You can install language modules so that you can view text in the user interface in different languages. Once you have installed a language module, you change the language of the user interface in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client and for users of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client. When you change a language in the UI, you change the language of all text that is displayed in the UI in captions for text boxes, on command buttons, in menus, and so on. For more information, see Language Modules.

Alternatively, you can manage translations by using text files. In the development environment, you can export all strings for the specified objects to a text file, translate the strings in a translation tool of your choice, and then import the new translations. Then, when you compile the updated objects, the new translations are available to users in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client. For more information, see How to: Add Translated Strings By Importing and Exporting Multilanguage Files.

Language modules and multilanguage text files are the default way of supporting users of your application so that they can switch between Dutch and English, for example.

Captions and other user interface text that you define for objects in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment can be exported to a text file. You can then add new translations to the text file and import the new translations in the development environment. You can use a dedicated translation tool, or you can add translations manually using Notepad, Microsoft Excel, and so on.

The exported text files contain an entry for each translatable user interface element for the objects that you selected in the development environment. However, the text file also includes entries that cannot be translated. For example, if you export the strings for table 18, the resulting text file contains hundreds of entries, of which fewer than 170 can be translated. The translatable strings include the captions of for all fields and the error messages that you have defined. The non-translatable strings include names of variables, and so on.

In CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database, all objects are multilanguage enabled, and they include strings with captions in the 1033 locale, English (US). The locale is specified by a multilanguage property such as P8629, but the ID of the actual property is different for different types of strings. However, the locale for the multilanguage property value always starts with the character A. For example, the English (US) captions are identified by the A1033 locale value for the relevant multilanguage property. You can identify which strings can be translated by opening the file in Microsoft Excel and then filter by the English locale.

If you export strings for objects of different types, the text file lists the strings by object type and then by object ID. For example, if you export strings for table 18, page 21, and report 111, the text file lists strings in the following order:

1. Table 18
   
2. Report 111
   
3. Page 21
   

The format of the exported text files can be difficult to read, because for each type of object, the text file contains different types of strings. Each type of string is identified by a property that starts with the character P followed by an ID. For example, for a table object and the fields on the table, the multilanguage property has the ID 8629. For option values for fields on tables, the multilanguage property has the ID 8632. This means that you can identify the type of string when you translate the strings. However, you should filter out all strings that are not translatable, which makes the remaining strings easier to understand.

The following table illustrates the translatable strings for table 18 in the CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database.

For more information, see How to: Add Translated Strings By Importing and Exporting Multilanguage Files.

In most deployments of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you use the default multilanguage capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. However, if your users use languages with conflicting text encoding formats, such as Dutch and Chinese, for example, then you must add the translated strings to Microsoft Dynamics NAV in a different way.

To support users with translated strings across conflicting text encoding formats, you must save the translations to a text file in UTF-8 text encoding format. This converts the file to Unicode, which Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment cannot import. Instead, you add the files to a dedicated Translations folder on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server computer. The default location of this folder is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\80\Service\Translations. When you have more than one service instance, there is a Translations folder for each service instance, such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\80\Service\Instances\MyInstance\Translations. Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server adds any strings in text files that you place in the relevant Translations folder to the metadata for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. As a result, users can switch the language of the user interface between Dutch, English, and Chinese, for example. For more information, see How to: Add Translated Strings for Conflicting Text Encoding Formats.

Important
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server imports strings from .txt files only. If you save your strings to a file with a different extension, they cannot be imported by Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server. Also, we recommend that you use .txt files only for those strings that cannot be added by importing multilanguage files into the development environment.