This article covers the options for deploying languages for Microsoft 365 Apps, including what method to use, where to deploy languages from, how to deploy proofing tools, and best practices. We recommend using this article as part of planning your Office deployment.
The guidance in this article applies to the following Office products:
You can't use language resources for Windows Installer (MSI) versions of Office with Microsoft 365 Apps, which uses Click-to-Run. For example, you can't use language packs downloaded from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) with Microsoft 365 Apps.
In general, you deploy languages for Microsoft 365 Apps with the same process and tools that you use to deploy Office itself. You can deploy multiple languages by including those languages directly in the Office packages, or you can deploy languages as a separate package, after Office is already installed. The steps in this article assume that you're deploying with Configuration Manager or the Office Deployment Tool, and that you use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to create the configuration files for your deployment. If a setting isn't yet available in the OCT, steps are given for creating the configuration file in a text editor.
Best practices for deploying languagesWhen deploying multiple languages in a large organization, we recommend these best practices:
This article also includes the list of supported languages and details on how Office conserves network bandwidth when downloading language packs for deployment.
Install languages from the Office 365 portalIf your organization allows it, users can install Microsoft 365 Apps languages directly from the Office 365 portal. When users install Office from the Software page, they select a language from the Language drop-down box. If a user needs another language, they can just rerun the process for each required language. The setup adds the selected language to the user's device.
Deploy multiple languages as part of deploying OfficeTo deploy Microsoft 365 Apps in multiple languages, you need to include the other languages in the Office packages you create. To do so, select the languages you want to deploy in the Language section when creating the configuration file in the Office Customization Tool.
If you deploy Office from a local source on your network, you must download your languages to that source, in the same way that you download the Office package. For more information, see Download the installation files for Microsoft 365 Apps. When deploying from a local source, we recommend that you use the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) as a backup source for language packs.
For more information on standard deployments, see Plan your enterprise deployment of Microsoft 365 Apps.
When you select a primary language in the Office Customization Tool, it sets the language for displaying shortcuts, right-click context menus, and tooltips, known as the Shell UI language. To change the Shell UI language after installing Office, you need to uninstall and then reinstall Office.
Deploy languages to existing installations of Microsoft 365 AppsAfter deploying Microsoft 365 Apps, you can deploy more languages for Office. To do so, use the same process and tools you used to deploy Office, such as Configuration Manager or the Office Deployment Tool.
When you add to an existing deployment, the ODT can automatically detect the architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) and source location (Office CDN or local source) used by the current Microsoft 365 Apps installation. This means you don't have to specify these values when creating the configuration file. As a result, a single configuration file can serve multiple deployment groups. However, when using the Office Customization Tool, you must specify all these values. Therefore, this feature is available only if you create the configuration file using a text editor.
Allow users who aren't admins to install another languageUsers need local administrator permissions on their devices to install other languages for Office by default. However, to enable users without local admin rights to install a new language, activate the policy setting 'Allow users who aren't admins to install language accessory packs.'
You can use either Group Policy or Cloud Policy to enable the policy setting. In the Group Policy Management tool, you can find the policy setting under User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016\Language Preferences\Display Language.
The policy setting applies to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Users can install another language by going to File > Options > Language > Office display language > Add a Language... in their Office app.
Note
If you're using a local source to deploy Office, we recommend that you use the AllowCdnFallback attribute in your configuration.xml file. This attribute enables you to use the Office CDN on the internet as a backup source location for the language files if they aren't available on your local source. For more information, see Use the Office CDN as a backup source for language packs.
Note
If you enable the "Delay downloading and installing updates for Office" policy setting, user installations of languages are also delayed by the number of days specified in the policy setting.
Each language version of Microsoft 365 Apps includes proofing tools for a set of companion languages. For example, when you deploy the English version of Office, users receive proofing tools for English, Spanish, and French. These proofing tools include spelling and grammar checkers, thesauruses, and hyphenators. They might also include language-specific editing features such as Language AutoDetect, AutoSummarize, and Intelligent AutoCorrect.
If you want to deploy proofing tools in other languages beyond the companion languages, you can deploy the full language pack for that language or you can deploy just the proofing tools for that language. Many administrators choose to deploy just the proofing tools to conserve bandwidth on the network and speed up installation on client computers.
To deploy just the proofing tools, use the same tools you used to deploy Office, such as Configuration Manager or the ODT. You can include proofing tools in the initial deployment of Office, or you can add them later to an existing deployment.
Note
To install proofing tools, you must be using at least Version 1803 of Microsoft 365 Apps. You must also be using the latest version of the Office Deployment Tool, which you can download from the Microsoft Download Center. In addition, you can't use the Office Customization Tool to create the configuration file, because this feature isn't yet available in that tool. Instead, you must edit the configuration file in a text editor.
If you're adding to an existing deployment, the ODT automatically uses the same architecture (32 bit or 64 bit) and source location (Office CDN or local source) as the existing installation of Microsoft 365 Apps. Because the same architecture and location is used, you don't need to specify these values when creating the configuration file, meaning you can use a single configuration file to deploy to multiple deployment groups.
For details on how to edit the configuration file in a text editor, see Configuration options for the Office Deployment Tool.
ExampleThis configuration file installs proofing tools for German and Italian using Monthly Enterprise Channel on a device with Office already installed. If the original installation of Office was from a local source, make sure to download the proofing tools to that source. If the tools aren't found at the local source, the AllowCdnFallback setting installs the tools directly from the Office CDN.
<Configuration>
<Add Channel="MonthlyEnterprise" AllowCdnFallback="TRUE">
<Product ID="ProofingTools">
<Language ID="de-de" />
<Language ID="it-it" />
</Product>
</Add>
</Configuration>
Install the same languages as the operating system
When you deploy Office, automatically install the same languages used by the operating system. Include these steps in your standard Office deployment process and tools:
When Match Operating System is used, the base language of the operating system and all active display languages for user profiles on the device are installed. Match Operating System can be used in combination with a fixed list of languages.
Deploy Visio or Project in the same languages as an existing version of Microsoft 365 AppsYou can automatically deploy Visio and Project in the languages that are in use by an existing version of Microsoft 365 Apps. To do so, use the same process and tools you used to deploy Office, such as Configuration Manager or the Office Deployment Tool.
Note
You can't use the Office Customization Tool to create the configuration file, because this feature isn't yet available in that tool. Instead, you must edit the configuration file in a text editor.
If you're adding to an existing deployment, the ODT automatically uses the same architecture (32 bit or 64 bit) and source location (Office CDN or local source) as the existing installation of Microsoft 365 Apps. Because the architecture and source location are the same, there's no need to specify these values when creating the configuration file. Using the same location allows you to use a single configuration file for deploying to multiple deployment groups.
You can also use MatchInstalled as the Language ID when adding Office apps to or removing them from an existing installation of Office.
For details on how to edit the configuration file in a text editor, see Configuration options for the Office Deployment Tool.
Example<Configuration>
<Add Channel="MonthlyEnterprise" AllowCdnFallback="True">
<Product ID="VisioProRetail">
<Language ID="MatchInstalled" TargetProduct="O365ProPlusRetail" />
</Product>
</Add>
</Configuration>
Learn more about how to use MatchInstalled in second-install scenarios.
Install the same languages as a previous MSI installationIf you're upgrading from a Windows Installer (MSI) version of Office, you can get Click-to-Run versions of the same language resources â for example, language packs, language interface packs, or proofing tools â installed when you install Microsoft 365 Apps. For more information, see Remove existing MSI versions of Office when upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps.
To remove a language pack or proofing tool, you can use the Remove element, just as you would for a product. For product ID, specify LanguagePack or ProofingTools. In the example, the German language pack is removed across all installed products:
Example<Configuration>
<Remove>
<Product ID="LanguagePack">
<Language ID="de-de" />
</Product>
</Remove>
</Configuration>
Use the Office CDN as a backup source for language packs
If you deploy Office from a local source on your network, you can use the Office CDN as a backup source for language packs that might not be available at that local source. To do so, use the same process and tools you used to deploy Office, such as Configuration Manager or the Office Deployment Tool.
When creating the configuration file in the Office Customization Tool, select Fallback to the CDN for missing languages in the installation settings of the Office Customization Tool.
When you install languages, the ODT looks first for source files in the source path location. If the language pack isn't available at that location and the Fallback setting is selected, then the ODT uses source files from the Office CDN.
Conserve network bandwidth when adding language packsWhen you use the ODT to download the installation files for Office to a folder that already contains that version of Office, the ODT conserves your network bandwidth by downloading only the missing files. For example, if you use the ODT to download Office in English and German to a folder that already contains Office in English, only the German language pack is downloaded.
Languages, culture codes, and companion proofing languagesLanguage-neutral product resources for Microsoft 365 Apps are packaged into a single file that contains all the neutral resources. Language-specific resources are packaged into language-specific files such as en-us for English (United States) resources.
The following table lists all the supported languages for Microsoft 365 Apps, along with culture codes and companion proofing languages.
Language Culture (ll-CC) Companion proofing languages Afrikaans af-ZA Albanian sq-AL Arabic ar-SA Arabic, English, French Armenian hy-AM Assamese as-IN Azerbaijani (Latin) az-Latn-AZ Bangla (Bangladesh) bn-BD Bangla (Bengali India) bn-IN Basque (Basque) eu-ES Bosnian (Latin) bs-latn-BA Bulgarian bg-BG Bulgarian, English, German, Russian Catalan ca-ES Catalan (Valencia) ca-ES-valencia Chinese (Simplified) zh-CN Chinese (Simplified), English Chinese (Traditional) zh-TW Chinese (Traditional), English Croatian hr-HR Croatian, English, German, Serbian, Italian Czech cs-CZ Czech, English, German, Slovak Danish da-DK Danish, English, German, Swedish Dutch nl-NL Dutch, English, French, German English en-US English, French, Spanish English UK [1] en-GB English, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh Estonian et-EE Estonian, English, German, Russian, Finnish, Finnish fi-FI Finnish, English, Swedish, German, Russian French fr-FR French, English, German, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish French Canada [1] fr-CA French, English, German, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish Galician gl-ES Georgian ka-GE German de-DE German, English, French, Italian Greek el-GR Greek, English, French, German Gujarati gu-IN Hausa ha-Latn-NG Hebrew he-IL Hebrew, English, French, Arabic, Russian Hindi hi-IN Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu Hungarian hu-HU Hungarian, English, German Icelandic is-IS Igbo ig-NG Indonesian id-ID Indonesian, English Irish ga-IE isiXhosa xh-ZA isiZulu zu-ZA Italian it-IT Italian, English, French, German Japanese ja-JP Japanese, English Kannada kn-IN Kazakh kk-KZ Kazakh, English, Russian Kinyarwanda rw-RW KiSwahili sw-KE Konkani kok-IN Korean ko-KR Korean, English Kyrgyz ky-KG Latvian lv-LV Latvian, English, German, Russian Lithuanian lt-LT Lithuanian, English, German, Russian, Polish Luxembourgish lb-LU Macedonian (North Macedonia) mk-MK Malay (Latin) ms-MY Malay, English, Chinese (Simplified) Malayalam ml-IN Maltese mt-MT Maori mi-NZ Marathi mr-IN Nepali ne-NP Norwegian Bokmål nb-NO Norwegian (Bk), English, German, Norwegian (Ny) Norwegian Nynorsk nn-NO Norwegian (Bk), English, German, Norwegian (Ny) Odia or-IN Pashto ps-AF Persian fa-IR Polish pl-PL Polish, English, German Portuguese (Portugal) pt-PT Portuguese, English, French, Spanish Portuguese (Brazil) pt-BR Brazilian, English, Spanish Punjabi (Gurmukhi) pa-IN Romanian ro-RO Romanian, English, French Romansh rm-CH Russian ru-RU Russian, English, Ukrainian, German Scottish Gaelic gd-GB Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia) sr-cyrl-RS Serbian (Latin, Serbia) sr-latn-RS Serbian (Latin), English, German, French, Croatian Serbian (Cyrillic, Bosnia & Herzegovina) sr-cyrl-BA Sesotho sa Leboa nso-ZA Setswana tn-ZA Sinhala si-LK Slovak sk-SK Slovak, English, Czech, Hungarian, German Slovenian sl-SI Slovenian, English, German, Italian, Croatian Spanish es-ES Spanish, English, French, Basque (Basque), Catalan, Galician, Brazilian Spanish Mexico [1] es-MX Spanish, English, French, Brazilian Swedish sv-SE Swedish, English, Finnish, German Tamil ta-IN Tatar (Cyrillic) tt-RU Telugu te-IN Thai th-TH Thai, English, French Turkish tr-TR Turkish, English, French, German Ukrainian uk-UA Ukrainian, English, Russian, German Urdu ur-PK Uzbek (Latin) uz-Latn-UZ Vietnamese vi-VN Vietnamese, English, French Welsh cy-GB Wolof wo-SN Yoruba yo-NGNote
[1] This language is only available for Version 2108 or later, but isn't available in Project or Visio.
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