Full support for localization

[Doris Kochanek]

SUF5 has greatly improved support for multi-language installers, but it's still incomplete. Localization should be supported for *any* item which ends up as text visible to the user. This includes:
- all main screen headings and text items
- any shortcut descriptions
- control panel description and shortcut description for the uninstall program

[Ted]

Doris,

Setup Factory 5.0 already supports everything you listed for multilingual installations (however the uninstall descriptions are a bit tricky). You'll note that every command now has a "condition" tab. One of those conditions in "Language". This allows you to create a shortcut description ONLY if the language is "French", for example. You'll have to create these shortcuts using the Shortcut Editor rather than from the File Properties, but it works.

Screens work the same way. You can attach conditions to each screen the same as commands. You'll likely want to have a "Neutral" screen as a default as well.

Check out the manual chapter titled "Multilingual Installations" for a good walkthrough. If you come across something that isn't covered, let us know!

[Doris Kochanek]

Ted,
I'm aware of all the features you mention, and have in fact used all of those already. For example, I realized that shortcuts from the File properties did not allow localization, so I ended up having to use the shortcut editor (using conditions based on language) to create two different shortcuts. Then on uninstall I of course also needed to add two separate shortcut removals (if I had been able to use the File Properties, I wouldn't have needed any shortcut removals, since the shortcut would have been removed automatically on uninstall). All I really wanted was a different label in English and French. Why not just allow me to localize the label on the basic File Properties shortcut? (Just like I can localize the language for the installation types, without having to jump through hoops or creating separate installation types for each language.)
As far as screens are concerned, all my wizard screens are in fact conditionally displayed, based on language, but I did not find any way to localize the *main* screen, i.e. the one that acts as a backdrop for the wizard screens. I ended up having to make a bilingual screen for that, but it's less than elegant since it stays bilingual throughout the installation, even after the user has selected a language.
Finally, for the uninstall I ended up with a rather cryptic bilingual shortcut "Uninstall - supprimer", because including the product name in both languages would have been far too long.
In summary, my comments on shortcuts were related to making localization a bit more convenient, while my comments about the main screen and uninstall addressed issues where I couldn't find any way to fully localize the installer.
Hope this clarifies my earlier posting.
-Doris

[Ted]

Thanks for the clarification. We're always trying to improve our products. I'll add your suggestions to our database for future consideration.