I have Windows XP Professional and MS Office 2000 installed on my work
computer.

The excel spreadsheet I open (lexicon.tab) contains translations for about
10 European languages. The only 2 that dont display properly are Greek and
Russian. These display on screen as messed up ascii characters.

The font i'm using is "Arial" but i've also tried "Arial Unicode MS" without
luck.

When i change the "language for non-unicode programs" (under Regional and
Language Options) from "English (Australian)" to "Greek" then restart the
computer, the Greek caracters in this same lexicon.tab excel spreadsheet
display correctly.

Reading the excel help files it indicates that excel uses unicode and by
changing the font to "Arial Unicode MS" most languages should display
correctly.
Why would changing the OS setting "language for non-unicode programs" affect
what is said to be a unicode program?

Could someone suggest how i can display Greek and Russian languages in Excel
without having to change the "language for non-unicode programs" setting in
XP and rebooting please?

Thanks,
Mark