Ms Excel Question

[opalhort]

Have to create a worksheet for my wife to enter data. Some columns require English and some Thai input.

Is there a way to preset the language so that the required language is activated as soon as the cursor enters the cell?

Since I have to take my wife's computing/typing skills into consideration I want to make it as easy as possible for her.

opalhort

Edit: forgot to mention Win XP pro, Office 2003 version

Edited July 30, 2009 by opalhort

[thaimite]

Have to create a worksheet for my wife to enter data. Some columns require English and some Thai input.

Is there a way to preset the language so that the required language is activated as soon as the cursor enters the cell?

Since I have to take my wife's computing/typing skills into consideration I want to make it as easy as possible for her.

opalhort

Edit: forgot to mention Win XP pro, Office 2003 version

Interesting problem!

My apprroach would be to do something like.

1.) Set up a hot key sequence for each language from the language bar settings e.g.

Thai = Left Alt Shift1

US = Left Alt Shift 2

2.)Then using VBA to detect when a particular cell or group of cells is activated issue the correct key sequence.

Having far to much time on my hands sitting at home in front of the PC, if you need more help with this do not be afraid to PM me for more detailed information or a VBA routine.

Edited July 30, 2009 by thaimite

[opalhort]

Thanks for your reply thaimite and also for your PM which I just received.

I'm certainly going to come back to you for help.

For now things are still a bit sketchy, will get more details about requirements next week.

Background:

Since we export live plants to the EU the Department of Agriculture (Kaset) requires us now to submit a monthly report about the plants we purchase and/or produce.

I do have experience with VBasic but only in Access, never used VBasic in Excel.

Our main database is in Access with all plant names already recorded so it may be better to set the whole thing up there using drop-down lists rather than using Excel where everything would have to be entered from scratch.

About Hot keys:

If I set them up the standard language switch (top left key - no idea what's the name) will no longer work, is this correct?

Thanks again

opalhort

[thaimite]

Thanks for your reply thaimite and also for your PM which I just received.

I'm certainly going to come back to you for help.

For now things are still a bit sketchy, will get more details about requirements next week.

Background:

Since we export live plants to the EU the Department of Agriculture (Kaset) requires us now to submit a monthly report about the plants we purchase and/or produce.

I do have experience with VBasic but only in Access, never used VBasic in Excel.

Our main database is in Access with all plant names already recorded so it may be better to set the whole thing up there using drop-down lists rather than using Excel where everything would have to be entered from scratch.

About Hot keys:

If I set them up the standard language switch (top left key - no idea what's the name) will no longer work, is this correct?

Thanks again

opalhort

No Problem.

The standard hot key (Tilde) will not work in this case as it is a Toggle function, i.e. every time it is pressed it changes the selection where as you need a key sequence that will force one or other of the languages. Basically any key sequence will work, but I had a problem with the left-alt+shft+1 as the Thai character it generates is unprintable and I was too lazy to look for the correct code so I just changed it.

I think I understand your problem, and I had a similar problem with my wife as she has a trucking business and refuses to read and write English. We keep a spreadsheet of incomings and outgoings and for that I have produced a toggle button where all the column names change language when pressed. Basically I have used another sheet for the translation and then the value in the cell is referenced according to the other sheet and the toggle value. This idea may work for you by populating the list boxes according to the user, and then you can also change the display language of all cells with a single toggle.

If you are familiar with VBA in Access then VBA in excel is easy. I use Excel a lot and love finding new challenges to see if I can solve them, but for some reason have always stayed away from Access. Probably because 99% of the time it is easier for me to do it in Excel with VBA than learn Access. You can of course export your Access data to Excel and visa versa.

Hope this all helps

Good luck and PM me if you need more