Microsoft finally speaks local language

Urdu language pack for Microsoft Office released. Language pack only compatible with Office 2010.

KARACHI: People finally have the option of using Urdu in Microsoft Office with the release of the software giant’s Microsoft Office Language Interface Pack 2010.

However, this language pack is only functional with Microsoft Office 2010 and not the older versions.

Analysts pointed out that this would increase incentives for people to upgrade to the newer version of Microsoft Office.

This has been one of the most important developments as just six or seven months earlier Google started offering translation tools which allowed 57 languages to be translated into Urdu and vice versa, giving a large percentage of the population access to content which was not accessible earlier.

Microsoft Office 2010 users can download the latest language interface pack from Microsoft download centre for free.

The following programmes are supported under the new interface pack, Microsoft Office Excel 2010, Microsoft Office OneNote 2010, Microsoft Office Outlook 2010, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010, Microsoft Office Word 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2010.