Language options

In a multi-language version of Vitalware the language selected here determines what language is used to display text (field names, menus, etc.). The only text not affected by this setting is data, where data consists of values entered into the system.

To change the prompts language either:

• Select Tools>Language from the menu bar and selecting a language:

  

  -OR-

• Select a language from the Prompts drop list on the Language tab of the Options box:

  

Note: In single language versions of Vitalware the Data drop list is disabled.

In this example, English is selected from the Prompts drop list and the Person tab of the Parties module displays as:

In this example, French is selected from the Prompts drop list and the Person tab of the Parties module displays as:

In a multi-language environment it is possible to specify the order in which languages are displayed. The Display Order list box lists each supported language. Select a language in the Display Order list and use the arrow buttons beside the list to change the order in which data in each language displays in the Vitalware client.

When All Languages is selected from the Data drop list, it is possible to specify the order in which languages are displayed in fields in the Vitalware client. For instance, if the supported languages are English and French, the following setting specifies that values in French will display before their translation in English:

Now the Organization tab of the Parties module (shown above) displays as:

However, the following setting is also useful:

To assist with data entry, various facilities in a multi-language version of Vitalware always show strings with all languages even if a single language is selected in the Data drop list.

For example, if a Lookup List box is displayed, all languages are always shown so that users may select the correct entry based on context. This is particularly important where one term in a given language has multiple terms in another language. To demonstrate: the French word voiture may be translated to English as car, but also as carriage (as in a train carriage). As such there are two possible Lookup List entries for voiture, namely:

voiture;:;car
voiture;:;carriage

If the Lookup List only displayed the French entries when French is the data language selected, it would not be clear which variant was required. By showing all languages it is possible to decide which entry is correct.

Language data in these facilities is displayed in the order specified in the Display Order drop list. Based on the Language Settings shown in the last screenshot, prompts and data will display in English, and in a Lookup Selection box English data will display before the French translation:

In general, when a single language is selected for displaying Data, the same language should appear first in the Display Order list.

Note: See Colors options: the Use First option in the Colors tab of the Options box can be used to specify the color used to display the text for the use first filled value.

Note: There is an important distinction between the storage and the display of language data in Vitalware: the Supported Registry entry defines which languages are supported by Vitalware and the order in which the language data is stored within Vitalware. If you plan to use Vitalware to store multiple languages it is very important to define the order of the languages before entering data into the system. Once data has been entered, any changes to the language order will require existing data to be exported, manipulated (swapping the order of the data) and imported. While this is possible it is much easier to leave the language order unchanged once it is set.
On the other hand, it is a simple matter to change the order in which language data is displayed in the Vitalware client by using the Display Order option on the Language tab of the Options box.