Re: [libreoffice-marketing] how many languages can LO support at the same time. . .

On 1/26/2014 7:52 PM, Kracked_P_P---webmaster wrote:

 >I am talking about two ways.  1 - usable dictionaries in the list.  2 -
 different languages you can change your menus to.


I don't know if this helps you or not, but this is what I've done with 
LibO 3.x and 4.x:
(Note: higher version numbers do not necessarily support things that 
lower version numbers did.)
* 45 dictionaries installed;
* 20 different writing systems in a single document;
* 75 different languages in a single document. This does not include 
regional variants;
* UI can be changed between 10 different languages.;

The most important thing is that if you want spell checking and grammar 
checking to work correctly, you _must_ use language specific styles.
EG:
* en_uk.standard text;
* en_us.standard text;
* en_za.standard text;
* af_za.standard text;
* xh_za.standard text;
etc;

###
What LibO really needs, is for styles to specify the writing system, the 
language, and the localization.



> Yet, since you can switch between language packs and their help packs, how many can you
 install and be able to switch back and forth between English and the 
other non-English languages?

This is where you need to provide a poster near the computer, showing 
how to switch to a UI language that the user can understand.
(This is something that the Documentation team could create/distribute.)

> Of course, if a center worker needs to switch the menus back to English,
 or to their default settings, how easy is it if the person/worker does
 not read/speak the language the menu is currently in?

Changing from their literate language, to something they don't know/read 
is fairly easy.
The issue is always going to be switching from that unknown language to 
their literate language.  For that, the ease of doing so literally 
depends upon how good the poster is.

> Is it possible to make a script to reset the "preferences" back to a default instead of
 some manual copy/paste-over some file?

There was such a script for OOo 1.1.3-ZA, but it did not work with 
either OOo 1.1.3-en_US, nor with OOo 1.1.4.  (It was customized for the 
changes made for 1.1.3-ZA, thar no other versio of OOo 1.x had.

I do remember reading about a script for OOo 2.x, for distribution in 
either India, or South Africa. I don't know how well it worked, though.

> I do not know if LO can write both English
 and Hebrew, since one is left to right and the other is right to left

Yes, but intermixing English words in a Hebrew sentence, or Hebrew words 
in an English sentence can be problematic.(Language specific character 
styles are helpful, but don't always save one, when trying to add or 
delete something between the Hebrew and English text.

>  languages around by enabling/disabling them in the Extension Manager?
 Have 10 languages listed in the E.M. and you disable all but the 2,3, or
 4, language used within the current document.  Then disable some of the
 current ones and enable others.  Would that allow the supporting of 10
 or 20 different languages and/or regional variations?

How much RAM does the system have?
How much free space is on the hard drive?


> So how many of these languages, and their variants, can LO support and
 use at one time?

Once upon a time, I tried to install language packs for all of the 
official languages of India. The only thing I remember about that 
experience, was having to delete both ~/config/OOo and /opt/OOo, because 
I could not figure out how to get back to English.
My first error was not installing fonts for the language, and my second 
error was not creating a "get back to the Latin writing system" poster.


> e could use that in our marketing for LO to schools, computer centers,
 and multi-lingual users, organizations, and businesses.

You documents, your language, your way.

 jonathon


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