use excel sheet in a different language

Hello,

I live in Germany and thus use a German version of Excel. I have an Excel file, which contains some formulas, e.g.:

wenn( gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )

which in English would be something like

if( equals(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )

I wonder what will happen, if a user in lets say the US will open that file. That user will have an English version of Excel. Will this English version be able to parse the German formula "wenn( gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )"?
Or will I have to rewrite all formulas, i.e. replace any "wenn" by "if" and any "gleich" by "equals" and so on?
If this replacement has to been done, is there a software which can do this transformation automatically or will I have to do the changes manually?

Thanks in advance for you help
Forumsteiger

Hi Forumsteiger,

> I wonder what will happen, if a user in lets say the US will open that
> file. That user will have an English version of Excel. Will this
> English version be able to parse the German formula "wenn(
> gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )"?
> Or will I have to rewrite all formulas, i.e. replace any "wenn" by "if"
> and any "gleich" by "equals" and so on?
> If this replacement has to been done, is there a software which can do
> this transformation automatically or will I have to do the changes
> manually?
>

As long as you haven't used any functions from the analysis toolpak
addin, your safe, Excel will automatically translate all functions. ATP
functions will not be translated however. There is a translation utility
here:

http://www.acoustics-noise.com/ATPtranslator.shtml

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com

Formulas are always stored in a standard language. They only appear
different in different languages. So they will be "translated"
automatically.
Exceptions are formulas that are not intrinsic Excel functions, like the
ones in Analysis Toolpak.
Other things to think about are cell addresses in INDIRECT() functions if
the R1C1 reference style is used and literals in TEXT() functions, like
"dd-mm-yyyy".
For manual translation see

http://members.chello.nl/keepitcool/addins.html

--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel

"forumsteiger" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Hello,
>
> I live in Germany and thus use a German version of Excel. I have an
> Excel file, which contains some formulas, e.g.:
>
> wenn( gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )
>
> which in English would be something like
>
> if( equals(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )
>
> I wonder what will happen, if a user in lets say the US will open that
> file. That user will have an English version of Excel. Will this
> English version be able to parse the German formula "wenn(
> gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )"?
> Or will I have to rewrite all formulas, i.e. replace any "wenn" by "if"
> and any "gleich" by "equals" and so on?
> If this replacement has to been done, is there a software which can do
> this transformation automatically or will I have to do the changes
> manually?
>
> Thanks in advance for you help
> Forumsteiger
>
>
> --
> forumsteiger
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> forumsteiger's Profile:
> http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=24235
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=378469
>

'ForumSteiger'

let me add a bit of my own 'wisdom' to my fellow dutchman's post..

normally your file can be used in all languages without problems.
(excel will not 'store' GLEICH but store the numerical reference
to that function, then present it's 'local' name to the user)

the only thing you have to 'worry' about is:
- functions with string arguments.
- functions from Analysis Toolpak (see JKP post for solution)
- functions from other addins (Solver?)

Example function with text argument:
=ZELLE("adresse",a1)

These functions will not translate UNLESS the text argument is
given in English. =ZELLE("address",a1) will work in all languages.


A FUNCTION that uses localized format strings e.g. TEXT()...
will always give you problems but for different reasons.

The localized format string does NOT depend on the EXCEL language, but
on the Operating Systems 'LOCALE'.

note the TEXT functions happens to have the same name in English/German
but that is NOT the problem... the letters used for days/years ARE.

a formula like =TEXT(a1,"tttt") will work IF windows regional settings
use "German", where t is the code for DAY.
The number formats used for cells WILL translate... but again text
arguments for functions will not.

So when writing for 'international use' avoid "hardcoding"

Hope this was instructive.


--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


forumsteiger wrote :

>
> Hello,
>
> I live in Germany and thus use a German version of Excel. I have an
> Excel file, which contains some formulas, e.g.:
>
> wenn( gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )
>
> which in English would be something like
>
> if( equals(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )
>
> I wonder what will happen, if a user in lets say the US will open that
> file. That user will have an English version of Excel. Will this
> English version be able to parse the German formula "wenn(
> gleich(A1;A2) ; B2; F8 )"?
> Or will I have to rewrite all formulas, i.e. replace any "wenn" by
> "if" and any "gleich" by "equals" and so on?
> If this replacement has to been done, is there a software which can do
> this transformation automatically or will I have to do the changes
> manually?
>
> Thanks in advance for you help
> Forumsteiger

All

I really really need to get hold of a copy of the Analysis Toolpak
(ATP) Translator http://www.acoustics-noise.com/ATPtranslator.shtml
which is referred to above. Only problem is that having gone to the
website, I notice that it hasn't been updated since January and the
downloads don't work.

I noticed in another post that Eric had given up on the website after
it was hacked repeatedly.

Does anyone have a copy of the Add-In or know of somewhere where this
file is being hosted? Alternatively, would one you lovely MVPs like to
host it on your websites?

Any help would be really really appreciated!

Cheers

Ian

why dont you send eric a mail?
maybe he can mail the addin to you...


I dont have a copy.. but I do like "translation issues"
I'm tempted to write some code for this and include it in my
TranslateIT addin. But I'll need a day or so..

Which languages (source/destination) do you need?

--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


[email protected] wrote :

> All
>
> I really really need to get hold of a copy of the Analysis Toolpak
> (ATP) Translator http://www.acoustics-noise.com/ATPtranslator.shtml
> which is referred to above. Only problem is that having gone to the
> website, I notice that it hasn't been updated since January and the
> downloads don't work.
>
> I noticed in another post that Eric had given up on the website after
> it was hacked repeatedly.
>
> Does anyone have a copy of the Add-In or know of somewhere where this
> file is being hosted? Alternatively, would one you lovely MVPs like
> to host it on your websites?
>
> Any help would be really really appreciated!
>
> Cheers
>
> Ian

i've got something working in test.
contact me by email pls
state level of VBA experience
and excel version(s)/ language(s).

address in sig below. just add the @ and .

--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


keepITcool wrote :

>
> why dont you send eric a mail?
> maybe he can mail the addin to you...
>
>
> I dont have a copy.. but I do like "translation issues"
> I'm tempted to write some code for this and include it in my
> TranslateIT addin. But I'll need a day or so..
>
> Which languages (source/destination) do you need?