multilingual db

[hpw]

am I right in thinking that to get a tri-lingual db, the only way is to copy all the layouts twice, rename them, change the labels and adapt the button scripts so they link to the desired layout of the same language?

I just want to be sure not to create an absurdly complex db for a very simple problem.

thanks

hans peter

[T-Square]

I shudder to think about what this would do to your scripts... How many layouts and fields are you talking about?

Thinking off the top of my head...

Another way might be to create an interface module, with a table for languages, a table for interface elements, and a join table between them. You'd create separate entries for each language, for each data element on a layout, and then add language-specific terms in the join table.

For example:

LANG:

ID Lang

------------

1 ENG

2 FRE

3 GER

SCREENELEMENTS:

ID Field

------------

1 FName

2 LName

3 Address

JOIN:

LID FID Term

---------------

1 1 First Name

2 1 Prenom

3 1

etc.

Then, instead of labels, use these fields, based on the language selected by the user.

Although this would be hell to set up, what with all the different screen elements to track, I think it would ultimately be less trouble to maintain--especially when you have to add a fourth language.

But I have no idea whether this idea would actually work!

Best of luck.

David