Specifically, I want Microsoft Word from Office 2000 to be able to read a document in Vietnamese. The Microsoft website has instructions, but they require the Office installation disk to be in the drive. I can’t find my perfectly legal and honestly purchased copy right now.
Anyone got any ideas? Am I boned?
Much Obliged.
I know this is a stupid question, but have you tried opening the document? If you’re using Windows XP, I believe the system is natively capable of displaying Vietnamese. I didn’t have to do anything to open it in either Word or Word Viewer.
(Or is there more than one type of Vietnamese script? The document I see uses what looks like the English alphabet with a variety of accents and marks.)
It can open the document and transcribe most of the various accents, but I know it’s not getting all of them because of the misplaced question mark or asterik. I think it’s just using whatever fancy characters come in the normal English character set.
If it weren’t a critical business document, I’d let it slide…
Maybe you could try Tools - Language - Set Language - Vietnamese? No idea if that would work.
You wouldn’t be able to post the document in question, would you? Perhaps we could take a look that way.
Surely you have a friend, neighbor or business associate with an Office 2000 CD. As long as your license is legal, and the CD is the same version, it doesn’t matter whether you use your own CD or someone else’s to install the language files.
Tried your suggestion, Reply. No success.
I’m hoping I can find a disk, Fat Bald Guy, but so far no success there either. We’re the most tech savvy of our friends, so no luck borrowing someone else’s. Our copy is probably around here some where, but the bf isn’t known for his tidy filling system 
I was hoping there was some some other way. Ah well. Thanks for everyone’s input.
here is my attempt to post a sample:
Kế hoạch này đã được đề ra là một chương trình tự nguyện cho việc kiểm soát be^.nh cu’m ga nhe. o*? he^. tho^’ng cho*. gie^’t mo^? va buo^n ba’n.
As you can see, most of the letters have worked, but the stand alone carrots, asteriks and question marks are not part of the alphabet (I don’t think). I know the question mark should not be there.
I think maybe I’ll just ask the translator to print a hard copy. Obviously, his computer can work with Vietnamese.
If you’re running XP you might try this.
Start->Settings->Control Panel ->Regional and Language Options
Check the checkbox for Install files for East Asian languages
You might need your windows cd.
I thank you for trying to be helpful, but may I suggest reading the OP a little closer?
OK. Reread the OP. Don’t see the problem.
Are you saying that’s the advice the Microsoft website gave?
Or are you saying you don’t have your Windows CD as well as your Office CD?
Or are you saying you are running Win2K instead of XP. (Although I think you have the same checkbox in Win2K)
When I checked that button on my laptop, I didn’t even need a CD, the files were apparently already on my harddrive.
If all else fails and you can’t find the Office CD, you can always… ahem… borrow one from one of several hundred Internet friends you never knew you had.
I mean, you did buy the software originally and you just can’t find the CD. It’ll be like restoring from a massive distributed backup system. Nothing wrong with that.
Folly: When I click the “Install East Asian Languages” box in Regional Settings in XP, the computer informs me that it will install Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Not Vietnamese. Perhaps your XP is different. Besides, I’m not trying to make my whole computer be in Vietnamese, I only want Microsoft Word to understand a few characters in one document. According to the Microsoft website, I need to change the language settings within Office Tools itself, but doing so requires the CD to be in the drive.
Reply: Thanks. I think I might. Sometimes it’s just too much trouble to tazer the bf into cleaning again. He grows stronger with each attack. Like Godzilla.