spell-check and grammar in French and Spanish (2007)

[AlanChris]

I have two computers. Both have Word 2003 and 2007 installed. I can spell-check and use proofing tools for Word 2003 on both computers. I am perplexed about Word 2007. On my laptop I can take the following steps: Review>Set Language>Language. I cannot do this on the desktop. I know that Microsoft has an optional language pack for 2007. I did not buy it. Therefore, I must have done something to enable the spell-check and proofing tools on the laptop. I am wondering what I must have done. I would like to do the same thing on the desktop. Any ideas?
Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

[HansV]

Support for French and Spanish are included in the English-language version of Office 2007. Are the options that you mention absent on the desktop, or are they present but disabled?

[HansV]

In addition to my previous reply: you can specify for which languages proofing tools are installed in the Add/Remove Programs control panel:
- Select 2007 Microsoft Office System.
- Click Change.
- Click Add or Remove Components.
- Expand Shared Office Components (or something similar).
- Expand Proofing Tools.
- You should see English, French and Spanish.
- Make sure that each of them is installed.

[AlanChris]

Thank you, Hans. I do see how I can set the language on the desktop. What is confusing to me is that when I click on the Review tab, I do not see Set Language in the Proofing section. I do see it on the laptop.
.........................................
I think I just noticed something: the Set Language icon is there but not the words. I do admit that the Proofing section is wider on the laptop. Could that be the reason? Also, is there an advantage to going to the Control Panel to set the language?
Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

[HansV]

I don't have Office 2007 myself so I don't know how exactly the ribbon works. I hope that someone else who does have Office 2007 can help you with this.

[Andrew Lockton]

One of the rare good things about Word 2007 is the way the Ribbon degrades gracefully as the window width decreases. At full width, the ribbon can show large icons and full text however if the window width would cause some items to disappear off the screen then some buttons lose their text but retain their icons so you can still see them all. As the width decreases, more text disappears until the ribbon is finally is squashed enough that it has to collapse a frame into a single dropdown which can be expanded to see all the icons and text in all their full-width glory.

If you hover over where you expect to see the icon you should see screen tips to help you identify the button you are after.

[AlanChris]

Thank you both, Hans and Andrew. I do appreciate it. I have three questions.
1) Is there an advantage to going to the Control Panel to set the language or is doing it through the program the same thing?
2) What advantage is there in getting the language pack?
3) Does Word 2007 offer support for Italian, or must that be done by buying the language pack? Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

[HansV]

1) Word uses the language set in the Regional Options and Language Settings control panel as the default language.
2) and 3) The English-language version of Microsoft Office offers support for English (obviously), French and Spanish, but not for other languages - see The 2007 Microsoft Office suites localized versions. So if you want to be able to perform spell checking in Italian in the English-language version of Office 2007, you should get the Italian language pack (which will also add support for German). The Microsoft article mentioned above has a link to the Language pack page.

[AlanChris]

Thank you, Hans. I'm still confused about the answer to my first question. What is the difference between going to the Control Panel and going to Language settings within the program?
Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

[HansV]

In the Control Panel, you set language preferences for the entire system.

Within Word, you can specify the language for a document or for part of a document. Your default language will probably be English, but you may want to write a letter in Spanish or include a French citation in an English document. Word can perform spell and grammar checking for the languages supported by your installation.

[AlanChris]

Thank you again, Hans. However, when I mentioned the Control Panel, I was referring to the instructions given in an earlier post.

you can specify for which languages proofing tools are installed in the Add/Remove Programs control panel:
- Select 2007 Microsoft Office System.
- Click Change.
- Click Add or Remove Components.
- Expand Shared Office Components (or something similar).
- Expand Proofing Tools.
- You should see English, French and Spanish.
- Make sure that each of them is installed.

These instructions refer only to Office. So, is there a difference between this set of instructions and changing the language settings from within the program? Were you referring to this set of instructions or to something else in the Control Panel in the previous response?
Thank you, again.
Alan Silberlight

[HansV]

Sorry about the misunderstanding. I was thinking of the Regional Options and Language Settings control panel.

The instructions that you quote determine which languages will be supported in Office applications. As mentioned several times before, the English language version of Office comes with support for English, French and Spanish, but you can decide not to install (or to remove) one or more of these. For example, if you don't install French, you won't be able to perform spell checking on French text within Word.

[AlanChris]

Thank you again, Hans. However, I am still confused. At the lower left-hand corner of the screen, when I use Word, it says English. When I click on that word, a box that says language opens up. I am able to select quite a variety of languages. What is the difference between doing that and going to Proofing Tools in the Add/Remove section.? That is the point that I am not understanding, especially since I can select many languages, including Italian.
Thank you very much
Alan Silberlight

[HansV]

Once again: if you select 2007 Microsoft Office System in the Add/Remove Programs control panel, click Change etc., you can specify which languages are installed, i.e. which languages will be supported within the Office applications. You should see English, French and Spanish.

Regardless of which languages have been installed, the Language dialog in Word will list ALL possible languages (from Afrikaans to Zulu in my Office XP). You will see a check mark to the left of the languages for which spell checking is available, i.e. the languages installed using the steps mentioned above. You can select a language that has no check mark, for example Czech. The selected text will be marked as Amharic, but you won't be able to perform a spell check on that text. (However, if you send the document to someone who has installed support for Czech, that user will be able to spell check the text.)

If you have the English Language version of Office, there should be check marks next to the variants of English, French and Spanish, but not next to the variants of Italian. So you can perform a spell check on English, French or Spanish text, but not on Italian text.

If you want support for Italian, you have to buy and install the Language pack for Italian. If you do so, Italian (and German, which is included in the Language pack for Italian) will be listed in the Add or Remove Components dialog. And within Word, you'll see a check mark next to the variants of Italian and German, meaning that you can now spell check Italian text.

[AlanChris]

Thank you very much, Hans. I now have a better understanding. Thank you for taking the time. I do appreciate it. I do understand that one must buy the language pack to do proofing in Italian in Word 2007. Am I correct in assuming that If one has Word 2003 or 2002 the proofing tools are automatically part of Word? I do not recall any extra packs for former versions of Word.
Thanks again.
Alan Silberlight
P.S. I am a retired Spanish and French teacher. I have somewhat come out of retirement to teach French. There are many Italian teachers in my department. That is why I need this information. The school has Office 2003. Some of them have 2007 at home.