Plan and configure multiple language support in Exchange 2000

This article discusses the issues to consider when you configure Exchange 2000 to include multiple language support.

Planning Considerations

Consider the following issues before you complete an Exchange 2000 rollout:

• Determine your Active Directory design.
• Design your Exchange 2000 topology.
• Design the administrative groups and routing groups.
• Define client administrative areas, such as centralized or decentralized support for users of each language.

Planning how to implement Exchange 2000 to include support for multiple languages is a multifaceted process. First, you must determine which languages to support for both clients and servers. Then, you must create a set of naming conventions that comply with the rules for naming. You must also determine how to support the various locales.

For more information about naming and character-set considerations, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: As you think about who your users will be and who will administer your Exchange 2000 servers, consider the following:

• The mail client that end users will use and any additional mail clients that might be used, such as Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA)
• The protocols that Exchange 2000 will support, such as MAPI, IMAP, and POP

When you are determining which clients and protocols to support, consider the following:

• If you use OWA, you must install Help files for each language that will be used.
• If you use MAPI, you must add code page support to all global catalog servers that service the client's logon. If you do not, users cannot log on to their mail servers. See the "Active Directory Configuration" section for more information.
• If you use IMAP, consider consolidating the public folder servers or restricting their access over IMAP.
• If you use POP, consider how folder names are created and how this might affect users who connect by using multiple protocols.

For more information about folder naming in Exchange 2000, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about how to plan an Exchange 2000 implementation, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Active Directory Configuration

Exchange 2000 is closely integrated with the Active Directory directory service. When an Outlook client tries to obtain the Global Address List, the client contacts the preferred global catalog server directly. For a client that uses an earlier version of Outlook, Exchange 2000 obtains the Global Address List from the global catalog server and forwards it to the client.

NOTE: Global catalog servers maintain a partial replica of every object in an Active Directory forest and are used for querying objects.

To support multiple language Outlook clients, you must add a registry key to all Global Catalog servers in Active Directory to support international sorting. By default, Active Directory only supports English-language sort orders. You can add a sort order by adding the Locale ID value to a registry key on the Global Catalog servers that are running Windows 2000 Server.

Locales are created by combining language and geographic location. Locales determine how date, currency, and time values appear. Locales also determine other international settings. Locale information includes:

• Sorting rules
• Date and time formatting
• Numeric and monetary conventions
• Character classification

The locales that are supported by Exchange 2000 are determined when the server is installed. For more information about how to modify the locales that are supported by Exchange 2000, see "Set Locales" in Exchange 2000 Help.

To add the registry key to support international sorting, follow these steps.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate to the following subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Ntds/Language
4. Right-click Language, point to New, click DWORD Value, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click the DWORD value that you created in step 4, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type the value of the locale identification that you want add.
7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the server computer.

For additional information about Exchange 2000 and Active Directory deployment considerations, visit the following Microsoft Web page:

Exchange 2000 Configuration

The default offline address list is displayed in the language of the Exchange 2000 server that was installed first. Additional offline address lists can be created on Exchange 2000 servers that provide multiple language support. Create additional offline address lists to support MAPI clients who use languages with sort orders other than the sort order of the default offline address list.

Note The sort order for various languages is handled differently. For example, the German alphabet has two "A" characters; one of the “A” characters comes before the other.

For additional information about how to create offline address lists, see "Create an Offline Address List" in Exchange 2000 Help.