Troubleshoot working in a different language

Some of the content in this topic may not be applicable to some languages.

General issues

I can't find the commands for the language I want to work with.

The commands and controls don't appear if you don't have editing enabled for the language that the commands and controls apply to. You need to enable editing for the language you want to work with.

My Office file displays some text as boxes.

I changed the keyboard layout, and now shortcut keys don't work.

Changing the keyboard layout may also change shortcut keys. After you change your keyboard layout, the characters on your screen might no longer correspond to the characters printed on your keyboard. For example, you press different keys on the English (U.S.) and French keyboards to use the shortcut CTRL+Z for the Undo command. On a Greek keyboard, there is no "Z" character, so you must press the key that corresponds to a "Z" on the English (U.S.) keyboard to use the same shortcut.

User interface or Help

The ability to change the user interface or Help language is only available with Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack, which is available through volume licensing agreements. For information about obtaining or installing Office XP MUI Pack, see your system administrator.

The language I want isn't listed on the User Interface tab in the Microsoft Office Language Settings dialog box.

Your system administrator might have chosen not to allow installation of particular languages, or you might need an updated version of Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack — one that provides the global interface and translated Help in the language you want. For information about why a particular language isn't available or about how to obtain Office XP MUI Pack, see your system administrator.

I can't access menus or commands with the keyboard.

If you change the language of the user interface, the underlined letters for accessing menus, commands, and dialog box settings might also change. In rarer cases, the shortcut keys (for example, CTRL+G for Go To on the Edit menu, or CTRL+B to apply bold formatting) might also change. Look carefully at the menus and commands for the underlined letters and shortcut keys that indicate commands that change.

In cases where the shortcut key is not shown on a menu — for example, many of the CTRL key combinations for applying character formatting — install the language of Help that corresponds to the user interface language, and then ask the Office Assistant for a list of topics about keyboard shortcuts to find out what the shortcut keys are for that language.

There is no User Interface tab in the Microsoft Office Language Settings dialog box.

To view the User Interface tab, you must use Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack, which is available through volume licensing agreements. For more information, see your system administrator.

I changed the language of Help, and now I can't use the Office Assistant or Answer Wizard.

Some languages don't have Answer Wizard support.

Languages that have Answer Wizard support

The following languages have Answer Wizard support; that is, you can find Help topics by asking questions in your own words either via the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in Help.

If you are running Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows NT Workstation version 4.0, and you want to change the language of Help to a language that the Answer Wizard doesn't support, you'll get the best results if the operating system supports the language you want to change to. In this case, you can find Help topics by clicking the Index tab in Help.

I changed the language of the user interface or Help, but some components didn't change.

Some components of Microsoft Office don't support changing the language of the user interface or Help. For example, certain Microsoft Excel add-ins and Microsoft Access sample database programs are available only in the language of Office that you installed. Other components or Office programs aren't available in all languages. Finally, some languages of the user interface aren't supported by some language versions of Microsoft Windows. For example, Microsoft Outlook supports the Greek user interface only when running on a Greek version of Microsoft Windows. If Outlook is running on a non-Greek version of Windows and you select Greek as the Office user interface language, the user interface either changes to English or remains in the language of Office that you installed.