MikeFitz with overflow bit set…

May’s QMSDNUG meeting was very successful.  It featured Dave Apelt of Sigma Solutions, speaking on “ASP.NET Internationalisation in VS2005 - the good, the bad and the ugly.”.

Always an entertaining speaker, Dave did particularly well this time.  E-mail feedback from members was along the lines of “Great presentation.  I came along not expecting to learn much, but I learnt a lot!”

For Web Developers

The basic thrust of Dave’s presentation was to show how simple it is to develop a web page that renders in multiple languages.  Not separate pages for each language; but ONE page that renders in whatever language the reader has selected in his browser.

He took us through the Internationalisation features of Visual Studio 2005 for ASP.NET developers and identified the aspects that are well constructed as well as the areas where designers, developers, and translators should be wary.

Dave also gave us a mini-book review of .Net Internationalization by Guy Smith-Ferrier.  (I’d say he gave it 4 stars.)

For Web Surfers

Once a web page has been developed to render in multiple languages, what must the end-user do to select a language?  There’s a little-known feature of web browsers that handles this; In Internet Explorer, select Tools -> Options to see the Internet Options window.

Internet Explorer Options window.

Click on the Languages button to show the Language Preference window.  Add your preferred language, and move it to the top of the list.

Internet Explorer, Language Preference window

When I was in Montreal and Quebec, of course, I should have had French (Canadian) at the top of my preference list.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 13:02 and is filed under Software Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.