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Need to localize languages in the Select Language list box

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:22 am
by sdeschenes
I have localized my installation for Spanish speakers and when my installer is run on a Spanish OS, the "Select Setup Language" is displayed in Spanish, but the list of selectable languages are still in English.

Is there a way to localize the language names in the "Select Setup Language" list box?

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:45 am
by ulrichard
Hi sdeschenes,

you could try to rename the translation files, and see what happens...

Rgds
Richard

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:07 am
by MichaelNesmith
If you need to customize that list, you can just build your own custom dialog and hide the built-in language selector dialog. The LANGUAGE pre-defined variable, when set from script, changes the language - the same effect as the built-in language selector dialog has. So feel free to customize as necessary.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:58 pm
by sdeschenes
When on a Spanish OS, how does the installer know to use the shared strings contained in the translations.Spanish file?

When I localize the languages that are listed, the installer needs to know to use the shared strings in translations.Espanol, instead of translations.Spanish.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:37 pm
by MichaelNesmith
That's not how the system is designed to work. You won't get anywhere down that road. The proper way is to use my suggestion, which is to build your own custom dialog, and override LANGUAGE from that - rather than showing the built-in dialog and trying to hack it.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:21 pm
by sdeschenes
I created my own custom dialog, localized it and hid the built-in language selector dialog. But when I run my installer, my custom dialog is always in English.

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:02 am
by MichaelNesmith
Before showing the custom dialog, you can pre-set the LANGUAGE variable to any value you like, based on what language the operating system is currently operating at.

Re: Need to localize languages in the Select Language list b

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:41 pm
by MichaelM
I am using trying to use technique of a custom language selection dialog. I created a drop down list that contains the language selections. The dialog returns the selected language text. Is there a way for the dialog to return a code instead of the language text. For example the local ID of the language instead of the text.

The issue is that the text for each language will be different for each of the translated languages.

Re: Need to localize languages in the Select Language list b

Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 8:55 am
by alibaba
AFAIK the returning text can be edited in the localized .txt files.

Re: Need to localize languages in the Select Language list b

Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 11:20 am
by MichaelM
That is what I am doing now. It just means that the text returned is different for every language. For example the English installer displays English as English. But the French version displays (and returns) English as Anglais. It would be nice to have a value returned that does not change with language.

Re: Need to localize languages in the Select Language list b

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:33 am
by alibaba
That is what I also do not understand. Why are Variables localized in IA?

Re: Need to localize languages in the Select Language list b

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:47 pm
by mills
I would like to see an example of what's being talked about.

I tried to create a sample project to test what's being claimed, but couldn't seem to get variables with different values as described.

Perhaps you can take a look at my sample and edit it to exhibit these translated variables.

Re: Need to localize languages in the Select Language list b

Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:22 am
by alibaba
What I mean is that variables appear in the localization txt files. IMHO this is not necessary and could cause errors if you give the text files to a translation office. Because also variables like "TRUE", "FALSE" and Language Identifiers will be translated and setup will not work because maybe the check uses a translated string but the set variable was not translated or the other way round.
For instance in InstallShield there are no variables translated.

My wish for next version would be IA with the translation system from InstallShield, because this was much more easy to handle. :wink: