String Editor View

Project:The String Editor view is available in the following project types:

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Advanced UI

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Basic MSI

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DIM

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InstallScript

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InstallScript MSI

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InstallScript Object

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Merge Module

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Suite/Advanced UI

In the String Editor view, you have complete and centralized control over the localizable text strings that are displayed at run time during the installation process. You can use this view to edit the strings for everything from button text to feature descriptions.

The String Editor view shows the collection of language-independent identifiers and corresponding language-specific values for your project. Following is a list of some of the tasks that you can perform in this view:

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View all of the strings in your project.

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Add, modify, and delete strings.

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Filter the strings that are shown to hide ones that do not contain a specific string.

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Resize and reorder the columns in the view.

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Sort the rows in the view by any column by clicking the column heading.

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Drag and drop column headings on to the group box area (the area below the view’s buttons) to organize the rows in the view in a hierarchical format.

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Export all of the string identifiers and their corresponding values into a text file (.txt).

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Import the translated strings from a .txt file into the project.

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Search the project to identify all of the instances in which a specific string identifier is used. Find out if a string is not used anywhere within a project.

Working with the String Editor View

The String Editor view consists of the following elements:

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A row of buttons and other controls

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A group box area (below the row of buttons)

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A spreadsheetlike table

Each row in the table represents a string entry in your project.

The following table describes all of the buttons and other controls that are displayed in the String Editor view.

Controls in the String Editor View

Name of Control	Icon	Description
New String Entry		Displays the String Entry dialog box, which lets you add a new string entry.
Edit Selected String		Displays the String Entry dialog box, which lets you edit the selected string entry.
Delete Selected Strings		Deletes the selected row or rows.
Expand All Groups		Shows all of the rows in the groups if you are using groups to organize the rows in a hierarchical format.
Collapse All Groups		Hides all of the rows in the groups if you are using groups to organize the rows in a hierarchical format.
Find String		Displays the Find dialog box, which lets you search for instances of a string. This dialog box lets you specify criteria such as whether you want to match the case.
Find Next		Searches for the next occurrence of the specified string.
Find and Replace		Displays the Replace dialog box, which lets you search for instances of a string and replace them with a new string. This dialog box lets you specify criteria such as whether you want to find or ignore a string with specific capitalization.
Search for Selected Strings in Project		Searches the entire project for all instances of the string whose row is selected, and shows the search results in the Output window.
Export Strings		Lets you export all of the strings for a particular language to a text file (.txt). You can provide that .txt file to a translator who can update the file with translated text.
Import Strings		Lets you select the text file (.txt) that contains the strings that you want to import into your project. Also lets you specify the language for those strings.
Search Grid		Dynamically filters the strings that are displayed in the String Editor view according to the string that you specify in this search box. As you type a string in this box, InstallShield hides all of the rows that do not contain it.
Default Language		Lets you view and change the default language for the project.
String Editor Help		Displays the help for the String Editor view.
Drag a column header here to group that column		Use this group box area to group rows in the view. The view supports multiple levels of grouping simply by dragging the column headings and dropping them onto the group box. InstallShield displays the rows in the view hierarchically according to column arrangement in the group box. To learn more, see Working with the Group Box Area in Various Views.

The following table describes each of the columns in the String Editor view.

Columns in the String Editor View

Column	Description
Language	This column shows the language of the string entry.
Identifier	This column contains the language-independent ID for the string. Each string identifier in a project is linked to one or more values.
Value	This column shows the run-time string. Project:In Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, and Merge Module projects, some of the string values contain Windows Installer properties inside square brackets—for example, Install [ProductName]. At run time, the property and brackets are replaced by the property value. String values in these same project types may also contain font information in curly brackets—for example, {&MSSansBold8}OK. The font information indicates style details that should be used to display the strings at run time.
Comments	This column contains an internal note about the string entries. The comments are not displayed at run time.
Modified	This column lists the date and time that the string entry was last modified.