Proofing Tools for Office XP Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Proofing Tools for Office XP.

What are the Proofing Tools for Office XP?

Proofing Tools for Office XP are a collection of editing technologies that enable users to proof Office documents in more than 40 different languages. The tools include spelling and grammar checkers, AutoCorrect lists, AutoSummarize capabilities for Microsoft Word, Input Method Editors (IMEs) for East Asian languages, and more. The Proofing Tools for Office XP are contained on a single CD and can be added on to any Office XP suite or individual program.

In the United States, the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD is available to order online. Outside the United States, the Proofing Tools CD is available in stores.

Note: Not all tools are available for all languages; see this table for details.

What's new and improved in Proofing Tools for Office XP?

• Improved: Grammar checking
• New: Proofing and editing tools for Galician, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Welsh.
• New: Bilingual translation dictionaries, speech recognition engines, and handwriting engines for certain languages.
• New: IMEs for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese can now be installed during the main setup process.

What's the difference between the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD and the proofing tools that already come with Office XP?

The Proofing Tools for Office XP CD enables you to proof documents in more than 40 languages—far more than you can with any localized version of Office XP.

The languages are: Arabic, Basque, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Iberian Portuguese, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Welsh.

Each localized version of Office XP contains between two and six sets of proofing tools for the languages used most often by local speakers, as shown in the following table.

What's the difference between Office XP with Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Pack and Proofing Tools for Office XP?

Proofing Tools for Office XP are designed for retail customers and extend the global functionality of Office by providing editing technologies for more than 40 languages. Office XP with MUI Pack includes the Proofing Tools for Office XP and further extends global functionality for large organizations by permitting easy switching of the user interface and Help files to more than 30 languages. Multinational companies can use the MUI Pack to enable mobile users and others to share workstations regardless of their language and to enable centralized global help desks to switch language interfaces on their computer screens to match those of their customers.

Companies that decide to deploy localized versions of Office XP rather than Office XP with MUI Pack—but still want to distribute proofing tools for more than 40 languages to their employees—can install the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD over any localized version of Office XP.

This graphic shows the relationship between Proofing Tools and MUI Packs:

Can the proofing tools be used with any local-language version of Office XP?

Yes. However, the Setup program for the Proofing Tools is localized into the following languages only: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Are proofing tools only available in six languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese)?

No. Proofing tools are available for 48 languages on one CD. The language of the Proofing Tools product (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese) refers to the language of the setup installation dialog boxes. Once proofing tools are installed, they will work transparently in your Office programs.

What specific proofing tools are available for each language?

This table shows the details for each language.

What capabilities does the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD provide for Asian and right-to-left languages?

It includes the following new features:

• Input Method Editors (IMEs), which convert the phonetic or symbolic text you type into the appropriate Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters.
• Word breakers, which help you highlight words in Chinese and Japanese—languages that don't use blank spaces to delineate words.
• Chinese translator, which enables you to convert Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese and vice versa in Word.
• Bilingual dictionaries to help you to translate between English and Arabic, English and Hebrew, and English and Simplified Chinese.
• Hanja dictionary and Hangul/Hanja converter for Korean. You can use the dictionary to view information about your text, such as the pronunciation, meaning, and number of strokes for the Hanja displayed on the screen. The Hangul/Hanja converter enables you to convert Hanja to Hangul or vice versa in a Word document.
• Additional fonts for Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

How can I get the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD?

In the 50 United States and Washington, D.C., the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD is available to order online only and is not available in retail stores. Outside the United States, Proofing Tools will be available in stores.

The estimated retail price for the Proofing Tools for Office XP CD is $79.95 US.

Corporations and other organizations can obtain the Proofing Tools through an appropriate volume licensing arrangement. Open License customers can obtain licenses through either a local or mail-order reseller or retailer. Select and Enterprise Agreement customers can obtain Proofing Tools for Office XP through their normal distribution processes.

Multinational organizations might want to consider purchasing a license for Office XP with MUI Pack, which includes the Proofing Tools for Office XP. To find out more, visit the Options for Using Office XP in Multiple Languages page.

Why should I upgrade from my current version of Proofing Tools?

If you have upgraded the rest of your Office software to Office XP, you should also upgrade your proofing tools to get the latest features and languages available. See the table above for the complete list of what you'll get when you upgrade to Proofing Tools for Office XP.

Will my Office 2000, Office 97, Office 95, or Office 4.x proofing tools work with Office XP?

Previous versions of proofing tools designed for earlier versions of Office may not work with Office XP or will have limited functionality. If your proofing tools do not work, please consult the Microsoft Knowledge Base or contact Microsoft Product Support Services.

If you have Office 2000 with Proofing Tools for Office 2000 installed, and you upgrade to Office XP, your proofing tools will continue to work. If, however, you install Office XP and then Proofing Tools for Office 2000 afterward, your proofing tools will not work in Office XP.

Do I need Proofing Tools to have Language AutoDetect functionality in Word?

No. If you have enabled the languages for editing, Word version 2002 Language AutoDetect automatically recognizes more than 40 languages whether or not you have Proofing Tools installed. However, you will need the Proofing Tools to verify spelling and grammar in different languages. After you have enabled editing in the languages you use and you have installed the appropriate proofing tools, Word 2002 will be able to automatically detect that language in documents and apply the correct proofing tools.

If proofing tools for the languages you've enabled are not included in your version of Office XP (see list above), Language AutoDetect will still function, but you will not be able to proof text in that language. To do that, you will need to obtain Proofing Tools for Office XP.