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Localization

About localization​

Localization allows a single installation package to be released in multiple languages. If you have separate language versions of your products, you also need to localize your installations. That is, it would not make sense to use an English installer to install a French product. This is why Windows Installer installations are localizable. You can refer to the localization tutorial for more information on how to activate localization in your installations.

Localization in Wise Installation Studio​

Windows Installer supports localization for product installations and merge modules by marking certain columns in the MSI tables as localizable. Wise Installation Studio uses this information to implement localization in its environment.

Essentially, Wise Installation Studio stores inside every localizable field a reference to a string resource. Strings in Wise Installation Studio are found in the special _WiseString table and can be edited in the Localization section in the Project Explorer. Each string resource has a string identifier (usually in the form IDS_STRINGNAME) and localized string data. When you build your project, Wise Installation Studio automatically resolves all the strings, replacing the string references with the actual string data for the selected language. You can specify a different build language for every build configuration.

In the Wise Installation Studio environment, fields that are localizable are like regular string fields except that they have a [...] button at the right. If you click this button, you can turn on localization for that field. Fields that are localized show the string ID in curly brackets followed by the string data. For example: '{IDS_WIZDLG_CAPTION} Setup Wizard'. All string data shown in the property grids and in the form designer previews is taken from the default language. To find out more about the default language, and how to change it, click here.

Language packs​

Language packs are simply sets of predefined strings for a specific language. Wise Installation Studio supports language packs for translating the default user interface of your installations into different languages.

All language packs are included with Wise Installation Studio. You do not need to purchase or download language packs separately. To learn how to add a language pack to your setup, click here.

Note: Language packs only translate default strings required by Wise Installation Studio. Any strings not found in the language pack (such as strings that you have added) must be translated manually into the specified language.

Translating strings​

To translate a string, first, select it in the list of strings (in the Localization section of Project Explorer). Then, in the Properties window, select the Value property and click the [...] button to the right of it. Edit the text, translating it as necessary, and click OK to update the string.