Update to article: Add or remove languages after deploying the 2007 Office system

An update to the ORK article "Add or remove languages after deploying the 2007 Office system" will be published March 5th.  In the meantime, what follows is a preview of the changes.  Why the change?  Adding a language by modifying an existing Office 2007 installation is no longer recommended - and that is because it doesn't consistently work.  So instead, you'll want to add languages by treating them as a separate product - which means you edit the language pack's config.xml file and run the language pack Setup.  Also I've added a separate section for remove as per user request or um...complaints. That is pretty much the same process as was indicated before.  If you added the language pack with the Office Setup you can remove the same way (with Office Setup and config.xml).  If you added the language as a separate product, you remove it the same way (with the language pack Setup and config.xml).  Specific instructions below!  Holler if anything is unclear.   

- Cat

Deploy language packs

If you deployed multiple 2007 Office system release products in your organization and you need to add more language support, you can deploy language packs as separate products. In this case, Setup installs language-specific elements for every product in the 2007 Office system. No matter which products users have installed, users can access the additional language versions.

For this deployment method to work, there must be at least one 2007 Office system product installed on the computer that you are deploying to.

When you deploy language packs separately, you must consider the amount of disk space that is required on users' computers. For example, the English language pack requires 600 MB for both the language pack and the installation files that are stored in the local installation source. The Japanese language pack requires 1,000 MB.

Deploy language packs

1. Copy all the files and folders in the new language pack from the source media to a location on the network. If you are using a Multilanguage Pack, you can copy just the files and folders for the languages that you want to install. When you are prompted to overwrite Setup files, click No.

You must complete the following steps for each language that you want to install.

2. In the core product folder for the language pack that you are installing, locate the Config.xml file.

For example, if you are installing the Russian language pack, find the Config.xml file in the OMUI.ru-ru folder.

3. Open Config.xml in a text editor, such as Notepad.

4. Find the <Display> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

5. Set the value of the Level to “basic” or “none”, CompletionNotice to “yes”, SuppressModal to “yes”, and AcceptEula to “yes”.

The line should look like this:

6. Find the <AddLanguage> element. Uncomment the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

7. Set the value of the Id attribute to the language tag that corresponds to the language that you want to install.

For example, to add the Russian language version, the line should look like this:

8. Save the Config.xml file. Run the language pack Setup from the root of the network installation point for the Multilanguage Pack or Single Language Pack (SLP), and specify the path of your modified Config.xml file on the command line. For example:

\servershareOffice12SLPSetup.exe /Config \servershareOffice12SLPRUOMUI.ru-ruConfig.xml

where Office12SLP is the root of the network installation point for the language packs and RU is the language folder name.

You must complete the previous steps for each language that you want to install.

Language-specific elements for Microsoft Office Project 2007 and Microsoft Office Visio 2007 are installed separately. In each language pack, the core product folder for Office Project 2007 is PMUI.ll-cc. The core product folder for Office Visio 2007 is VisMUI.ll-cc.

For information about how to create a network installation point with multiple languages, see Customize and deploy multiple language versions of the 2007 Office system.

For a complete list of language tags, see Language identifiers in the 2007 Office system.

To deploy these languages for new 2007 Office system installations, see Specify which languages to install and re-create any existing customization MSP files. A static list of the products contained in the installation source is built only during the initial creation of a customization patch. If you later add more languages to the installation source, the existing patch is not updated to reflect this change.

Remove language packs

The steps to remove language packs are similar to the deployment of language packs. Instead of using the <AddLanguage> tag, use the <RemoveLanguage> tag.

You must complete the following steps for each language that you want to remove.

Remove language packs

1. If the language was deployed with the Office product (not as a separate product), locate the Config.xml file in the core product folder for the product that you are updating.

For example, if you are removing languages from an installation of Microsoft Office Standard 2007, find the Config.xml file in the Standard.WW folder.

Otherwise, locate the Config.xml file in the core product folder for the language pack that you are removing.

For example, if you are removing the Russian language pack, find the Config.xml file in the OMUI.ru-ru folder.

2. Open Config.xml in a text