Deploy language packs (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Topic Last Modified: 2010-11-08

In this article:

• About language IDs and language packs

• Downloading language packs

• Preparing front-end Web servers for language packs

• Installing language packs on front-end Web servers

• Uninstalling language packs

Language packs enable site owners and site collection administrators to create SharePoint sites and site collections in multiple languages without requiring separate installations of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. You install language packs, which contain language-specific site templates, on front-end Web servers. When an administrator creates a site or a site collection that is based on a language-specific site template, the text that appears on the site or the site collection is displayed in the site template's language. Language packs are typically used in multinational deployments where a single server farm supports people in different locations, or in situations where sites and Web pages must be duplicated in one or more languages. For more information about language packs, see Plan for multilingual sites.

Word breakers and stemmers enable you to efficiently and effectively search across content on SharePoint sites and site collections in multiple languages without requiring separate installations of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Word breakers and stemmers are automatically installed on the front-end Web servers by Setup. For more information about word breakers and stemmers, see the "Plan word breakers and stemmers" section in Plan for multilingual sites.

About language IDs and language packs

When site owners or site collection administrators create sites or site collections, they can choose a language for each site or site collection.

The language they choose represents the language identifier (ID). The language ID determines the language that is used to display and interpret text that is put on the site or site collection. For example, when a site administrator creates a site in French, the site's toolbars, navigation bars, lists, and column headings appear in French. Likewise, if a site administrator creates a site in Arabic, the site's toolbars, navigation bars, lists, and column headings appear in Arabic. In addition, the default left-to-right orientation of the site changes to a right-to-left orientation to correctly display Arabic text.

The list of available languages that a site administrator can use to create a site or site collection is generated by the language packs that are installed on the front-end Web servers. By default, sites and site collections are created in the language in which Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 was installed. For example, if you install the Spanish version of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, the default language for sites, site collections, and Web pages is Spanish. If a site administrator has to create sites, site collections or Web pages in a language other than the default Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 language, you must install the language pack for that language on the front-end Web servers. For example, if you are running the French version of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, and a site administrator wants to create sites in French, English, and Spanish, you must install the English and Spanish language packs on the front-end Web servers.

Language packs are not bundled into multilingual installation packages. You must install a specific language pack for each language that you want to support. Also, language packs must be installed on each front-end Web server to ensure that each Web server can render content in the specified language.

The following table lists the language packs that are available:

Although a site administrator specifies a language ID for a site, some user interface elements such as error messages, notifications, and dialog boxes do not display in the language that was specified. This is because Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 relies on several supporting technologies — for example, the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation, Microsoft ASP.NET, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 — some of which are localized into only a limited number of languages. If a user interface element is generated by any of the supporting technologies that is not localized into the language that the site administrator specified for the site, the user interface element appears in English. For example, if a site administrator creates a site in Hebrew, and the .NET Framework component displays a notification message, the notification message will not display in Hebrew because the .NET Framework is not localized into Hebrew. This situation can occur when sites are created in any language except the following: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

In some cases, some text might originate from the original installation language, which can create a mixed-language experience. This type of mixed-language experience is typically seen only by content creators or site administrators and is not seen by site users.

Downloading language packs

You must perform the following steps for each language that you want to support. If you choose to download more than one language, please be aware that a unique file that has a common name is downloaded for each language. Therefore, make sure that you download each language pack to a separate folder on your hard disk so that you do not overwrite a language pack of a different language.

Download the language pack

1. Download either the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the language pack by using one of the download links that follow.

2. On the download page, select the language that you want from the Change Language list, and then click Change.

3. Click Download on the Web page.

4. In the dialog box that appears, click Save to download a copy of the file to your local computer.

Download links

Use the following links to download the correct language packs for the appropriate platform, product version, and service pack version:

32-bit

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91343)

32-bit, SP1

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack Service Pack 1 (SP1) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105916)

32-bit, SP2

Windows SharePoint Services Language Template Pack Service Pack 2 (SP2) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=154963)

64-bit

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack x64 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82241)

64-bit, SP1

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack Service Pack 1 (SP1), 64-Bit Edition (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105917)

64-bit, SP2

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack Service Pack 2 (SP2), 64-Bit Edition (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149245)

Preparing front-end Web servers for language packs

Before you install language packs on front-end Web servers, you must do the following:

1. Install the necessary language files on the front-end Web servers.

2. Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on each front-end Web server.

3. Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard on each front-end Web server.

Language files are used by the operating system and provide support for displaying and entering text in multiple languages. Language files include the following:

• Keyboard files

• Input Method Editors (IMEs)

• TrueType font files

• Bitmap font files

• Code page conversion tables

• National Language Support (.nls) files

• Script engines for rendering complex scripts

Most language files are installed by default on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. However, you must install supplemental language files for East Asian languages and languages that use complex script or require right-to-left orientations. The East Asian languages include Chinese, Japanese, and Korean; the complex script and right-to-left oriented languages include Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, the Indic languages, Thai, and Vietnamese. Instructions for installing these supplemental language files are provided in the following procedure.

We recommend that you install these language files only if you need them. The East Asian files require about 230 megabytes of hard disk space. The complex script and right-to-left languages do not use much disk space, but installing either set of files might reduce performance when entering text.

Install additional language files on Windows Server 2003

1. On your front-end Web server, click Start, point to Settings and then Control Panel, and then click Regional and Language Options.

2. In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, on the Languages tab, in the Supplemental Language Support section, select one or both of the following check boxes:

   • Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages

   • Install files for East Asian languages

3. Click OK in the dialog box that alerts you that additional disk space is required for the files.

4. Click OK to install the additional language files.

5. When prompted, insert your Windows Server 2003 product disc or provide the location of your Windows Server 2003 installation files.

6. When prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.

Install additional language files on Windows Server 2008

1. On your front-end Web server, click Start, point to Settings and then Control Panel, and then click Regional and Language Options.

2. In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, on the Keyboards and Languages tab, in the Display Language section, click Install/Uninstall languages.

3. In the Install or Uninstall Languages dialog box, click Install languages.

4. On the Select the Languages to Install page, select the language to install from the list of available languages. If the language does not appear, click Browse folder to navigate to where you downloaded the language file. The language file is a .cab file.

5. Select all the languages that you want to install, and then click Next.

6. Accept the terms, and then click Next.

7. Click Install.

After you install the necessary language files on your front-end servers, you need to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. The wizard creates and configures the configuration database and performs other configuration tasks that must be done before you install language packs. For more information about installing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and running the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, see Deploy Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in a server farm environment and Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a stand-alone computer.

Installing language packs on front-end Web servers

After you install the necessary language files on the front-end servers, you can install the language packs. Language packs are available as individual downloads (one or more downloads for each supported language). If you have a server farm environment, and you are installing language packs to support multiple languages, you must install the language packs for each language on each front-end Web server.

Install a language pack

1. Run Setup.

2. On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms page, review the terms, select the I accept the terms of this agreement check box, and then click Continue.

3. Setup runs and installs the language pack.

4. Rerun the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, using the default settings. If you do not run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard after you install a language pack, the language pack will not be installed correctly.

   Important

   Download and install all language packs to the same version before you rerun the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

Rerun the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

2. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.

3. Click Yes in the dialog box that alerts you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration.

   Note

   End-user access to sites and services will be temporarily interrupted while the services restart.

4. On the Modify Server Farm Settings page, click Do not disconnect from this server farm, and then click Next.

5. If the Modify SharePoint Central Administration Web Administration Settings page appears, do not modify any of the default settings, and then click Next.

6. On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard page, click Next.

7. On the Configuration Successful page, click Finish.

When you install language packs, the language-specific site templates are installed in the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\template\number directory, where number is the Language ID for the language that you are installing. For example, the United States English language pack installs to the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\template\1033 directory. After you install a language pack, site owners and site collection administrators can create sites and site collections based on the language-specific site templates by specifying a language when they are creating a new SharePoint site or site collection.

Uninstalling language packs

If you no longer have to support a language for which you installed a language pack, you can remove the language pack by using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Removing a language pack removes the language-specific site templates from your computer. All sites that were created with those language-specific site templates will no longer work. (The URL will produce an HTTP 500 - Internal server error page.) Reinstalling the language pack will make the site functional.

See Also

Concepts

Downloadable content for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0