* [Wish List 637] Ability to change user interface language

[khunkai]

Hello,

I have tried to find it in the knowledge base...

Anyone knows if they planning to launch other application languages for the program?
I use Norwegian, which as we know is not exactly useful, even with the add on.


rgds
Kai

[ColeValleyGirl]

Calico Pie never advertise their plans, but I think it's likely that the existing Language Pack mechanism will remain the way to support additional languages.

Are you saying the existing Norwegian language pack in the Plugin Store doesn't meet your requirements? If so, have you contacted the authors and discussed improvements you'd like to see?

[khunkai]

Norwegian language pack in the Plugin Store is probably good for what they want it to be.

I like the program itself to offer various languages.

[Mark1834]

That should be possible in principle. There are plenty of applications, particularly in the open source arena, where the actual interface language and messages build off language packs supplied by the community rather than being hard coded.

I suspect that FH was not built with that facility in mind, and it would probably be a major exercise to change the design retrospectively, but it could always be a Wish List item if anybody felt sufficiently strongly about it. There's an element of Catch-22 here though - the Wish List is maintained and voted on by users, and if you are put off the application by its English-only interface, you are probably not a current user...

[ColeValleyGirl]

Mark, I suspect there could be current users who would prefer a non-English language interface. I shall move this to New Wish List Requests for further discussion.

[ColeValleyGirl]

This seems to me that this could be a request to allow users (perhaps via something akin to, or an extension of, the Language Pack concept) to customise the language of the FH user interface.

[Mark1834]

That's how I read it.

[OlivierM]

This seems to me that this could be a request to allow users (perhaps via something akin to, or an extension of, the Language Pack concept) to customise the language of the FH user interface.

I think this would have an important impact on the sales of FH, especially in countries like France and Germany.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Problem Statement

The Family Historian user interface is currently English-only.

Proposal

It would be an improvement if the interface could be made available in other languages, perhaps by a mechanism similar to (or an extension of) the current community-sourced Language Pack concept.

=========================================

Any objections or enhancements to this? I've kept it deliberately simple -- we don't need to be discussing implementation here, other than to acknowledge that Language Packs already exist.

[tatewise]

That sounds good to me as long as 'user interface' includes the Help pages.

[ColeValleyGirl]

That sounds good to me as long as 'user interface' includes the Help pages.

That's a big ask for community-sourcing. Plus Google Translate exists...

[tatewise]

Isn't that an implementation detail? The Proposal only suggests community-sourcing as an option.

Yes, Google Translate might be a good alternative.
One occasional hindrance is that the Help text concatenates words at the end and start of lines, which sometimes confuses the translation. It has been a long-standing peeve of mine that has been not worth reporting.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Being realistic, this isn't going to get done any way except community sourcing.

Are you talking about the Help text in the programme or the html conversion? If the HTML conversion, it looks as if it's done with https://www.helpwaregroup.com/products/far which hasn't been updated for 4 years, so it might involve changing to a paid product to fix, and I wouldn't want to jeopardise the availability on online help.

Edited to add: The help authoring tool I use would cost £550 if I bought it now, and it doesn't have multi-language support.

[tatewise]

The Help text concatenation only applies to the FH internal Help, but that is the likely first port of call.
Unless I'm mistaken the online HTML conversion will only be discovered after the user discovers FHUG.
Since FH V7 now only works with a Broadband connection, CP could ditch the internal Help and just link to the online version, which is what many other products do.

[Vyger]

We are straying off subject a little as regards Help files imo.

Personally I see the online context sensitive as a FH advantage. Yes online is more easily updated but another product dropped the online help and F1 to great criticism, they now try to point specifically to online help.

I know many who have preferred to convert the chm file to PDF as a reference. Straying really off topic I always believed "Getting the most..." books should be PDF, how good for your product would worldwide piracy of such a good reference be?

Back to topic and I'm happy with Helen's definition.

[Mark1834]

Happy with Helen's proposal. It's also probably worth clarifying the assertion that "FH V7 now only works with a Broadband connection", which may confuse new users. It requires a temporary internet connection for activation, but this could be as basic as tethering to a phone. Once activated, it works fine offline for users without reliable broadband or on a laptop without an active connection.

[Vyger]

Wish List item 637 has been created. Please vote for it to let Calico Pie know if you wish to see this feature introduced.