Internationalising Help Files

[Tim Freeman]

Hi,

Hope this isn't too dumb a query. I've been developing a VB application
for the international market (aimed at Australia and UK initially). I
have removed all labels from forms that used to contain dollars or pound
signs, and have formated boxes to display the correct local currencies,
which works nicely.

Problem is, is that I've created a help file with over 60 screenshots
that show my local dollar sign - I now have to recreate the same
screenshots and html files to show pound signs for the UK market!
OK, I'll have to re-do the lot...

Query is: has anyone out there been in a similar situation. What's the
best approach to handle it?

Thanks,

Tim.

[Raoul Watson]

"Tim Freeman" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:Rb*******************@news-server.bigpond.net.au...

Hi,

Hope this isn't too dumb a query. I've been developing a VB application
for the international market (aimed at Australia and UK initially). I
have removed all labels from forms that used to contain dollars or pound
signs, and have formated boxes to display the correct local currencies,
which works nicely.

Problem is, is that I've created a help file with over 60 screenshots
that show my local dollar sign - I now have to recreate the same
screenshots and html files to show pound signs for the UK market!
OK, I'll have to re-do the lot...

Query is: has anyone out there been in a similar situation. What's the
best approach to handle it?

This may not be the answer you seek but worth considering in the future.
Over 20 years ago I program the Macintosh where resources are stored
independently of the code. This makes localization a heck a lot easier,
replace the resource and you're done.

As far as screen display, in the future I am not sure there is a need for
currency sign at all. If I am in the US, I understand my Microsoft money
handling my bank account would be in dollars. If I am in Indonesia, in
Rupiahs, etc. The only issue I see here is the decimal point (between a coma
and a period). So I suggest, you have the same screen shots, and just
manually have different litle rectangles which will be filled with the
proper dollars, pound sterling, Deutche Mark, etc. So basically the
rectangles will be dropped on the right x and y coordinates on the screen.
This method could be as simple as capturing the bmp and use paint to
manually place the squares. This will help you in recapturing those screens
for localization without having to run the program over and over entering
data and setting up scenarios so the screen display would match the
description.

[Tim Freeman]

Hi Raoul,

Many thanks for the reply.

This may not be the answer you seek but worth considering in the future.
Over 20 years ago I program the Macintosh where resources are stored
independently of the code. This makes localization a heck a lot easier,
replace the resource and you're done. Will definitely look at going down this track if a similar project comes
up. I'll have to read up on using resource files!
As far as screen display, in the future I am not sure there is a need for
currency sign at all. If I am in the US, I understand my Microsoft money
handling my bank account would be in dollars. If I am in Indonesia, in
Rupiahs, etc. The only issue I see here is the decimal point (between a coma
and a period). I agree here, it's just the guy I'm working for in the UK seems to think
it's a neccessity...
So I suggest, you have the same screen shots, and just manually have different litle rectangles which will be filled with the
proper dollars, pound sterling, Deutche Mark, etc. So basically the
rectangles will be dropped on the right x and y coordinates on the screen.
This method could be as simple as capturing the bmp and use paint to
manually place the squares. This will help you in recapturing those screens
for localization without having to run the program over and over entering
data and setting up scenarios so the screen display would match the
description.

I like the idea and I'll give it a trial run for future reference.
Should be fairly easy to re-do the old labels like this and put a box
for the currency at the head of data grid colums.
Still have to convince the boss that a user won't forget what country
he's in though!

Best regards,

Tim.