Installing the English Language Pack for Office 2007

Like most teachers who come to Korea, you'll find that you're given a computer that has the Korean version of Windows installed.  Unless you speak Korean fluently, you'll find that this leads to a lot of stumbling around the user interface trying to figure out which button to click.

Fortunately, you can "fix" Microsoft Office so that its menus and buttons are in English.  Finding the proper install file can be hard to find because Microsoft has stopped distributing the file, but Digital River (a distribution partner of Microsoft) still has a copy available on their servers (see link below).  It was well worth the effort, as it saves me tons of time when I'm preparing worksheets and presentations for my lessons.

Here are the instructions:

1. Download the English Language Pack for Office 2007 at: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msoffice/pub/X12-42421/X12-42421.exe
2. Run the downloaded program.
3. Open 시작 > 모든 프로그램 > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office 도구 > Microsoft Office 2007 언어 설정 (which translates to Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings)
4. Change the drop-down box on the first tab from 한국어 to English.
5. Click the left button on the bottom of the dialog to apply the changes.
6. Re-open Microsoft Office.  Congratulations!  You can now read the menus and buttons!

Note, this does NOT install a new copy of Microsoft Office.  It simply updates the existing copy of Microsoft Office to support additional languages in its User Interface.

I did all this before I decided to write this tutorial.  So, if I missed any steps, or if you get stuck, please let me know and I'll get it fixed.  I'm using Office 2007, but if anyone else figures out how to do this for the other versions of Office, please post on here for the benefit of anyone who stumbles on this post who is using those versions.

I hope this is helpful to someone!