Localizing Multilingual Executables

Solution

How Alchemy Catalyst deals with a multilingual file

If a dll/exe containing resources with two (or more) different language properties is inserted in a TTK, Alchemy Catalyst deals with it in 2 different ways.

The user must set up the requisite source and target language for the TTK within Alchemy Catalyst, for example source: English, target: German. Then go to Tools menu > Options > Project Languages and tick the "Executables are Multi-Lingual" checkbox.

If this is checked, Alchemy Catalyst will show the resources which have the TARGET language property, i.e. German in our example. So, the translator will just see the resources that he/she is to translate.

Leveraging (or any other operation) will just be carried out on the visible resources, i.e. just those with the German language property.

If this multi-lingual checkbox is not checked, the user will see all resources of all languages and any operation (e.g. leveraging) will take place on all the resources in the file.

When the file is extracted from Alchemy Catalyst, all resources with their relevant language properties are maintained and extracted.

Creating a multilingual file

Alchemy Catalyst does not provide a method for 'generating' resources with different language properties; the resources must already exist in the file that you insert into a TTK. For example, you have a dll/exe with resources with the language property 'English (US)' and you wish the final dll/exe to contain the original resources plus the same resources translated into French.

You would have to copy and paste an extra set of the existing resources into the original file, changing the language property of the new resources to French.

The easiest way to do this is (Using test.exe as an example file name):

Open the executable file in Microsoft Visual Studio and save it under a different name, e.g. test1.exe.
Open the original file test.exe, so both test.exe and test1.exe should now be open.
From the menu, select Window > Tile vertically, the two files should be displayed side by side.
Expand the dialog resources in test1.exe.
Select the first dialog resource, press the Shift key and select the last dialog resource, all the dialog resources should now be selected.
Right click, select Properties and change Language to French.
Right click again on the selected resources and drag over to test.exe, release mouse button.
Select Copy, the resources with French language property should now be copied to test.exe.

Reason for creating a multilingual file

The usual reason for creating multilingual files is so that the language of the application will change according to the user's language settings on their machine. Language settings are found in the Regional Settings icon in the Control Panel. The application's code must be written to support this feature, copying and pasting resources is not enough to change the language shown when the application/file is executed.

Products or Versions Affected