Localizing print preview






4.50/5 (11 votes)
Jul 5, 2004
2 min read

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Draw your print preview buttons in your customers' language
Introduction
If you ever tried to distribute an international (multilingual) application you know maybe the obstacles to translate all the texts.
Some dialog controls like those ones of the MessageBox
can't be transformed
into another language, they are part of the Windows installed on your machine.
So the 'Cancel' button of a German Windows OS will always be "Abbrechen" or
"Annuler" in a French Windows OS.
However, this is not the problem, but the entire rest of your application should be in your customers' language. Title bar, menus, tooltips, dialogs and its controls can get accessed and modified at runtime.
Print preview problem
But the print preview gave me headache, because normally you have to define at compilation time the printing resources you'd like to link.
e.g.
#include "l.deu\afxprint.rc" // German printing resources
#include "l.fra\afxprint.rc" // French printing resources
#include "l.ita\afxprint.rc" // Italian printing resources
After linking one of the indicated examples, the preview buttons seem to be invariant. So, I consulted MSDN and figured out, they are accessible in a certain way.

Solution
Derive from CPreviewView
your own class, where you should have access to the
desired buttons. Then make sure the framework calls your derived class.
void CLangPreviewView::OnActivateView(BOOL bActivate, CView*, CView*) { if (bActivate) { if (m_pToolBar) { m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_PRINT) ->SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("PRINT"), _T("&Print..."))); m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_NEXT) ->SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("NEXT"), _T("&Next Page"))); m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_PREV) ->SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("PREV"), _T("Pre&v Page"))); //m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_NUMPAGE)-> SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("NUMPAGE"), _T(""))); m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_ZOOMIN) ->SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("ZOOMIN"), _T("Zoom &In"))); m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_ZOOMOUT)-> SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("ZOOMOUT"), _T("Zoom &Out"))); m_pToolBar->GetDlgItem(AFX_ID_PREVIEW_CLOSE) -> SetWindowText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("CLOSE"), _T("&Close"))); } } } void CLangPreviewView::OnUpdateNumPageChange(CCmdUI* pCmdUI) { CPreviewView::OnUpdateNumPageChange(pCmdUI); UINT nPages = (m_nZoomState == ZOOM_OUT ? m_nPages : m_nZoomOutPages); if (nPages == 1) pCmdUI->SetText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("TWOPAGE"), _T("&Two Page"))); else pCmdUI->SetText(CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("ONEPAGE"), _T("&One Page"))); }
Steps
- Add "LangPreviewView.cpp/.h" to your application
- Add "Dic.cpp/.h" to your application (a dictionary class, see below)
- Call "CDic::LoadLanguage(LPCTSTR)" to load/reload application language specific texts (e.g. in CYourAppDocument::OnNewDocument)
CDic::LoadLanguage(_T("Lang_de.txt")); // loads German application strings
OnFilePrintPreview
function of your view class to call CPreviewView
//ON_COMMAND(ID_FILE_PRINT_PREVIEW, CView::OnFilePrintPreview)
ON_COMMAND(ID_FILE_PRINT_PREVIEW, OnFilePrintPreview)
void CYourAppView::OnFilePrintPreview() { // In derived classes, implement special window handling here. // Be sure to Unhook Frame Window close if hooked. // Must not create this on the frame. Must outlive this function. CPrintPreviewState* pState = new CPrintPreviewState; // DoPrintPreview's return value does not necessarily indicate that // Print Preview succeeded or failed, but rather what actions are // necessary at this point. If DoPrintPreview returns TRUE, it means // that OnEndPrintPreview will be (or has already been) called and // the pState structure will be/has been deleted. // If DoPrintPreview returns FALSE, it means that OnEndPrintPreview // WILL NOT be called and that cleanup, including deleting pState, // must be done here. if (!DoPrintPreview(AFX_IDD_PREVIEW_TOOLBAR, this, RUNTIME_CLASS(CYourAppView), pState)) { // In derived classes, reverse special window handling here for // Preview failure case. TRACE0("Error: DoPrintPreview failed.\n"); AfxMessageBox(AFX_IDP_COMMAND_FAILURE); delete pState; // Preview failed to initialize, delete State now. } }
OnPreparePrinting
function of your view class to enable localized (language depending) status bar page display
BOOL CYourAppView::OnPreparePrinting(CPrintInfo* pInfo) { // Standardvorbereitung BOOL bReturn = DoPreparePrinting(pInfo); pInfo->m_strPageDesc = CDic::GetText(_T("Preview"), _T("PAGEDESC"), _T("Page %u\nPages %u-%u\n"), true); return bReturn; }
(I prefer collecting localized texts in several external text files to having everything in internal stringtable resources. If there is a new language added to your application, you don't have to recompile the entire project or part of it, simply add the language file to your distribution.)
Now, we are ready to test the application.
Test
Select one of the five languages by clicking the flag of the toolbar and then start the print preview.
Preview in German
Preview in French
Preview in Italian
Preview in Spanish
Point of interest
CDic
There is a handy class to retrieve localized texts from a file.
Its member functions are static, therefore they can be called from almost everywhere.
bool CDic::LoadLanguage(LPCTSTR strFilepath) // Loads/reloads the desired language file
CString CDic::GetText(LPCTSTR strSection, LPCTSTR strID, LPCTSTR strDefaultText, bool bTransform) //Retrieves a text entry (strID) from a section (strSection) //if a text can't be found, the given default text //(strDefaultText) will be given back
History
- 1.00 04-July-2004 Initial version