creating a multilingual, localized install using IS 2008 Professional?
Is the Premier version of IS 2008 absolutely needed in order to create a multilingual, localized installation? We need to implement a language selection dialog for just a few languages and run the installation in that language. We just upgraded to IS 2008 Pro and all our installers are pure InstallScript. Are there any reasons why we cannot implement this in the Pro version?
We have customized the graphics and at least part of the text on every dialog in our installers. If we purchase the Premier version, we will need to send the non-English string tables out for translation regardless, in order to customize the strings to be consistent with our English version. I'm wondering what we would be missing in the Pro version in order to add the additional language support we need. This is our first attempt to localize our installers and any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
The Professional edition does not have any support for creating multilingual installations, or for using the language selection dialog that you described. You will need to upgrade to the Premier edition for that.
Thanks Debbie for the reply. So even though we can provide our own translated string tables, we won't be able to get InstallShield to utilize them w/o the Premier version? If there's a way to work around that I'd be interested. Thanks.
It's not as simple as just translating the String Table. One of the main benefits of the Premier approach is that the standard dialogs are displayed in the appropriate/selected language, using their built-in translations.
If you are trying to do all the work from a single, multi-language installer, you will, for example, still have your language selection dialog displayed in your default language.
I have to say I'm still using DS9 with East and West Language Packs for multi-language installers, not IS 2008, but I've investigated the Pro vs Premier question before and always come down on the Premier side. I also use a localisation tool to manage the process and leverage existing translations.
