Language support has been built into Pract-Eze Dental from day one, and it gets better with each version. The code is all written to automatically adapt to the user's computer settings. The translations are specific to the culture (country), not just the language. So, for instance, there are many different Spanish translations available, depending on which country you are in. If a translation has not been made for your country, it will use any translation for the same language from a different country.
A translation tool is part of the Pract-Eze Dental program itself. If you want to translate, you should first install Pract-Eze Dental, probably the trial version, and then go to the Main Menu | Tools | Language Translation. That menu item will not be visible unless your computer is set to use a foreign language in the Control Panel of Windows.
All translations are organized by category, usually the name of the window they are displayed in. You need to become familiar with the program to understand the various categories and windows. The more you use the program, the more phrases will be available for translation and the more categories will show, since the program dynamically adds the English phrases as they are used. Double click on a category to edit translations:
This window shows all the available translations, although more will probably be added as you work with the program. Double click on an item to edit:
You will not be able to add English comments, since that is only for our use. You can change the translation or the comment for your language. The 'Other Translation' will show any other available translations for your language. For instance, if you are translating for
Specific instructions for translators:
When translating, you must look at the screen of the window you are translating. Switch from the Translation Tool to the main program frequently to see what the changes look like. It is very important to look at the context of the phrase as it is used in the program. When translating for button text, try to keep the length of the text the same or shorter than the English version. If that is not possible, don't worry, because will automatically make itself bigger.
Each language has one translator at a time who "manages" the translations. If there is more than one person who wants to do it, you can rotate the position. There is now a discussion forum for each language where you can discuss changes. The manager will do most of the actual translations with input from the other translators. The manager will then send us one file which we will post for others to use. If you want to manage some translations, please email us and we will work you into the rotation.
If you don't know a good translation for a phrase, leave it blank. Then, discuss it some more with the other translators, or let the next manager do it. There is no rush. We want the translations to be accurate and consistent throughout the program. If you want to change a translation that someone else made, strongly consider discussing it with everyone first. There may be a reason why it is that way. There will be one discussion forum for each language.
If a phrase needs to be left blank (for instance, Social Security Number), insert a space in the table. A space is very different from an empty field. A space will make the word show up empty; an empty field will retain the English version.
Future improvements to language features:
1. We need to create an import/export feature for Procedure Codes because right now it is very difficult to maintain multiple databases for different countries. Currently, the following sets of procedure codes are available as separate databases: blank, usa, canada, uk.
2. The Pract-Eze Dental Installer needs to have language features addes so that a user can choose which languages to install. This will speed up installation and will keep the database size to a minimum.
3. A tool needs to be built which can search through the raw C# code and extract ALL translatable phrases. This would allow the translation tool to truly display all phrases instead of just the ones that you have used so far. It would also help us clean up old phrases better. This is not easy to do. You can probably expect at least one year until this type of functionality is available.
4. The ultimate translation tool would let you make translations on the fly. You could just go into translation mode and then right click on an item while using Pract-Eze Dental and it would let you enter a translation. The translation would immediately be uploaded to our server and be made available as an update for everyone else. That way, multiple translators could work on a single language without conflict. This is extremely complex, but this is the ultimate goal. Don't expect this for at least three years since we don't even have a web server set up yet.
5. As automated translation tools become more advanced, we fully expect this entire website and manual to be able to be automatically translatable. This will be a huge step forward, making this software immediately available to the entire world. We are closely following progress in this area. We estimate that we will have this website available in all languages within about seven years.
Languages Supported:
Any language is supported (no longer limited to Latin-based languages). No special programming has to be done to support obscure languages. we currently have interest in the following languages:
es Spanish
it Italian
pt Portuguese
fr French
Cultures will be added later such as:
en-GB English United
Kingdom
en-AU English Australia
en-CA English Canada
fr-CA French
Canada
The following people have expressed interest or have already contributed some translations:
Italian-
Guido Cortese, Dentist
Luca Norfo, Phd
Spanish-
Current Manager: Ramiro Vergara
GilbertoHernandez Mesa,
Computer Specialist in Caracas/Venezuela
Portuguese-
Current Manager: José Agnaldo B. de Sousa
Chinese-
Huan Huang
French (Canada)-
Current Manager: Ron Boublil from Montreal.
French (France)
Current Manager: Marc Farré, Tel : 0033 873 773 239,
farremarc@free.fr
Vincent Jaubert, Dental student in France
(wistily@hotmail.com)
Dutch (Sweden)-
Current Manager: Ann De Hondt, Belgium.
Joffe
German-
Current manager: Friedrich Grobbel
(tandarts.grobbel@skynet.be)