ASP.NET, SQL Server, WPF, C#, VB.NET

 

Multi-Lingual Language Translations for ASP.NET By Robbe D. Morris Printer Friendly Version

Robbe & Melisa Morris

Here are a few free (paid for by me) language translations of common software terms for use in your multi-lingual ASP.NET application.  This is particularly helpful if you want to create a list of available languages in Spanish, German, Chinese, etc...
The language translation spreadsheet has generic term translations for Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Chinese-Simple, and Japanese.  The language name translations also includes Dutch, Korean, and Russian.
For display purposes, I've only included English, Spanish, German, and Italian.  You may notice that some of the special characters in certain languages do not render properly in your browser.  The spreadsheet mentioned above has all of the proper characters for these instances.
If you have never written a mult-lingual application, I strongly suggest purchasing a book that covers building multi-lingual applications in .NET.  There are ton of important things that you don't know.  I've included a few below.
A Few Things To Think About
1.	Text Width Varies From Language To Language
	Looking at the text table below, you can clearly see a need to consider the amount of space the same text string in one language takes up compared to the same text string in another language.  You may even need to use separate language specific stylesheets to accomodate Asian oriented languages in order to make their symbols large enough for a normal person to read.  You will want to consider placing your labels above data entry items versus the common practice of placing them to the left.  Also, all of the colum headings in your datagrid are going to be affected by text width.  Your graphics arts people will want to tighten up their layouts but beware, the text width variances are almost certain to create serious problems with how your pages look.
2.	Colors
	Colors have different meanings in different cultures.  For instance the color red commonly means:  Passion (US), love Death (Mexico), (Greece), luck (China), bloodshed (Africa), truth (India), and danger (Israel).  This issue typically shows up with button colors and html font colors.
3.	Text Alignment
	Certain cultures read/write text from right to left instead of left to right the way English is read.  This may create issues when you use css from a hard coded file reference.  You may want to consider culture specific stylesheets.
4.	Free Machine Language Translation Sites
	These sites are virtually worthless.  They are often completely off base.  That said, you are going to have to pay a professional company to translate your text.  Be aware that these companies often have a minimum price per quote per language.  So, they are going to stick it to you if you have say 90% of your application translated and then come back two days later and translate the remaining 10% you forgot to send them.  Read your contract very carefully...  The running rate (in the year 2008) is roughly $.25 to $.40 per word depending on the language.  The number of words per language will not be identical.  Some languages can increase your word count 20%.
5.	Number & Date Formatting
	There are many places where the .NET Framework just takes care of this for you.  However, it doesn't cover all situations.  Also, you will need to test any third party controls you are using to be certain they behave as you would expect.
	If your application is multi-lingual and supports multiple currencies, you'll need to manually account for number and currency formatting that doesn't necessarily match the current thread's culture settings.  This will require additional parameters such as CultureInfo to some of your formatting methods that were previously dependent on the current thread's culture settings.
6.	Error Messages
	Your testers are going to drive you nuts with bug reports stating that your .NET framework messages or custom messages aren't translated.  This will also show up in your JavaScript messages.
7.	Database
	You will want to try and create a generic reusable approach to populating your drop down lists from your cross reference tables in the database.  Anything short of that will require constant schema changes anytime you add a new language to the application.  You'll also want to tie this approach into other primary tables which aren't just lookup tables that you may display in a datagrid or on a form.  Any English string column you ever plan to display will need a translation.  Many of your business logic methods will need to have a language identifier added as a parameter.
	You may want to try and save your number, currency, and date oriented data in a single static culture.  This may make it easier to reformat the data based on which culture info is using the data in your application.
8.	Testing
	You need to budget for external software testing.  Trust me, if you can't read/write Chinese, you are not going to be able to adequately test your software either.  You will need to plan how you intend to interact with your testing company and what they need to know.  Be sure to test how your application behaves when the regional settings are different than on your development machine!
Resource Item English Spanish German Italian AboutUs About Us Acerca de nosotros Info Chi siamo AccessDenied Access denied Acceso denegado Zugriff verweigert Accesso negato Active Is active Está activa Ist aktiv Attivo Add Add Agregar Hinzufügen Aggiungi Ask Ask Preguntar Fragen Chiedi Back Back Atrás Zurück Indietro Bad Bad Mal Schlecht Non valido Browse Browse Examinar Browsen Sfoglia Cancel Cancel Cancelar Abbrechen Annulla Charts Charts Tablas Tabellen Grafici Close Close Cerrar Schließen Chiudi Collaborate Collaborate Colaborar Zusammenarbeiten Collabora Collapse Collapse Colapsar Reduzieren Comprimi Contact Us Contact Us Contáctenos Kontakt Contattaci Copy Copy Copiar Kopieren Copia CurrencyFormat Currency Divisa Währung Valuta CurrencyFormatNumberFormat Currency / Number Format Divisa / Formato de número Währung/Zahlenformat Formato valuta/Numero Cut Cut Cortar Ausschneiden Taglia DateCreated Date Created: Fecha de creación: Erstelldatum: Data Creazione: Delete Delete Eliminar Löschen Elimina DenyAccess Deny Access Acceso denegado Zugriff verweigern Nega accesso Down Down Abajo Abwärts Giù Download Download Bajar Herunterladen Download Edit Edit Editar Bearbeiten Modifica Email Email Enviar (por) correo electrónico E-Mail Email EmailMessage Email Message Mensaje de correo electrónico E-Mail-Benachrichtigung Messaggio email EmailRequiredWarning Email is required. Se requiere correo electrónico E-Mail ist erforderlich. Email obbligatoria. EmailSubject Email Subject Asunto del correo electrónico E-Mail-Thema Oggetto email Expand Expand Expandir/Ampliar Erweitern Espandi Export Export Exportar Exportieren Esporta False False Falsa Falsch Falso Finish Finish Finlandés Beenden Fine FirstName First Name Nombre Vorname Nome Forward Forward Reenviar Weiter Avanti Go Go Ir Wechseln zu Vai Good Good Bien Gut Buono GrantAccess Grant Access Otorgar acceso Zugang gewähren Garantisci accesso Help Help Ayuda Hilfe Guida Home Home Inicio Startseite Home Import Import Importar Importieren Importa Inactive Inactive Inactivo Inaktiv Inattivo Install Install Instalar Installieren Installa InvalidLoginCredentials. Invalid login credentials. Credenciales de inicio de sesión no validas. Ungültige Anmeldeinformationen. Credenziali di accesso non valide. ItemDeleted Item deleted. Item eliminado Eintrag gelöscht. Elemento eliminato. ItemNotUpdatedMessage Item not updated. Item no actualizado Eintrag nicht aktualisiert. Elemento non aggiornato. ItemUpdatedMessage Item updated. Item actualizado Eintrag aktualisiert. Elemento aggiornato. Language Language Idioma Sprache Lingua LastModified Last Modified: Última modificación: Zuletzt angepasst: Ultima modifica: LastName Last Name Apellido Nachname Cognome Licenses Licenses Licencias Lizenzen Licenze LicensesGranted Licenses granted Licencias otorgadas Gewährte Lizenzen Licenze garantite Login Login Iniciar sesión Anmeldung Accedi MiddleName Middle Name Segundo nombre Zweiter Vorname Secondo nome More More Más Mehr Altro NameHeading Name Nombre Name Nome NewUser New User Nuevo usuario Neuer Benutzer Nuovo utente Next Next Siguiente Weiter Avanti No No No Nein No NoLicenseGranted No licenses granted Ninguna licencia otorgada Keine Lizenzen gewährt Nessuna licenza garantita Ok Ok Aceptar Ok Ok Owner Owner Propietario Besitzer Proprietario Password Password Contraseña Passwort Password PasswordRequired Password required Contraseña obligatoria Passwort erforderlich Password obbligatoria Paste Paste Pegar Einfügen Incolla Pause Pause Pausa Pausieren Pausa Permissions Permissions Permisos Genehmigungen Autorizzazioni Please wait Please wait "Por favor, espere" Bitte warten Attendere Previous Previous Anterior Zurück Precedente Profile Profile Perfil Profil Profilo Progress Progress Progreso Fortschritt Stato ReadOnly Read Only Sólo lectura Lesezugriff Sola lettura RecordDoesNotExist Record does not exist. No existen registros Aufzeichnung nicht vorhanden. Record non esistente. Records {0} records found {0} registro encontrado {0} Aufzeichnung(en) gefunden {0} record trovati Refresh Refresh Actualizar Aktualisieren Aggiorna Rename Rename Renombrar Umbenennen Rinomina Reply Reply Responder Antworten Rispondi Required Required Obligatorio Erforderlich Obbligatorio ResetPassword Reset Password Restaurar contraseña Passwort Reimposta password Results Results Resultados Ergebnisse Risultati Resume Resume Reanudar Fortsetzen Riepilogo ReturnToLoginPage Return to login page Volver a la página de inicio de sesión Zur Anmeldeseite zurückkehren Ritorna alla pagina di accesso Revoke Revoke Revocar Sperren Revoca Salutation Salutation Saludo Grußformel Saluti SaveAndReturnLater Save And Return Later Guardar y volver más tarde Speichern und zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt zurückkehren Salva e ritorna successivamente Search Search Buscar Suchen Cerca SelectAll Select All Seleccionar todo Alle auswählen Seleziona tutto Send Send Enviar Senden Invia Settings Settings Valores Einstellungen Impostazioni SignOut Sign-out Abandonar sesión Abmelden Disconnetti Status Status Estado Status Stato Submit Submit Enviar Eingeben Invia Support Support Soporte Support Supporto Suspended Suspended Suspendido Ausgesetzt Sospeso Transmit Transmit Transmitir Übertragen Trasmissione True True True Wahr Vero Unknown Unknown Desconocido Unbekannt Sconosciuto Up Up Arriba Aufwärts Su Upload Upload Cargar Heraufladen Carica UserAccount User Account Cuenta de usuario Benutzerkonto Account utente UserManagement User Management Administración de usuario Benutzerverwaltung Gestione account UserName Username Nombre de usuario Benutzername Nome utente UserPermissions User Permissions Permisos de usuario Benutzergenehmigungen Autorizzazioni utente Users Users Usuarios Benutzer Utenti Yes Yes Sí Ja Sì

	Robbe is a 2004-2008 Microsoft MVP for C# and the .NET Evangelist for Alinean Inc..  He is also the co-founder of EggHeadCafe which provides .NET articles, book reviews, software reviews, and software download and purchase advice.