Multilingual surveys

on the a statement. Where language is the one to three character code of the default language for axis texts; that is, the language the axis texts are entered in and the default language in which they are printed in tables.

Multilingual surveys are those that are carried out or analyzed simultaneously in different languages. For example, a survey that is conducted in Dutch in the Netherlands and in English in England. In Quantum, you can declare a survey as multilingual and define the survey’s main or default language.

In multilingual surveys, a project text file stores the axis texts in the survey’s default language and their translations in one or more other language. Project text files have a file name extension of .ptf and are referred to as ptf files.

When you compile a multilingual survey, if a ptf file does not already exist, Quantum creates one, names it db.ptf, incorporates the axis texts into it and tags them with the language code defined on the a statement.

However if a ptf file already exists, Quantum does not create a new one, but incorporates the axis texts into the existing file. If there is more than one ptf file, Quantum uses one named db.ptf in preference to any others. If there is more than one ptf file and none are called db.ptf, Quantum uses the first one it encounters. Quantum compares all the default language axis texts with the texts that are already in that language in the selected ptf file:

▪When Quantum finds exactly matching text, it does not add the text to the ptf file because the existing translations can be used.

▪When there is no matching text, Quantum adds the text to the ptf file, so it can then be translated.

After compilation, your translator can add the necessary translations to the ptf file using Qolyglot, the spss mr translation utility. You can then print the tables in any of the languages for which translations are available.

Note Do not edit the ptf file manually as its format and syntax are extremely sensitive. Always use the Qolyglot translation utility to add the required translations.

To declare a Quantum run as multilingual, type:

Note You need to ensure that the language codes you specify with the lang keyword correspond to the language codes defined in the qolyglot.ini file. For more information, see ‘Changing the list of available languages’ in the Qolyglot Translation Utility Manual.

To define the output language for the axis texts in tables in a multilingual Quantum run, type:

on the tab statement. Where language is the one to three character code of the required language. For this to be successful, translations must be available in this language in the ptf file.