Workbook language translation

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Ronald W. Roberts - 16 Apr 2008 17:44 GMT

For what I can see, it looks as if this happens because of Unicode and the
language set used in the sending and receiving computers, but I not sure.

Is there some other place during the transmission over the Internet that the
language translation takes place?

So my question is:

How does an Excel workbook get translated from one language to another?

Thanks for any help you may provide,

Ron

Reply to this Message

Pete_UK - 16 Apr 2008 19:04 GMT

I would imagine that the function names like SUM and IF and LEFT etc
are stored within the Excel file as tokens, i.e. each is given a
numeric code by Excel when you enter a formula into a cell (when the
expression evaluator is called up to try to make sense of what you
have just typed), and it might be something as simple as 1, 2, 3 for
those three functions. In displaying the function name on the screen,
eg in the formula bar, Excel translates from its token table into the
language under which that version of Excel was installed - presumably
there is a language-dependent table which is installed when Excel /
Office is installed.

Hope this helps.

Pete

> For what I can see, it looks as if this happens because of Unicode and the
> language set used in the sending and receiving computers, but I not sure.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Ron

Reply to this Message

Ronald W. Roberts - 17 Apr 2008 04:52 GMT

Thanks for your reply, what you're saying makes sense. I wasn't thinking
that complicated, I was just thinking about data that is entered into a
cell. The language-dependent table is set when the operating system is
installed using control panel/regional settings. So going back to my
original question, does the translation take place as a result of the
language setting of the computer or is there some place in the internet that
does thr translation?

The example I'm talking about would be sending a workbook or any file for
that matter, from the
U. S. to China.

Ron

I would imagine that the function names like SUM and IF and LEFT etc
are stored within the Excel file as tokens, i.e. each is given a
numeric code by Excel when you enter a formula into a cell (when the
expression evaluator is called up to try to make sense of what you
have just typed), and it might be something as simple as 1, 2, 3 for
those three functions. In displaying the function name on the screen,
eg in the formula bar, Excel translates from its token table into the
language under which that version of Excel was installed - presumably
there is a language-dependent table which is installed when Excel /
Office is installed.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Apr 16, 5:44 pm, "Ronald W. Roberts" <r...@robcom.com> wrote:

> For what I can see, it looks as if this happens because of Unicode and the
> language set used in the sending and receiving computers, but I not sure.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Ron

Reply to this Message

Pete_UK - 18 Apr 2008 01:27 GMT

The translation is done within Excel. If you enter =SUM(A1:A5) into a
cell then Excel will check what you have just typed and will convert
the word "SUM" to its token (let's say the number 53). If you are
using a French-based PC and type =SOMME(A1:A5) then Excel will convert
the word "SOMME" (meaning SUM) to the same token, 53, so if the file
is then sent to another country the token for SUM, 53, will be
translated into the local language on that PC. It has nothing to do
with the internet.

Hope this helps.

Pete

> Thanks for your reply, what you're saying makes sense. I wasn't thinking
> that complicated, I was just thinking about data that is entered into a
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Reply to this Message