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Q208983: HOWTO: Using MFC LOC DLLs

Article: Q208983
Product(s): Microsoft C Compiler
Version(s): winnt:
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbDLL kbIntl kbMFC kbResource kbVC kbLocalization kbDSupport kbIntlDev kbGrpDSMFCATL
Last Modified: 24-JUL-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) 
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SUMMARY
=======

Visual C++ provides resource only DLLs that have localized versions of the
resources used by MFC. These are known generically as the MFC LOC DLLs. An MFC
application will use the resources contained in the MFCxxLOC DLL as long as it
is installed on the system.

In this article the term "MFC LOC" refers to MFC version independent localized
resource only DLLs, "MFCxxLOC" refers to MFC version specific localized resource
only DLLs, "MFC DLL" refers to the general MFC DLL such as MFC42.DLL or
MFC40.DLL, and "MFCxx.DLL refers to a specific version of the MFC DLL.

MORE INFORMATION
================

When the MFC DLL loads its resources, MFC first checks to see if an MFCxxLOC DLL
exists, and if it does, the resources from that DLL are loaded instead of those
from the MFC DLL.

Visual C++ ships with MFCxxLOC DLLs localized for English (US), French (France),
German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simple Chinese, and Traditional
Chinese languages. The DLLs are suffixed with a three letter language specifing
indicating the localization of the DLL. For example, MFC42CHT.dll specifies
Traditional Chinese and MFC42ITA.dll specifies the Italian. These DLLs are not
installed during the setup of Visual C++ but can be found on the product CDs in
the ...\OS\SYSTEM directory in Visual C++ 6.0 and in the ...\DevStudio\VC\Redist
directory in Visual C++ 5.0.

In order for you to make sure the MFC DLL uses MFC resources from one of these
resource only DLLs instead of the resources included in the MFC DLL, rename the
DLL to MFCxxLOC.dll and install it in the same directory where the MFCxx.dll is
located. For example, rename the MFC42fra DLL to MFC42LOC and install it in the
system32 directory.

Since MFCxxLOC DLLs are only resource DLLs, versions localized for additional
languages can be created by copying the an existing MFCxxLOC DLL, renaming it,
for example to MFCxxHEB, and then opening and editing the DLL's resources
appropriately.

There are important points concerning installation that should be considered
before using the MFC LOC DLL. For example only one MFCxxLOC DLL can be installed
at a time. This means that every applications that uses MFCxx.dll on a system
where MFCxxLOC.dll is installed will also use the localized MFC resources from
that MFCxxLOC.dll. This means that using the MFCxxLOC DLL is an unacceptable
means of localizing MFC resources in situations where you would use MFC
applications localized for multiple languages on the same system. For example,
in Canada it is not unusual to have applications localized to French and English
on the same system.

Before installing a MFCxxLOC DLL, you need to make sure that the locale for which
it is intended matches the locale of the Windows system that is installed. Also,
the locale is not different from the MFCxxLOC DLL already installed. The
MFCxxLOC DLL is a system DLL so replacement of this DLL must be done when no
other application on the system is using the MFCxx.dll. TN056 "Installation of
MFC Components" provides detailed installation considerations and recommends
that use of this DLL be avoided due to installation complexity.

REFERENCES
==========

Tech note 57 (TN057) "Localization of MFC Components"

For additional information, please click the article number(s) below to view the
article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q198846 HOWTO: Create Localized Resource DLLs for MFC Application

  Q198536 HOWTO: #include the Localized MFC Resources in an EXE or DLL

  Q200555 HOWTO: Localize Stock ActiveX Property Pages With MFC Resources

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Isaac Leon
Varon, Microsoft Corporation.


Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbDLL kbIntl kbMFC kbResource kbVC kbLocalization kbDSupport kbIntlDev kbGrpDSMFCATL 
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbMFC
Version           : winnt:
Issue type        : kbhowto

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