Language handling and output formatting

Languages in StoryTeller documents are represented by the w3c language codes defined in RFC1766.

The language codes (optionally including country codes, e.g. en-US) can be specified as default settings both for design-time and runtime, as well as on a specific range of text or a substitution. The language codes of a document can determine the following:

•	How substitutions are formatted, for example dates and currencies.

•	How substitutions are translated.

•	How texts are hyphenated

•	How instances are sorted within a block.

If you hard-code (no variable) the default language to use in runtime, this language will also be used in the document during design, even if you have specified a design-time language.

You can specify language codes for the following purposes

 

The default language to use during document design, for all new texts and stories added to the document.	See Specifying default language on page 33.
The default language to use for substitutions and switches during document design. (Processing simulation)	See To set the default language for substitutions in design-time on page 33.
The language to use for a specific substitution or a range of text, both during design and in runtime.	See Specifying language on a text segment or substitution.
The default language to use for the document when processing it in runtime.	See Specifying default language for runtime processing.

Example 43

Default language vs Processing simulation language vs Processing language

In this example, you want to add a date string at the top of your Document. During the design, you want the weekday and month to be displayed in Swedish, but in runtime the language will vary depending on input data.

The data should be in format EEEE DD MMMM YYYY. This means that it will be in the form of ’Tuesday 20 October 2010’. (See Output formatting of substitutions for more information).

The default language – to use when adding new texts and substitutions – is Swedish, which is specified in Tools > Options > Text > Default language.

You add a Field type substitution and enter EEEE DD MMMM YYYY in the format field.

The date will look as follows:

Figure 41

Date shown in Swedish during design

During runtime, the language will vary but you want to simulate the look of the substitution if there would be input data causing the date to be rendered in Finnish, because you realize Finnish words could be long.

To achieve this, you select Tools > Options > Processing simulation and select Finnish (Finland) from the Language drop-down list.

You must also set the language for the specific substitution to be the default language. To achieve this, you:

•	Select the date substitution.

•	Select the Language property in the Properties panel Character style category

•	From the drop-down list, select <Default>.

Figure 42

Date shown in Finnish during design

In runtime, to use different languages for different recipients of the Document, you

•	Open the Processing Properties dialog from File > Processing Properties.

•	In the Processing language field, you delete the language and enter the variable determining the language, e.g. $language.