Bidirectional text embedding and override

Howdy Earthlings!

“-----“ here again!  *sigh* Yeah, some of you Earth people still confuse me with being Martian.  For the record AGAIN, I come from the planet “-----“ (sorry, our names just don’t translate to English or any other earthly language)  Now, I have joined with the Office Global Experience team, because people on your planet need to know how to take advantage of the great global features that Office has to offer.

 

I know, it has only been two short weeks on Earth, since I last shared my wisdom with you in my post of ‘What happens when the same font is used to display multi-language text?’.  But, do you know how many years have gone by on some other planet, in some other Galaxy far far away?!  No time to be wasted, besides, we “------“ians just have so much brain power to share.  If I don’t offload my knowledge frequently enough, it could literally overflow my neural system. (A few seconds for you to grasp this…)  Alright, I am being a bit dramatic here.  I am just too excited to share with you the technical insights of Office 2010.  Let me walk fly you through how Office handles bidirectional text embedding and override.  Don’t worry, if you have no clue what this means right now, I’ll be able to wirelessly beam the concept into your brain.  Fasten your seatbelt. Houston, we are ready to take off…

Microsoft is a leader in the software industry when it comes to offering comprehensive bidirectional text support for its products. Today, with every new feature that they add to Microsoft Office applications, we continue to ensure that Bidirectional support is built into the feature at design time. In addition, we continue to look for opportunities to further enhance this support to meet customers’ needs. If you are a Microsoft Word user who often creates and edits text in a right-to-left language (like Arabic or Hebrew), you’re probably aware of the explicit directional tagging of text; this is where applications rely on the language of the keyboard to determine the direction of the text. This design provides users a simple method to control the layout of neutral characters (such as SPACE) and numbers regardless of the surrounding characters.

In Word 2010 we added two new features that will extend this control of Bidirectional text. Are you ready to super activate your brain for these exciting new advanced features called Bidirectional Text Embedding and Bidirectional Text Override? 

Bidirectional Text Embedding

Embedding is an advanced feature specified in the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. This feature solves the problem of trying to insert a sentence into a paragraph with a different directionality. For example, inserting an English quote in the middle of a right-to-left paragraph. 

For clarity, in the examples below lower case represents English text characters and UPPER CASE represents right-to-left characters.

Assume that you would like to write the following line in a left-to-right paragraph according to the keyboard input sequence:

= he said “I WILL CALL sandy TODAY”

If you try to write this sentence today without the help of embedding, the text will display as follows:

    he said “LLAC LLIW I sandy YADOT”

        ●──────► ◄─────────● ●───► ◄────●

           1          2        3      4

What you really would like to see is the following:

    he said “YADOT sandy LLAC LLIW I”

        ●──────► ◄───● ●───► ◄─────────●

           1       4     3        2

Using Office 2010, this can easily be done by inserting two special hidden control characters before and after the sentence you would like to embed. In the example above it would be the quote. These control characters are the “Right-to-Left Embedding” (RLE) character at the beginning of the quote and the “Pop Directional Formatting” (PDF) character at the end of the quote. Your keyboard input text will be:

 = he said [RLE]“I WILL CALL sandy TODAY”[PDF]

*To insert these special characters, please refer to the instructions at the end of this document.

Bidirectional Text Override

Override is another advanced feature that is specified in the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. This feature allows users to force the layout of a group of characters to a specific direction regardless of their classification. For example, you want to write a part number and you want to ensure that all the characters flow left-to-right. This number could consist of numerals and right-to-left characters. Without using the overrides, the right-to-left letters will flow right-to-left, while the numbers will flow left-to-right and both will influence the layout of the surrounding text.

For clarity, in the examples below lower case represents English text characters and Upper case for right-to-left characters.

For example, you want to write the following sentence according to the keyboard input sequence in a right-to-left paragraph:

 = PRODUCT NUMBER IS ABC632XPS

Without the override feature, the display will be as follows:

        SPX632CBA SI REBMUN TCUDORP

       ◄─●●─►◄───────────────────●

        3  2          1

What you would like to see is:

      ABC632XPS SI REBMUN TCUDORP

       ●───────►    ◄───────────────●

           2             1

Using Word 2010, this can easily be done by inserting two special hidden control characters before and after the part number. In the example above, you need to precede the part number with the “Left-to-Right Override” (LRO) control character and the “Pop Directional Formatting” (PDF) character at the end of the part number. Your input text will be:

 = PRODUCT NUMBER IS [LRO]ABC632XPS[PDF]

*To insert these special characters, please refer to the instructions below.

Inserting Unicode Special Characters

#1. Using the Ribbon

1. Position your cursor at the desired insertion point in your document.
2. Click the Insert tab.
3. In the Symbol ribbon, click on the Symbol icon.
4. From the drop down menu, choose “More Symbols…” This will open the Symbol dialog box.
5. Switch to the “Special Characters” tab.
6. Scroll down to the end of the list.
7. Select the special character you want to insert and click Insert.
8. When you have inserted the character or characters you need, click the Close button to close the dialog.

#2. Using the Keyboard

1. Position your cursor at the desired insertion point in your document.
2. Type the Unicode hexadecimal code for your character (using the table below). For example type “202B” for RLE.
3. Press ALT+X.
4. The character code numbers will disappear and they will be replaced with the equivalent hidden special character.

Martian

I would have talked to you about these features in binary, but thanks to Ayman Aldahleh for helping me to translate it into English! He is truly a multi-lingual Earthling!  Ayman is the Development Manager of the Office Global Experience Platform (GXP) team at Microsoft. His team specifically focuses on making sure the Office applications are ‘world-ready’! Ayman is originally from Palestine, but he and his team work in Redmond, Washington, USA, The Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy, The Universe.  He has been working at Microsoft since 1991.  Prior to GXP, Ayman had lead and worked in the development teams that enabled several Microsoft products in multiple languages including complex scripts.  In his spare time, he enjoys parenting, photography, travel, cooking and various outdoor activities.

Assisting Ayman with this article were Ziad Khalidi, Gwyneth Marshall and Murtuza Shakir.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.

Using Mini Translator when I don’t need translation

Dear Scenari,

I’ve seen the new Mini Translator feature in Office 2010 – and it looks really cool!  However – I only speak one language, and while I’d like to learn another language – I really don’t have the time, so I really don’t need it for translation. Is there some other way that it could be of benefit to me?

UniLingual Speaker

Dear UniLingual Speaker,

Good for you for thinking ‘outside of the box’ and wanting to explore the new feature! While indeed you could use it to help you learn another language, if you really don’t have a need for that – you could use it to better understand your native language! Here’s how!

Let’s do this in Word (but the same would be true for the other applications, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook).

1. Start Word and create a new document.

2. Click on the Review menu, then the Translate button, then select Choose Your Translation Language…

3. Once you’re in the Translation Language Options dialog, click on Mini Translator tab on the left, and now click on the arrow in the Translate To list and go all the way to the bottom – to the Encarta Dictionary and click on that. Then click OK to save the selection and close the dialog.

 

4. Now dear, you’ve got to make sure that the Mini Translator is turned on! You do this by clicking on the Review menu, then the Translate button and take a look at the icon next to the Mini Translator:

If Mini Translator icon is highlighted, it is turned on. And it will also show the translation language.
If Mini Translator is not highlighted, it is turned off. (The translation language will still show even though it’s off.)

5. Ok honey – you’re almost there! Now, let’s see how it works. Type some text in your document, and hover over one of the words, and like magic – it pops up to tell you what that word means!!

Isn’t this fun?  Easy ways to have the features work for YOU and your needs!  I hope you find this useful and your knowledge of language increases dramatically now that you can easily learn the detail of the meaning of words!

Scenari

Oh dear me, I must give special thanks to Sandy Rivas for for being such a sweetheart and helping me with this article! Sandy is a Software Development Engineer in Test at Microsoft with the Office Global Experience Platform team.  Sandy is originally from Ohio in the United States - but she and her team work in Redmond, Washington, USA.  It is her team that is responsible for designing, developing and testing this educational feature! And, lastly, Sandy wanted me to tell you that her team is very happy you are interested in the Mini Translator feature.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred

What happens when the same font is used to display multi-language text?

Q & A How to turn on/off Mini Translator in Office 2010

Question: How do I turn on / off the Mini Translator feature in Office 2010?

Answer:

1. Click on the Review tab, and then the Translate Button.

2. The Mini Translator is turned on and off by simply clicking Mini Translator.

3. Now if you have Mini Translator turned on – when you select text you want to translate and hover over it, the Mini Translator will appear with a translation or bi-lingual dictionary based on your settings. If the Mini Translator is turned off – you will not have any pop-up when you select/hover over text.

Keep the questions coming!
The Twins

5 More Useful Outlook Global Features

Learn more about Office Global Experience Platform

Hey Everybody!!

We’re really excited to tell you some great news! 

Yea!  We’re famous!  There’s a movie about us at www.office2010themovie.com!

Now dear, the movie is not about us, but about the team we work with and what they do.

And through a wave of my wand, this has come to be.

Oh really?  Well, it’s actually about the digitizing of images and such that you would do well to learn about if you were a student of mine.

Silly earthlings, always behind the times, on my planet – things are much more advanced.

Now, now, dearies – let’s quit squabbling and just tell everyone about this great news!  There is a movie on the internet where you can learn about the Office Global Experience team and the impact their work has on millions of customers around the world.  Just click on this link http://www.office2010themovie.com/ - and then look for the video “The Global Experience Platform”.  Be sure and leave a comment of what you thought.

Hey – and also mention in the comment that we sent you!

And as a good student – you should also watch the other movies available out there and be sure and let us know if you have any questions!

            Come back and visit us soon, we have many more articles soon to publish!

The Illumicons
(The Professor, Scenari, The Wizard, The Twins, The Martian)

Q & A How to Enable Online Services for Translation

Question: For some languages, such as German, Italian and Danish – the customers are unable to use the online dictionary and machine translation because the services are disabled by default. Why? And, is there an easy way to enable these services?

Answer:

For some languages, the user needs to accept the legal agreement in order to use the online services. This can be done by launching the relevant Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, or Publisher) and by following the steps below.

1.      Click on the Review tab.

2.      In the Proofing ribbon, click on Research.

3.      The Research pane will then appear at the side of the window. Click on the hyperlink “Check for more research services…”

4.      This will bring up the following dialog which asks, “Do you want to allow the Research task pane to periodically check for and install new services offered by Office, other providers, or your administrator?”

5.      When the “Yes” button is pressed, the services will begin to be registered. It might take a couple of minutes depending on the speed of your Internet connection for them all to be completely registered.

Note: You will need to close and restart the application in order to be able to start using these online services for Translation.

Keep the questions coming!

The Twins

Changing Numeral Shapes in Excel

Dear Scenari, Changing Numeral Shapes in Excel (even if you don’t know the language)

Dear Scenari,

I have an Excel file that contains some numeral shapes which I can’t really read or don’t even know which language the numbers belong to! How can I tell what is the language of the numbers I am seeing and how can I change its format?

Sincerely,

Numerally Confused

 

Dear Numerally Confused,

I understand how frustrating this situation can be!  Fortunately there are two ways that you can see the value of the number in the cell. Oh!  By the way some may not know what a numeral shape is. The numeral shapes are the symbols representing numbers which are different for each language such as the Arabic numeral 5, is the equivalent Roman numeral V!

The first option is that you can select the cell and the value of the number in the cell will appear in the Formula bar. (You might have already known this.)

Another way, if you don’t want to keep selecting at each cell to see the value, is that you can use the function VALUE (). Now honey, don’t worry – it’s really easy. All you do is key in an adjacent cell: =Value( cell ).  (With ‘cell’ being the designation of the cell you would like to convert. See the example below). This function will convert a string that represents a number to an actual number; it can convert the numeral shape as well!

Oh dear, with all of these methods, I still haven’t answered your question about what language of that numeral shape you are seeing!  Well, Excel doesn’t have any concept of checking the language like WORD does. (And I’m sure you don’t want to always copy the text and paste it in WORD to check the language of the data!)  So, below are the steps for you to do this right in Excel!  Follow me…

1. Select the cell that contains the number digit

2. Click on the Home ribbon tab, and then click at Number button. (Or you could press Ctrl+1).

3. On the “Format Cells” dialog box, click the Number Tab, then Custom in the Category list.
You will notice that the selecting format has some kind of code starting with [$- and before the closing square bracket, the last 4 digits are the Hexadecimal value which represents Locale language ID.

 

4. Then you can use this Hexadecimal to look up the language in Locale ID (LCID) Chart which is from http://msdn.microsoft.com website.

To make finding that hexadecimal number easier – when the Locale ID  (LCID) Chart appears – just hit CTL-F (to find) and then type that number in the Find box and it will go right to the language that is associated with!

As shown in the picture above, the 041E is telling us that the numeral shape is a Thai number!

To learn more about some other custom number formats, you can visit the Excel team blog; Custom Number Formats topic.

Are you still with me so far?

OK!  Now, if you want to play around with these codes a little more, you can even change some of these codes to switch the numeral shapes to another language! Oh – this is going to be fun!!

Now sweetie, these Hexadecimal numbers aren’t as complicated as they first appear. As you can see, these codes [$-D00041E] are in fact, from this formula [$-nnccLCID] where

• nn is the Hexadecimal value of the number shape.
• cc is the Calendar code.
• LCID is the four digit Hexadecimal LCID (locale id) of the region.

Let’s just focus on the nn which we will try to change the numeral shape. The table below shows the list of Hexadecimal values that represent numeral shapes.

In order to change the numeral shape of any number in the cell, you just simply input the Hexadecimal value from the table above as the first 2 digits of the custom format code. Go ahead; try changing it to some different values from the list just for fun!   For example try: [$-09000000]0 or [$-9000000]0 for Tamil numeral shape.

That’s it. Wow!  That was fun, wasn’t it?  I hope you enjoy changing these numeral shapes in Excel.

Now, be sure and let me know if you have any questions!!

Scenari

My, my, I must give special thanks to Sirirat Reinikka for her assistance with this article! Sirirat works with the Office Global Experience Platform team as a Software Development Engineer in Test at Microsoft. Sirirat is originally from Thailand but she and her team work in Redmond, Washington, USA.  Sirirat and her team specifically focus on making sure the Office applications are ‘world-ready’! Assisting Sirirat with this article was Dafna Chen.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred

Changing the Translation Service / Adding a New Service

A Lesson by The Professor Changing the Translation Service / Adding a New Service

Hello Students,

Our lesson today is about using the translation services available in Office. I actually have TWO lessons for you today, as you will learn how to CHANGE the translation service being used as well as ADD a new service provider if you so desire. My, we have a full schedule, so let’s begin!

Some people can speak multiple languages and they’ve found that they prefer certain translation services over others for particular languages while reading documents. With Office 2010 – you can customize the Office applications to use your preferred services! This feature is available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Visio and Publisher.

Lesson 1: Change the translation service being used:

It’s quite easy to do this by changing the Translation options in the Research pane. So, let us proceed and do just that!

To open the ‘Translation Options Dialog’, follow the steps shown in the picture below.

1. Click on the Review tab.

2. Click on Research (the Research pane will appear).

3. On the Research pane – where indicated, select Translation.

4. Click on the hyperlink: Translation Options…

You will see that clicking on the “Translation options…” hyperlink will bring up the Translation Options dialog. As you can see there are quite a few options here:

It is in this dialog that you can select your preferred providers for machine translation.
Just click on the arrow for the translation services of the desired language pair and choose your preferred provider.

Now, my astute students, you may notice that perhaps – the translation service provider you prefer is not listed here. Well this is where we get into the second portion of our lesson!

Lesson 2: Adding a New Service:

If you have a specific translation service (or other service) that you would like to utilize in your Office applications – you can simply tell Office the necessary information to link to that service. To do this:

1. If it’s not already showing – use the steps from the first lesson above to show the Research Pane.

2. Click on the “Research options…” hyperlink at the bottom of the pane.

This will open another dialog for you - the Research Options dialog. This dialog gives you a lot of flexibility with the services. You may choose your favorite service or check the properties of services. You can update, add, or remove some services. It even allows you to set parental control on some service providers. Isn’t that great?

You've probably already figured out, but if you haven’t, let me tell you how to add a new service.

3. Click on the “Add Services…” button in the Research Options dialog:

This will bring up the “Add Services” dialog.

4. Enter the URL of the service provider. Don’t forget to press the “Add” button after you’ve entered the URL.

You may now get a couple of other dialogs confirming the addition of the new service.

Ok – that’s our lesson – or should I say ‘lessons’ for the day! I hope you feel more comfortable in adding and changing translation services to your preferences.

If you have questions, I’m always available – just leave a note below and I will respond as soon as I can!

Happy Translating!

The Professor

I must tell you that Shemyla Anwar was invaluable in her assistance with this article!  Shemyla works with the Office Global Experience Platform team at Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer in Test.  Shemyla is originally from India but she and her team work in Redmond, Washington, USA.  Shemyla and her team specifically focus on making sure the Office applications are ‘world-ready’ for our dedicated students like you!  Assisting Shemyla with this article was Grace Sturman.

Using the Date/Time Format in PowerPoint for Different Cultures

Dear Scenari,

I work for a multi-national corporation which has offices around the world. Often, I represent my company and travel around the world to meet clients and give presentations. I like to make my presentations localized to show that our company is always looking at ways to make our processes customizable to the needs of the client. However, I have difficulty in including dates in formats of different cultures. Is it even possible to add dates in different formats, in different languages?

Sincerely,
Globe Trotter

Dear Globe Trotter,

Great Question! I’m so happy that you are sensitive to your clients’ cultures! Adding dates pertaining to different cultures is slightly tricky, however, don’t worry dear, I’ll help you! If you follow these steps you will find it to be quite straightforward.

1. Open PowerPoint 2010 and click on the Office tab (You’ll find it in the top left corner, to the left of the Home tab. If you're using PowerPoint 2007, you can click on the Office button)

2. Click on the Options menu item (near the bottom).

3. Now a dialog will appear – it’s the PowerPoint Options Dialog. We’re going to do a few things in this dialog. First, click the Language tab as shown in the figure below.

4. In the Choose Editing Languages section, click the arrow next to the Add additional Editing Languages to choose Japanese (or whatever language you wish to add dates for) and then click the Add button. You can even add multiple languages if you wish!

5. Click OK to confirm changes and exit the dialog.

6. A dialog box opens prompting you to restart Office. Hit OK in the dialog box, save your PowerPoint presentation and close it. (You must close it, because when it starts up is when it gets all the language settings – so we want it to see your NEW settings!)

7. Reopen the presentation; place your cursor where you wish to insert the date. Click on the Insert tab and then click on the Date & Time Button.

8. If the cursor was inside a placeholder then you will need to follow steps below, otherwise you can jump to the next step (don’t worry dearie, it’s just that the dialog is a bit different).

· In the Date and Time dialog, you’ll now find Japanese (or whatever language you added) in addition to English in the Language list. You’ll find multiple languages if you added multiple languages in step 4. Choose the appropriate language you want to work with.

· Select the Format and Calendar type of the date which you would like to insert into the slide and hit OK.

9. If the cursor was not inside a placeholder then you will need to follow the steps below because you will have a different dialog appear:

· In the Header and Footer dialog, you’ll now find Japanese (or whatever language you added) in addition to English. You’ll find multiple languages if you added multiple languages in step 4. Choose the appropriate language you want to work with.

· A new dialog opens which allows you to select the format, Language and Calendar type of date you would like to insert into the side. Click Apply or Apply to All depending on your needs.

10. You should find the date inserted into your slide and showing up in the culture and format you selected!

Voilà! I am sure your clients will appreciate the finer details and extra steps you took in tailoring your presentation to their culture!

Ok – now I know that might have seemed kind of scary – but you got through it, didn’t you? Don’t worry if you have to go through it again, remember dearie, practice makes perfect!!

Scenari

Oh dear me, I must give special thanks to Vinay Reddy for his invaluable assistance with this article! Vinay works with the Office Global Experience Platform team at Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer in Test. Vinay is originally from India but he and his team work in Redmond, Washington, USA.  Vinay and his team specifically focus on making sure the Office applications are ‘world-ready’ for our wonderful customers like you! Assisting Vinay with this article was Jimmy Fang.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred

5 Useful Outlook Global Features

Hello,

I’m glad you’ve returned and I look forward to sharing with you 5 useful features in Outlook that may be of particular interest to global customers.  And if you live on this earth – well – you are a global customer, aren’t you?  So this very well could apply to you, my dedicated apprentice!

A little history lesson here - one of the things that make Microsoft Office great is its flexibility for users from around the world.  Office applications have a wide variety of features and supports base on the users’ regional and language preferences.

Today, we will go over 5 tips in Outlook and I shall enlighten you as to how they will enrich your global experience with one of the most popular applications in Microsoft Office!  All Outlook features shown in the following tips can be found in any product language.  So warm up your wand, and let’s begin!

1. Calendar Display

Outlook’s calendar display follows the date format of the Regional and Language Options on your system (Start ->Control Panel->Regional and Language Options).  For example, you can set the current format in Regional and Language Options to Japanese (Japan), and then click the Customize this format and set the Calendar type and date format to use the Japanese Emperor Era.

Now, like magic, the Outlook calendar will display the dates in the calendar format of your preferred date format:

2. Alternate Calendar

There are many other calendar types in the world besides Gregorian.  What if you want to know what a particular date is, in another calendar type?  Alternate Calendar gives the option of displaying two calendar types in one view!  You can enable Alternate Calendar in Outlook calendar options (Office button->Options->Calendar) by simply checking the Enable an alternate calendar option, and select the desired calendar type:

As you can see below, with Chinese Lunar calendar enabled as Alternate Calendar, the date display will show the Chinese Lunar date on the right on each day:

3. Outlook Holidays

Are you an avid traveler interested in holidays celebrated around the world?  Or are you living abroad and like to be reminded the holidays in your homeland?  If your answer is yes to either question, you can go to Outlook calendar options (Office button->Options->Calendar) and click on the Add Holidays button, where you will find a list of country/region/religious holidays to choose from.  Do you know what holidays are coming up in Mexico?  Try clicking on the Add Holidays button in Outlook calendar options, check the box next to Mexico, and click OK:

Put your calendar in list view and you will see all the upcoming Mexican holidays.  (To do this – click the View tab -> Change View -> List):

4. Second Time Zone

Have you ever tried scheduling a phone conference meeting with someone who’s in a different time zone?  If you don’t like the hassles of figuring out when would be a good meeting time for both of you, showing a second time zone will help!  For example, if you are in Los Angeles and the other party is in Paris, you can go to Outlook calendar options (Office button->Options->Calendar), check the Show a second time zone option, and select GMT+01:00 for time zone:

Now you know that a meeting time in early morning in the Pacific Standard Time zone would be late in the day in Paris:

5. Right To Left Display

Right to left language readers are accustomed to a display that flows from right to left.  Outlook gives you the option to show such a display in some of its user interface.  But first, you need to have one of the right to left languages enabled on your keyboard (Control Panel->Regional and Language Options->Keyboard and Languages tab->Change keyboards, click Add to include a right to left language such as Arabic or Hebrew):

Restart Outlook, go to Outlook advanced options (Office button->Options-> Advanced) now the additional Right to Left options will appear.  Select Right to Left under Define the direction of your views option as shown below:

One obvious change can be seen is the calendar, where most recent dates are shown on the right instead of left:

Alas – I think we’ve given your magic wand quite a work out today!  I hope you have learned something new from these tips and practice them well.  Once you've mastered these, come visit me again, because in my bag of tricks, I indeed have more useful Outlook global features to share with you in the coming weeks!

Please let me know if you have suggestions for additional regional specific features that Outlook or other Office applications should add and I’ll see if I can conjure something up!

The Wizard

Shazam! I should not forget to mention my apprentice Peter Liang who waved his magic wand upon all of these tricks and brought the details to you! Peter is a Software Development Engineer in Test at Microsoft with the Office Global Experience Platform team.  Peter is originally from China but he and his team work in Redmond, Washington, USA.  Peter and his team specifically focus on making sure the Office applications are ‘world-ready’!  Assisting Peter with this article were Grace Sturman and Tom Moore.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred

The Microsoft Office 2010 ScreenTip Language

Hello class, good to see you again.

Today I would like to talk to you about a new feature in Microsoft Office 2010 called ScreenTip Language.

The ScreenTip Language will help you navigate different language versions of Office. I expect multilingual users or IT Helpdesk support engineers will really love this! The ScreenTip Language will translate the text of display elements – such as buttons, menus and dialogs – into another language by just pointing to them with your mouse.

For example: Observe the below image, an English user, on a Japanese version of Office, can use the ScreenTip Language to help them navigate as follows.  See how when the user points to the “Table of Contents” – even though the menu is in Japanese – the ScreenTip shows the description in English!

You can customize or add languages through Language Preferences or download any language from the Office website. To begin using the ScreenTip Language:

1.       Click on the Office button:

2.       Choose Options and click on the Language tab:

3.       Go to ‘Choose ScreenTip Language’ section near the bottom and select your language:

4.    Click OK to save your settings and close the dialog.  

Now - when you hover over items in the user interface - the screentip will show the information in the language you selected!! 

Well done!  You have now enabled the ScreenTip Language feature!  If you wish to switch back to the same language as the UI - then follow the same steps and select Match Display Language.

I hope you found this lesson useful. If you have any questions, I’m always available – just leave a note below and I will respond as soon as I can.

The Professor

How to: Type in my language using Office 2010

Hello Dears,

I am Scenari - the advice columnist for the Office Global Experience team and I have been using computers for a very long time.  (Now don’t even think of asking me ‘how long’ as a lady never reveals her age!) But, my oh my, how Microsoft Office has evolved since the first version was introduced! I can modestly say I know quite a bit about the best features from each release. With my experience, I am here to help you through various scenarios that you may encounter.  Now dear, don’t worry, everyone gets ‘stuck’ sometimes and needs a little advice and direction and that’s where I come in!  Starting today, I will reply to common global customer scenarios through this blog.

Here’s a question which I received from one of our global customers:

Dear Scenari,

I speak Gujarati as my native language and I am new to Microsoft Word 2010. A friend just told me that I can create documents in Gujarati. So, I opened my newly acquired Word application and was looking for an option to choose a language to type in. I found the Default Language option in the Ribbon; but, even after I select Gujarati and set it as the Default in this list, I cannot seem to type in that language. Do I need to buy a special keyboard or something before I see Gujarati characters in the document?

Signed,

Native language speaker.

Dear Native language speaker,

First, thanks for asking! This is a very common problem that people run into. Let me see if I can help you out.

Your friend is right in that all Office applications allow our customers to create documents that not only contain text in different languages; but also support different country/region specific information like currency, dates, calendars and more. In order to type the language of your choice, you don’t need any special hardware; however you do need to enable the editing language and a keyboard on your computer.

Here’s how you can do it in Word for example, assuming you don’t have the keyboard enabled for Gujarati yet.

1.       Start Microsoft Word and click on the Office button (that’s the pretty colored button next to the Home tab)  

2.       Click on the Options menu item (near the bottom).

3.       Now a dialog will appear – it’s the Word Options dialog. We’re going to do a few things in this dialog. Look at arrow number 3 below and, on your screen, click the Language tab.

4.       In the Choose Editing languages section, use the Add additional Editing Languages dropdown to choose Gujarati and then click the Add button.

5.       By default the keyboard layout will show as ‘Not enabled’. Click on the Not Enabled link. This will bring up an operating system dialog – Text Services and Input Languages (shown below).

6.       Click Add... on this dialog, this will open the Add Input Language dialog.

7.       Scroll down and expand Gujarati (India), then check Gujarati under Keyboard from the list and click OK.

8.       Back in the Text Services and Input Languages dialog click OK to apply your changes and close the dialog.

9.       Now dear, don’t worry – I know it still says ‘Not Enabled’ under the Keyboard Layout in the Word options dialog – but what has happened is that the change you made to enable the keyboard is not recognized yet by Word.  Click OK on the Word Options dialog. You need to close all Office applications that are currently running, so that when you restart them, the applications will see the change you made and you will be able to use Gujarati!

10.       You will also now notice that a language bar is added to the status bar of Windows which shows different language options:

11.       Now, when you open any Office application, you will have support for editing in the language you selected! Let’s take a look at Word. Go ahead and start Word.

12.   Click on the language down in the Window’s status bar and choose Gujarati. Now you can start typing in this language!  Isn’t this fun?

There, you did it!!  You might want to try it again with another language – remember practice makes perfect!  Now be sure and let me know how it goes and don’t forget to ask more questions if you need any help!

Regards,

Scenari.

Translate a Full Document using Office 2010 and Microsoft Translator

Hello,

I wish to introduce myself – I am The Wizard. I have much knowledge that I have accumulated through the years. I’ve heard tales of the challenges Global users like you face every day. With a twirl of my wand, I shall show you several options to accomplish your tasks using Office. I’ll teach you tricks so powerful  that you may see your productivity and efficiency magically increase.

The tips and tricks that I shall share with you today have to do with Translating a Full Document into another language.

If you’ve followed the teachings of The Professor, you know about ‘Using The Mini Translator’, which provides on-the-fly translation as you select a word or phrase and provides dictionary definitions of individual words. This is all well and good, but what if you wish to translate a full document in its entirety?  With the combination of Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Translator, you can easily have an entire document translated into one of many different languages.

Let us begin with Word and translating a full document.

1.       Start your Word 2010 application and either open a document or type some text.

2.       Now that you have text in your document, let us proceed to translate the document!

3.       Click on the Review tab, and then the Translate Button in the ribbon. 

4.       Click the Translate Document option.

5.       When you click on it the first time, it will bring up the Translation Language Options dialog, (or you can click on the Choose Your Translation Language option to see the below dialog):

6.       Here, you can choose what language you’d like to have your document translated from and into.  Click on the arrow in the From and To lists to choose the respective languages: 

7.   Once you’ve chosen the respective languages to translate the document From and To, – click OK to save the selection and close the dialog.

8.       If you had selected Translate Document in step 4 – you will be presented with the following dialog.  (If, in step 5 you had selected Choose Your Translation Language, now go ahead and select Translate Document as documented in step 4).  

9.       If you elect to send the document for translation – an internet browser window similar to below will appear with your original text on the left and the translated text on the right.

Alas, that is enough wisdom for today.  Practice this well, and next time, I shall show you more tips and tricks. 

If you have questions, leave a note below and I shall respond.

The Wizard

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.

Using the New Mini Translator in Office 2010

Hello,

Allow me to introduce myself. I have traveled far and taught at many universities. I have seen how people everywhere around the world use computers to reach their full potential and connect with others. And now, I have joined with the Office Global Experience team because people need to understand how much Office has to offer to our global customers. Starting today, I will conduct classes periodically through this blog. I'll even have quizzes and homework if you really want to shine. If you come to my class – be ready to learn! So, let us begin…

Our lesson today is about using an exciting new feature in Office 2010 called the Mini Translator!

The Mini Translator provides on-the-fly translation as you select a word or phrase and provides dictionary definitions of individual words. With the Microsoft Office 2010 Mini Translator, you can point to a word or selected phrase with your mouse, and the translation will display in a small window. The Mini Translator also includes a Play button so you can hear an audio pronunciation of the word or phrase using a text-to-speech engine. A Copy button is also available so that you can paste the translation into another document. You can use the Mini Translator in Word, Outlook, OneNote and PowerPoint.

The great thing about Mini Translator and Office applications is that it works the same way in all of the applications. So if our lesson today takes you through the Word application, you can rest assured that you've learned the basic information you need to use the same feature in OneNote, Outlook and PowerPoint! One lesson, four applications – what a return on investment!

So, now that you know what Mini Translator does, it's time to learn about how to do it!

1. Start your Word 2010 application and either open a document or type some text.

2. Now that you have text in your document, let's verify the Mini Translator feature is turned on!

3. Click on the Review tab, and then the Translate Button.

4. The Mini Translator is turned on and off by clicking Mini Translator.

5. When you click on it the first time, it will bring up the Translation Language Options dialog, or you can click on the Choose Your Translation Language option, and click on Mini Translator to see the below dialog:

6. Here, you can choose what language you'd like to have your text translated into. Click on the arrow in the Translate To list:

7. Once you select the language you'd like the text translated to – click OK to save the selection and close the dialog.

Clue: See step 4.

8. Now that you have Mini Translator turned on – you simply select the text you want to translate and hover over it:

9. You might be wondering what else you can do with the Mini Translator – good question!

10. Hovering over a single word will allow the Mini Translator to show the Bilingual Dictionary:

Ok class that is the lesson for today for the basic usage of Mini Translator!

Future lessons will explore the other options of the Translate feature and will drill down into more specifics about the capabilities of Mini Translator.

If you have questions, I'm always available – just leave a note below and I will respond as soon as I can!

Happy Translating!

The Professor

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.