Multilingual databases for Windows-based Quanvert

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 as 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.

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 create a multilingual database for use in Windows-based Quanvert, type:

on the a statement. Where language is the one to three character code of the default language for the database; for example, lang=eng for English and lang=nld for Dutch.

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

Once the ptf file exists, it is treated as part of the Quanvert database. The Language command on the Quanvert Admin menu offers the user all the languages for which translations are available in the ptf file.

If a ptf file does not already exist for the database, you can create one within Quanvert by using the Enable translation command.