative User Input update. If you need to confirm whether a share was updated, you can check for a related file version number.

List of features updated by the Office XP Alternative User Input update

If you update your administrative installation point and recache and reinstall Office XP on client computers, you run a command line that includes the REINSTALL=[list of features] property. This property specifies whether you want to reinstall specific features or reinstall all applications on the administrative image.

For the Office XP Alternative User Input update, the value for [list of features] is as follows:

For the short patch name, the value for [list of features] is as follows:

Chinese (Pan), Chinese (Traditional), Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian

CiceroFiles

Bulgarian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian

CiceroFiles,TranslationFiles_1031

Portugeuse (Portugal)

CiceroFiles,TranslationFiles_1036,TranslationFiles_3082

Czech, Danish, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian, Swedish

TranslationFiles_1031,CiceroFiles

Greek, Turkish

TranslationFiles_1031,TranslationFiles_1036,CiceroFiles

French

TranslationFiles_1031,TranslationFiles_1036,CiceroFiles,TranslationFiles_1025

German, Italian

TranslationFiles_1031,TranslationFiles_1036,TranslationFiles_1040,CiceroFiles

Dutch, Romanian, Thai

TranslationFiles_1036,CiceroFiles

English, Spanish

TranslationFiles_3082,TranslationFiles_1036,CiceroFiles

Arabic

TranslationFiles_1036,CiceroFiles,TranslationFiles_1025

Hebrew

TranslationFiles_1036,CiceroFiles,TranslationFiles_1037

Korean

TranslationFiles_1042,CiceroFiles

Chinese Simplified

TranslationFiles_2052,CiceroFiles

Portugeuse (Brazil)

TranslationFiles_3082,CiceroFiles

Japanese

For Japanese Microsoft Office XP Personal Edition, Office XP Professional Plus Edition, Office XP Professional Edition, Office XP Professional Edition Retail Edition, Office XP Standard Edition, Office XP Standard Edition Retail Edition, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack:

TranslationFiles_1041,CiceroFiles,IMEMain

Optionally, you can substitute the parameter REINSTALL=ALL to reinstall all Office components on the client computer. For detailed procedures on how to patch an administrative image and update client computers, see Deploying Product Updates from an Administrative Installation Point.

Localized versions of the Office XP Alternative User Input update

Localized versions of this patch are available in the following languages and can be downloaded from the Office 2003 Resource Kit Localized Downloads page:

Related link

For complete information please, see Description of the Office XP Input Method Editor Update: March 9, 2004.