How to: Change Language Settings for Local Content

Article
09/24/2014

If you are creating Help in a language other than English (United States), such as if you base your project on existing localized content then you must change the following language settings before you build the Help:

The language setting of the Object.xml file.
The language setting in Help Builder.
The system locale of the operating system.

These language settings are used in the following processes:

When creating the Object.xml file, to make sure that the file uses the correct local encoding.
When updating the language setting in the .hhp file, to make sure that the file is compiled correctly by HTML Help Workshop.

If you do not adjust these language settings based on the Help content language, then the finished Help project will contain one or more of the following errors:

The Object.xml file may contain garbage characters, and Help Builder will extract English captions by default.
The title of the HTML Help window is not translated.

You must also use the translated Help Builder configuration files.

Changing the Language Setting of the Object.xml File

You can change the language code of the Object.xml file in the following ways:

Define the language code when you create the Object.xml file at a command prompt.
Select a language code in the Create Object File window if you are using the Help Builder graphic user interface (GUI).

To change the object file language code in the command-line interface

At a command prompt, change to the directory where HelpBuilder.exe is installed. For example, on a 32-bit version of Windows 7, type the following command.
```
cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Help Toolkit\Help Builder"
```
Use the -l switch to specify the correct language when you convert the text file to XML. For example, type the following command for the Danish language.
```
Help.Builder.EXE -t=c:\HelpExample\object.txt -l=da-dk
```

For information about all of the supported locale short strings, see MSDN.

Changing the Language Setting in Help Builder

You can change the language setting in Help Builder in the following ways:

Edit the code in the configuration file if you are using the Help Builder command-line interface.
Select a language code in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Help Builder window if you are using the Help Builder GUI.

To change the language code in the configuration file

Find the configuration file that you want to use. The default location is %MyDocuments%\Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Help Toolkit\Config\Help Builder\[language]\config.xml.
Open the shortcut menu for the config.xml file, and then choose Open.
In the XML file, search for the term language.
Replace the existing locale short string, such as en-us, with the locale short string of your local language. For information about all of the supported locale short strings, see MSDN.
Save and close the config.xml file.

Changing the System Locale of the Operating System

You can change the language for non-Unicode programs in the operating system in the following ways:

Change the system locale in Control Panel. This method requires that you restart the computer.
Install the Microsoft AppLocale utility to make sure that Help Builder will automatically adjust the language when it builds Help.

Help Builder detects if AppLocale is installed and if the operating system settings do not match HTML Help project language settings, Help Builder uses the AppLocale utility to call the HTML Help Workshop compiler using the correct language.

Note

Microsoft does not offer support for the AppLocale utility.

To change the non-Unicode language in Windows

Follow the steps about how to change the system locale for Windows 7 in Windows Help.

You must restart the computer before you continue.

To use the Microsoft AppLocale Utility

Download the Microsoft AppLocale utility from the Microsoft Download Center.
Follow the instructions provided with the download.