Language File

Collect! has two options in the System, Layout and Languages menu that provide for aliasing many fields in your database at once. The two options are Read Language File and Write Language File. These are two steps that you need to follow to change the field labels in your database.

This feature is useful for:

• International use where your operators do not primarily use English, shipped by default in Collect!.
• Business use where the default labels do not reflect the use of Collect! for your type of operation. For instance, you may want to use medical or insurance "jargon" for many of the fields to make it easier for data entry and other users.

Write Language File and Read Language File enable you to customize the Collect! user interface for any language or any type of business. Once the language file is read, the changes are committed to Collect! permanently and the file is not read again during your normal use of the Collect! program.

Writing Language File

You may have received a language CSV file already from Collect! Member Services or another Collect! user. In that case, you do not need to write a file. You only need to read it as described in the "Reading Language File" section.

If you are creating your own language file, the first step is to write a file to use for editing.

To write a language file:

1. Sign into Collect! with User Level 99.

2. Select System from the top menu bar and then select Rights, Access Rights from the drop-down choices. This will display the list of all the fields in Collect!.

Duplicates or blanks in the list of Access Rights may result in errors when the language file is written. Please ensure that there are no blanks or duplicates in your list.

3. In preparation for writing a clean and accurate file, please select the REBUILD button and select YES to rebuild your access rights. This should ensure that you are writing an accurate language file.

4. When the Rebuild is finished, close the list of Access Rights.

5. Select System from the top menu bar and then select Layout and Languages from the drop-down choices.

6. Select Write Language File from the side menu options. Collect! will generate a CSV file named language.csv in the Collect\bin folder.

Collect! creates a Language CSV

7. You can open the file right away or locate it later to edit it as needed. The example shows a few aliases entered, but when you first open this file, the Transactions column may be completely empty.

View sample Language File
Sample Language File with a few Aliases Entered

If you have fields already aliased, their values will show up in the Translations column when you open the language CSV for the first time.

Editing Language File

To edit the language file, you must open it in a spreadsheet program. Refer to the column headings to see where you need to enter your aliases for each field.

Enter your aliases in the Translation column. You only need to enter values in the fields you want to change. Collect! will use its own default labels for any field you do not alias.

It is a good idea to try to keep your entries as short as possible.

Make sure you save the language.csv as a CSV file when you are finished editing it.

Reading Language File

After you have aliased all the fields and forms you are interested in, you can read this information back into Collect! to update all the labels for the forms and fields.

WARNING: This will change all the aliases in the system, PERMANENTLY. This should only be used if you want to translate Collect! for your whole office. If you want to only alias Collect! for particular operators, please refer to the help topic How to Customize an Operator's Language for more information.

To read a language file:

1. Ensure that your edited language.csv resides in the Collect\bin folder before proceeding.

2. Sign into Collect! with User Level 99.

3. Select System from the top menu bar and then select Layout and Languages from the drop-down choices.

4. Select Read Language File from the side menu options. Collect! will read the language.csv in the Collect\bin folder.

5. When finished, Collect! instructs you to restart.

Collect! has loaded the Language File

After Collect! restarts, you should shut down completely and sign in at a User Level other than 99 so that you can see your changes.

User Level 99 cannot see aliases!

Client form with Aliased Fields

Once the language file is read, the changes are committed to Collect! permanently in the Access Rights form for each aliased form and field.

Access Rights for Client

Access Rights for Client Field

Multi-Language DDE

Collect!'s DDE capabilities work very well with multi-language and multi-currency. You can insert any information from Collect! into DDE reports.

Multilingual Collect! and Microsoft Word

Summary

Write Language File and Read Language File enable you to customize the Collect! user interface for any language or any type of business. This is a very flexible, extremely easy way to apply sweeping changes to your Collect! program. You can even load different language files for different databases. Once the language file is read, the changes are committed to Collect! permanently and the file is not read again during your normal use of the Collect! program.