Tech Forum

In my previous residence outside the US, I was serving as the stake clerk. During one stake conference that was presided over by the area authority, he reviewed the sustaining list that I prepared and had me redo it to make sure that we used complete familiar names (i.e. Rodney instead of Rod), initials for those with more than one given name and the appropriate suffix, if applicable (this was just prior to implementation of MLS, and traditionally we only included first and last names).

I don't remember in this particular instance, but this general authority often quoted the brethren and particulary Pres. Packer on the correct "unwritten order of things." So, I'm sure this is the appropriate direction.

We have a Spanish Speaking Branch in our stake. Most of the members of that ward are bilingual, but a few are Spanish speaking only. Reading of the Ward Sustaining List causes problems every year. One of the members translates the English form while it is also being read in English. There is always a little confusion and a few translation errors.

If one form could be printed in English and another in Spanish, this would greatly simplify the process and cut down on errors.

Short of installing MLS in Spanish on a second computer (!) or a different directory, does anyone know how this can be accomplished?

aprayzr wrote:We have a Spanish Speaking Branch in our stake. Most of the members of that ward are bilingual, but a few are Spanish speaking only. Reading of the Ward Sustaining List causes problems every year. One of the members translates the English form while it is also being read in English. There is always a little confusion and a few translation errors.

If one form could be printed in English and another in Spanish, this would greatly simplify the process and cut down on errors.

Short of installing MLS in Spanish on a second computer (!) or a different directory, does anyone know how this can be accomplished?

You can run your existing MLS in a different language -- you don't need to install it in a different directory or computer (and that would create potential problems anyway).

The technique is described in this post.

Thanks for the help!

aprayzr wrote:Short of installing MLS in Spanish on a second computer (!) or a different directory, does anyone know how this can be accomplished?

From the MLS menu bar, navigate to Lists > Forms/Certificates > Print Form > set Language: to Spanish > select Sostenimiento de oficiales--Barrio de Estaca > click OK. You can probably figure out the rest from there.

jbh001 wrote:From the MLS menu bar, navigate to Lists > Forms/Certificates > Print Form > set Language: to Spanish > select Sostenimiento de oficiales--Barrio de Estaca > click OK. You can probably figure out the rest from there.

I guess I didn't notice when MLS added the language capability to the Print Forms screen. It wasn't there when the Print Forms screen was first added to MLS. But that's definitely the best way to do it -- much easier than changing the base language of MLS.

One little difference I noticed from the steps you gave -- when I change the language to Spanish, the names of the forms are still in English (the base language of my MLS installation). So I would choose Spanish, then select "Officers Sustained--Ward".

Alan_Brown wrote:One little difference I noticed from the steps you gave -- when I change the language to Spanish, the names of the forms are still in English (the base language of my MLS installation). So I would choose Spanish, then select "Officers Sustained--Ward".

Curious. When I do this using MLS 2.9.3, after I select Spanish, there is a slight pause, and then the list of forms repopulates in Spanish.

Odd that there is a difference in behavior. I wonder if this could be a difference between a patched update to MLS versus a clean install. I almost always try and to a clean install if can can before the patch gets pushed down from CHQ. Then again maybe that has nothing to do with the difference in behavior.

jbh001 wrote:Curious. When I do this using MLS 2.9.3, after I select Spanish, there is a slight pause, and then the list of forms repopulates in Spanish.

Odd that there is a difference in behavior. I wonder if this could be a difference between a patched update to MLS versus a clean install. I almost always try and to a clean install if can can before the patch gets pushed down from CHQ. Then again maybe that has nothing to do with the difference in behavior.

I did a clean install, so that doesn't account for any difference. And I am also using MLS 2.9.3, by the way. The difference is not a big deal, but it does pique one's curiosity.

I think we've stumbled on a programming bug that is fairly evident in the table below.
A "√" indicates the menu selection is in the native language and "Eng" indicates English.
See a pattern?

Alan_Brown wrote:-- when I change the language to Spanish, the names of the forms are still in English (the base language of my MLS installation). So I would choose Spanish, then select "Officers Sustained--Ward".

I have always had the same experience as jbh001. Once I select the Spanish language, the list of forms changes to Spanish. It is that way on all of the computers in our stake, which are running MLS 2.9.3.