Multi Language Support

[jdy0803]

My application program's default language is English.
I want to make it support several language, for example, English/Spanish/Franch/Chinese/Russian.
Default is English and change in the Preference window.
How could I do this?


Long time ago, in VB6 application, I have done this using Excel file which have columns(English/Spanish/French...)
Rows were text string which is used in the menu, label, messagebox....
I read those strings and displayed relevant foreign language text.


But I'm not sure if this way is reasonable even in .NET environment.
Can anybody give me any idea?

 

[jmcilhinney]

The way to do this in .NET is to use Globalization and Localization. Globalization is designing your app to be able to support multiple cultures and Localization is then making it support a specific culture. It's done by using resources where a culture-specific data is required. You build the resources for the default culture into the EXE and then you simply provide a satellite assembly for each additional culture that you want to support. A satellite assembly is a DLL that contains nothing but resources.

You should start by looking up Globalization and Localization on MSDN. That may well give you all you need but, if not, you should be able to find tutorials and/or examples elsewhere on the web.