a little guide to localize FMP7 to ur language~ :)

[Deep Thought II]

well, at first when i came to FMP7, i just wondered why it would drop support for Chinese version when it was in FM 5 or something. this is odd for me. FileMaker doesn't want to take a stand in today's China's database market? or was it Oracle and MS SQL stepped into China way too early and FM is not going to step in?

well anyway. i wanted to localize FMP7 to simplified Chinese version since most of my clients are Chinese. so far i have been implementing layouts all in Chinese, but when they use FMP7, they are just not used to see English menus.

although they can do everything they can with my layout design as from the menu, they still prefer to be able to read what those English menus do.

it's not that they don't know any English... it's just that everytime they have to read English words, extra brain work is needed... in most cases, not many people is used to read another language other than their mother language.

(Step 1)

fortunately, with today's software tools, u can change a software's language easily without much programming knowledge, provided that u have one of the following tools. u only need to know what is a dialog, menu, and string is... and that's most likely it, and u can also change the program's icons, cursors, etc.

1. Alchemy Catalyst

2. Visual Localize

3. Multilizer

4. eXeScope

etc.

if u use #1, there is a slight burdensome problem. that is, there are actually several errors in FMP7's resource library in the validating process that cannot easily be fixed (such as invalid characters), and #1 has problem saving the file in the new language. so i dont quite recommend it. #1 is a little complicated and is built for programming groups. here we actually only need a med-size to small-size tool to localize FMP7.

(Step 2)

so u got one of the localizing software. what's next? next u will want to get a good dictionary so u dont have to go through each menu, dialogs, etc., to translate it. fortunately, the greedy Microsoft provided free dictionaries that they used in their Office, Windows, etc., products in localized languages. Microsoft gave away how they translated from one language to another with these dictionaries. to get these dictionaries, go to:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/msdn/NewUp/glossary/

and download the language that u want to translate to. after u download the dictionary, use the software that u acquired from (Step 1) to absorb the dictionaries. the softwares i mentioned above all have such features (except eXeScope i think) to load dictionary files, especially Multilizer, it's nice such that it recognizes Microsoft's dictionaries. for Visual Localize, u will need to manually set the format of the dictionary, such as first column being English, second column being Chinese, separated by tabs, and so on.

(Step 3)

Now u got the software and the dictionary, it's time to locate the file to edit. for FMP7, it's actually quite simple. here is how it works, if u are using the English verion, FMP7 loads (FMP7 installation path)/Extensions/English/FMRSRC.dll for, as far as i have seen, about 90% of FMP7's menus, dialogs, strings, etc. a few dialogs are located in some other files, unless u want to make a totally perfect localized FMP7, FMRSRC.dll is quite enough.

if you are using another language of FMP7, i would suppose the resource file that is located at (FMP7 installation path)/Extensions/(language)/FMRSRC.dll

for some reason FMP7 just includes all the language resources it supports in its installation path. doesn't that take some extra space if... the user only uses, say, English?

a key thing here to remember is that, there is a file also named FMRSRC.dll in the FMP7 instalation path, but FMP7 doesn't use that for its resources. it's just sitting there for nothing. i tried deleting that file and FMP7 still runs fine. after all, FMP7 uses the resource file from its Extensions/(language)/FMRSRC.dll. so dont waste ur time editing that file, unless u want to take an extra step to replace the one in Extensions folder later.

so in short, for (Step 3). just fire up the software in (Step 1), and open up the correct FMRSRC.dll file, and there u will see the menus, dialogs, strings, icons, cursors, etc., that are used by FMP7. use the software to translate them, and then save it. that's all u need to do. remember to save a backup copy of FMRSRC.dll, in case u screw up.

ideally, editing these things is totally safe, programming wise. in FMP7's case, it's just that simple to localize, and pretty safe as far as i tried and used.

i have successfully translated FMP7 to simplified Chinese, including menus (still under translation) and dialogs. it works great, and doesn't effect how FMP7 functions at all.

(Conclusion)

another weird observation is that FMD7 and FMP7 seem to use the SAME resource files (although i haven't done a complete file comparison). in FMP7's resource file FMRSRC.dll, there are dialogs, menus, etc., for FMD7. and if u check the "output" of FMD7, it is FM7Pro.exe (or FMPro.exe i don't quite recall right now)!~ so which means FMP7 might inherit the functionality of FMD7 (which is just a possibility).

anyway~ although i dont really know if localizing this product is legal or not~ it's worth asking FM if u want to translate their software to some other language and use them (not commercially sell them of course)~

p.s. it is the same method for translating FMD7, use (FMD7 installation path)/Extensions/(language)/FMRSRC.dll for editing.~

[Deep Thought II]

Below is a contribution made by Zodiac for further localizing FMP7:

in the Extensions/(language)/ folder, beside FMRSRC.dll, there is a file named FMStrs.dls, in it there are numerous strings that's used by FMP7.

for those who wish to localize these strings, make a copy of the same file, and then rename the copied file to FMStrs.fp7.

then open it with FMP7, and use Table or List view to see the values in it.

i have not done extensive testing of editing this file, but logically, u would translate the strings, and save as FMStr.lst. then open FM and see what happens.

make sure u backup a copy of the files that u edited. :-)

good luck and have fun localizing ur FMP7~ -) thanks to Zodiac for providing more info for FMP7 localization~

p.s. to share ur translation, simply put FMRSRC.dll and FMStrs.dls somewhere people can download, then overwrite the existing ones in Extensions/(language). remember to backup the original, just in case...

[cjaeger]

GREAT TIP! (the second one)

Even when you are English native, this way you can have a copy of FileMaker 7 which understands the calc formulas pasted over from FileMaker 6. !!

In German. those differences are enourmous. They changeed about every function's name.