Converting Database to French (1 Viewer)

[pallem]

Hi,
I have an existing Access 2003 database which I have to convert to French. The data in the tables is fine but the Forms, Command Buttons, Message boxes and Reports need to be converted to French. There are a lot of Forms and Reports so i'd prefer not to have to do the conversion manually. Has anyone any experience of doing this, or know of any tools that are available.
Many thanks for any help.

 

[June7]

Cross-posted https://www.utteraccess.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2051896&st=0&gopid=2705145&#entry2705145

 

[CJ_London]

not aware of a tool but I have done it in the past.

Simplistically I created a table with two fields (English (indexed no duplicates) and French) then had code that looped through each form, report and table and populating the table with all the (English) captions.

Then for each phrase in the table populate with the French equivalent. You used to be able to use an API to pass up to google translate and get the translation returned, but don't think it is available now - or perhaps only at a cost. Otherwise do it manually or pay a translator.

Then more code to loop through each form/report/table and replace the English phrase with the French one.

Some of the issues you will face

• Abbreviations probably won't translate
• Context - the wrong phrase is returned
• Some controls may have their caption created in code - e.g. message boxes
• Some controls may be conditional on an English phrase (conditional formatting, filters, etc)
• The French translation may be longer/shorter than the English equivalent, necessitating adjusting control sizes/positions

Edit: Just read the link provided by June - I agree with the sentiment 'a real problem unless you have built multilingual in from start'

 

[jdraw]

Pallem,

You may find a sample or an approach here. I am not familiar with the vendor; found it via Google.

Years ago we did similar thing to what CJ has mentioned. That was an Oracle based system. English/French was a design consideration from the very start.

 

[pallem]

Many thanks for all your replies. You have supplied some very useful info for me to use as a starting point.