Access Cookbook

Internationalize Text in Your Applications

Problem

You’d like to be able to pop up translated error messages in your applications, based on the currently running language version of Access. You’d also like other text on your forms and reports to adjust automatically based on the current language version. You know there are a number of ways to do this, but you can’t decide which is best. How should you store and retrieve messages in multiple languages?

Solution

The translated version of Access handles its own error messages (in the German version, for example, the Access error messages appear in German). But you do need to translate your own messages if you want your application to run smoothly in other languages. Though there are several methods of handling text, the most generic solution uses a table of messages, which you can look up by ID number.

Load and run the form frmTestMessage from 04-06.MDB. This form, shown in Figure 4-12, allows you to choose from three different languages (English, French, and Spanish) in an option group. As you choose each language, code attached to the option group’s AfterUpdate event changes accordingly the captions for labels on the form and the status-bar text for text boxes. To try a sample error message in the chosen language, click the Test Message button.

Figure 4-12. The sample form, frmTestMessage, showing the French test error message

In each ...