Optimize Your PC for German
German-Friendly
Windows XP and Mac OS X
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NOTE: If you need information for earlier versions of Windows (95/98/ME), see Can Your PC Speak German?
Since 1998, when I first wrote an article asking Can Your PC Speak German?, the world of computing has brought forth many new developments and improvements (and updates to that article). With the advent of the Mac OS X and Windows XP operating systems, computers have become much more foreign-language friendly.
A Mac or Windows PC bought in the United States and other English-speaking countries comes with English as the default language. For most people that's just fine, but it doesn't mean that you're restricted to English only! Macs in particular have always supported an easy way to type foreign-language characters, and the Windows OS, while never as foreign-language friendly as the Mac OS, did offer its rather clunky Alt-key codes/character map method of typing foreign languages. You could also switch languages and keyboard settings, as we pointed out in a previous article. However, with the advent of Windows XP, Mac Jaguar and later Mac OS X versions, switching between English and other languages has become much easier. Foreign language proofing tools are also more integrated into many software applications for both the Windows and Mac platforms.
Office:mac offers Mac users the same German
proofing tools as Office XP in Windows.
> Compare Prices
The world's dominant word processor, Microsoft Word, now includes a more robust set of foreign-language proofing tools in the English-language X versions of Office/Word (Mac and Windows). You can now spell check a document that is in more than one language (e.g., English and German), but as usual, Microsoft doesn't make it as easy as it should be. You have to figure out how to set up multilingual proofing by either going to online help or being a computer savant. (Whatever happened to printed user's manuals? - Don't worry, I tell you how later in this article.)
Want some fun next time you work with your Mac or PC? Set your computer's language to German. The next time you open a program, all the on-screen menus will be in German! "Select all" will now read "Alles auswählen." Find out how on the next few pages!
The latest versions of the Windows and Mac operating systems and application software now offer improved access to languages other than English. If you want to optimize your Mac or Windows PC to use German and other languages, read on.
MORE > Windows XP
MORE > Mac OS X
MORE > Proofing German in Word
MORE > Computer Glossary - How do you say "hard drive" in German?