Would you set up a separate translation module and link it to other models, or would you embed the translation into each module?
I have been developing multilingual costing models for several years now, and then transforming them into multilingual models. By multilingual, I mean that a user can select her/his preferred language on the cover page, and the model automagically switches all text outputs to that language.
Up until now, I have developed the model in English using Modano and then have unmanaged it before adding the translation portions.
My next level is to build the translations into my Modano models.
My models usually have more than 10 modules, many of which are mirrored, I'm considering how to approach the embedding of the translation.
There is a core set of about 500 words and phrases that are used throughout the model, and then about 50 specific words and phrases per module.
(The translation is accomplished by creating a table of words and phrases, naming those words and phrases, and then adding translations of them in columns to the right. (That is, LIVE, English, French, Tagalog, Swahili, etc,). I use a form control dropdown for selection, and then use an OFFSET function to call the correct language. Of course, I then replace the original english words and phrases with the named range identity.)
So, what would you do?
Hi Winthrop,
It sounds like the issue you might face is having a centralised lookup table that can be referenced across all modules.
The only way to do that is to place this lookup table in the Time Series module as that's the only place you can have a global reference table, without having to repeat it in each module you create.
Jun
Now there's an idea I hadn't considered. Thank you for this suggestion!
I tried making a multilingual module using the time series module, but had some issues.
My approach was to create a lookup table for language 1 words and another one for language 2 words and phrases.
I then created a lookup table with the names for Language 1 and Language 2. I then created a dropdown form which referenced that lookup table. The user can select Language 1 or Language 2.
I didn't want to type in IF:THEN statements for every word or phrase in every cell in the model that had text., because I wanted to add more languages at a future time.
I therefore tried to create a lookup table with IF:THEN statements for the rows in the language 1 and language 2 lookup tables. For example, IF(DD_Language_Selected=1, D111,D1615). I then named each row in that lookup table with LU_Ts_Assumptions, LU_Ts_Time_Series, LU_Ts_Periodicity, etc.) Then, I could simply name the cells in the model =LU_Ts_Assumptions, etc., and it would output that word "Assumptions" in the language selected from the dropdown form.
Modano doesn't like Assumption cells in Lookup tables, but I got it working....for awhile. The trouble is that when I add a category row to my LIVE LANGUAGE lookup table (the one with the formulas) the entire table resets to the default text rather than keeping the formulas.
Any ideas, fellow Modanoans?
Hey Winthrop,
You're sort of on the right track. It's also probably best not to mess about with the fundamental parts of the time series module, as that could cause some issues for you.
I'll do a very basic example, which should hopefully set you on the right track.
Jun
Hi Winthrop,
Give this a go. Once you've got a centralised table, you can look the table from anywhere in the model. Note: I haven't tested this with other files, so the changed time series column widths may or may not interact a bit odd with other modules.
If you don't want to load up the time series module with too many rows, and certain modules will only have very specific words, then you can build a table in the module you're working on. Just need to reference in the global language selection, and make sure you repeat the number of categories for the relevant languages in the model. The downside of doing this is you won't be able to reference that translated word in other modules, unless you link in the table into your other module.
I've given two examples of how you can display the translation, either having a base language always displayed with the relevant translation offset to it, or you can type the underlying word into an Index Match that references the central table.
Hope this helps.
Jun
Thank you, Jun. I will give this approach a try!