Synopsis:
Microsoft Word: How to set a foreign language; how to obtain a foreign language dictionary for spell checking as well as utilize a thesaurus. Much of the text below is courtesy of the built-in Help within Microsoft Word.

Solution:
Most dictionaries and thesauri are built-in components of the word processing application you are using. If you are using Microsoft Office XP (or 2003), you will need to purchase Microsoft Office Proofing Tools 2002 from Software Sales.

To set a foreign language

1. From the Tools menu, select Language --> Set Language

2. Scroll to select the language of your choice.

Please note that the above Language dialog box states that the speller and other proofing tools automatically use dictionaries of the selected language, if available. If the dictionaries/thesauri are not available on your computer, you will need to purchase them.

Microsoft Office XP Proofing Tools is an add-in package that contains the proofing tools that Microsoft makes for over 30 languages — for example fonts, spelling and grammar checkers, AutoCorrect lists, AutoSummarize rules (Microsoft Word only), translation dictionaries, and, for Asian languages, Input Method Editors (IMEs). Microsoft Proofing Tools can be purchased for $64 through OIT Software Sales at the Frist Solutions Center for a personal purchase. Departments only need to pay $3.00 for the CD.

Setting up your Office program to work in more than one language

To work with different languages in your Office program, you need to enable the appropriate languages for editing by using the Microsoft Office Language Settings tool. (On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office XP Language Settings.) Doing so makes additional language-specific options available. For example, if you install the English (U.S.) version of Office and you enable editing for Japanese, commands for formatting Japanese text appear on the Format menu in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel.

Using the Microsoft Office Language Settings tool, you can also change your default settings in Office to have them match the default settings of a different language. For example, if you are using an English version of Office but frequently work with right-to-left text, you can change the default installation language to a right-to-left language, thereby setting all of the Office defaults to right-to-left.

As you work in Word and PowerPoint, you can set the language of the text so that the correct proofing tools are used, and you can add language-specific words to a custom dictionary. In Word, you can fine-tune the ways the program handles text in different languages. For example, you can turn automatic language detection on or off, sort lists and tables according to the rules of the language you choose, and summarize documents in the language you choose. Additional proofing functionality is available in Microsoft Office XP Proofing Tools. For more information about Proofing Tools, see the Microsoft Office Web site.

Note: The different languages you're working with must be enabled through the Microsoft Office Language Settings tool. You must also make sure that the keyboard languages are installed through Microsoft Windows Control Panel. If you do not want to purchase software, there are many resources on the web that are free of charge, such as:
http://www.logos.it/lang/transl_en.html