Custom Dictionary Maintenance

This program lets you view and maintain a Custom Dictionary for the current language code, customizing SYSPRO screens to display wording or strings of text of your choice.

This is particularly useful for companies who wish to transact in a different dialect to the current language dictionary they have configured. For example, you may wish to replace certain French words with the Canadian French counterpart (i.e. ‘Maître’ replaced with ‘Siège Social’).

Exploring

The Custom Dictionary consists of pairs of original text and replacement text.

The original text isn't case-sensitive during the translation process, however when a match is found the new text is output 'as is'.

There is no limit to the number of phrase pairs in this Custom Dictionary.

This program is accessed from the Program List of the SYSPRO menu:

  • Program List > Administration > Language Translation

Starting

You can restrict operator access to programs by assigning them to groups and applying access control against the group (configured using the Operator Groups program).

  • If you define replacement text in both the Custom Dictionary Maintenance and Global Replace Dictionary Maintenance dictionaries, then the replacement text defined in the Custom dictionary takes precedence over the text defined in the Global Replace dictionary.

  • The Custom Dictionary word or phrase pair can't contain any numbers. Use the Global Replace Dictionary Maintenance program to translate these types of phrases.

  • Words or phrases within this dictionary can't include numbers or variable data (such as keys).

Solving

The default custom dictionary file (i.e. Lang_EN_Custom_Dictionary.TXT) is located in the \Base\Settings folder.

This is the custom dictionary created within the Custom Dictionary Maintenance program.

When the translation system sets up the dictionaries for the foreign translations, it creates multiple dictionaries depending on the length of the phrases. This is done to optimize the memory usage at run-time and therefore increase the speed.

It is generally preferable for the translated text to be approximately the same number of characters as the English text (especially important for shorter phrases) as this will avoid truncation (e.g. message boxes).

The restrictions on the length of phrases are as follows:

Original text Replacement text
40 characters or less Up to 60 characters
80 characters or less Up to 100 characters
200 characters or less Up to 230 characters
600 characters or less Up to 600 characters

The default global dictionary file (i.e. Lang_EN_Global_Replace_Dictionary.TXT) is located in the \Base\Settings folder.

This is the global dictionary created within the Global Replace Dictionary Maintenance program.

The standard language dictionaries that are supplied by SYSPRO reside in the \Base folder of your SYSPRO installation.

We recommend that you install non-standard language dictionaries in the \Base\Settings folder.

This is because SYSPRO may ship a new standard language dictionary in the future that would then overwrite any user-defined dictionaries in the \Base folder (i.e. dictionary files in the \Base\Settings folder are never overwritten).

Using

  • Columns in a listview are sometimes hidden by default. You can reinstate them using the Field Chooser option from the context-sensitive menu (displayed by right-clicking a header column header in the listview). Select and drag the required column to a position in the listview header.

  • Fields on a pane are sometimes removed by default. You can reinstate them using the Field Selector option from the context-sensitive menu (displayed by right-clicking any field in the pane). Select and drag the required fields onto the pane.

    The captions for fields are also sometimes hidden. You can select the Show Captions option from the context-sensitive menu to see a list of them. Click on the relevant caption to reinstate it to the form.

    If the Show Captions option is grayed out, it means no captions are hidden for that form.

  • Press Ctrl+F1 within a listview or form to view a complete list of functions available.

Referencing

This lets you capture a new word or phrase pair for the Custom Dictionary.

This deletes the currently highlighted phrase pair from the Custom Dictionary.

This lets you change details for the currently highlighted record.

This saves the details you entered or changed for the Custom Dictionary.

The changes are immediately displayed on your current system. However, other operators will only see the changes after they reload SYSPRO.

Field Description

Original text

Indicate the exact word or phrase currently displayed on the screen.

New text

Enter the foreign language word or phrase you want to display instead of the original word or phrase.

The word or phrase you enter in this field is displayed exactly as you enter it at this field.

Add/Update

This lets you add the new phrase pair to the Custom Dictionary, or to change the text you entered in the New text field for the previously defined original text.

The replacement of a string of text is specific to the language code that you are using.

This listview displays the word or phrase pairs that exist within the current Custom Dictionary file.

The Custom Dictionary file that you are currently maintaining is displayed within the title bar of the window when you launch the program.