This is a work-in-progress - currently only English plus three others.
The Plant Base 2 program introduced the possibility to support other languages for the user interface.
Changing language is done from the Config Options screen - using the drop-down box at the top of the General tab. A program re-start is requested to ensure all text is loaded from the selected file.
The program will default to English - it will run without any language files or the language folder.
Note that the language option only applies to the user interface. There are no plans to supply the complete database itself in anything other than English. However, the end-user is already free to modify all data entries using the language of their choice.
Certain reference data (colour, growth habit and so on) is also read from the database and therefore not changed when selecting a language, but an additional option will replace them if the relevant data file exists. This action will overwrite any standard reference records that have been user modified, so should be used with caution. For more information please refer to the programs's Help on this topic.
Alternative languages are enabled by external text language files (.lang) stored in the sub-folder "language". The name of the file gives the language that will appear in the selection box of the program config options, for example - a file Deutsch.lang will result in Deutsch appearing in the drop-down list.
The program's Help system is only English only at the moment. There is provision for alternate language Help files and we hope they will be available at a future time.
The PB2 installation comes with a template.lang file, giving the English version of the language text file. This can be copied, given an appropriate new name and then edited to produce a new translation file.
The format is simple - keywords on the left-hand side, which must not be changed and the displayed text on the right side of the equals sign.
There might be some display problems when translated text has a very different length from the English original - particularly where screen space is limited. The program already makes some allowance for this and will be kept under review. A certain degree of trial-and-error will probably be needed!
Languages using non-European character-sets might not display correctly. The Plant Base program and its database are Unicode compliant, but display is subject to available system fonts. All European languages should work and others may, depending on localisation.