ACC: Mixing Language Editions of Microsoft Access and Windows

This article discusses the various language editions of Microsoft Access, their supported character sets (or code pages), and the feasibility of mixing language editions of Microsoft Access and the operating system.

Microsoft Access has many editions which have been translated and customized (or localized) for different languages. These editions are designed for a specific language of Windows that supports a particular code page. Ideally, you should match the Microsoft Access edition with the language of the operating system. For example, if you have Spanish Windows, then you should run the Spanish edition of Microsoft Access.

However, you may sometimes want to run an edition of Microsoft Access that is designed for a different language than the operating system. This is feasible as long as the type of character set (or code page) used by the operating system supports the language edition of Microsoft Access.

For example, if you have English Windows, you can run European editions of Microsoft Access (such as Dutch, Swedish, Italian, and others) without discrepancies in the look, feel, and functionality of the application. However, if you try to run a Korean, Japanese, or Arabic edition of Microsoft Access on English Windows, the application may not run or behave as expected.

The type of character set (or code page) used by the operating system can limit the mixing of language editions. There are several basic types of characters sets:

• Single-byte: Supports 256 characters, each identified by a unique 1-byte character value.
• Double-byte (DBCS): Supports thousands of characters, each identified by a unique 2-byte character value.
• Bi-Directional (BiDi): A single-byte code page that allows for bi-directional text.

The following tables list the language editions of Microsoft Access and their types of character sets.

Microsoft Access 7.0

Microsoft Access 2.0

Notes on Mixing Language Editions

Various European language editions use different single-byte code pages. The Latin languages use the same code page. The Central European languages (Hungarian, Czech, and Polish) use a different code page. Greek, Turkish, and Russian each have a separate code page to accommodate their different characters.

In general, you can mix language editions that are part of the same code page. For example, you can run a Czech database using the Hungarian edition of Microsoft Access. Or you can mix a European language database with an English edition of Microsoft Access. However, to maximize compatibility between language editions, there are two things to avoid when designing an application:

• Do not use the localized language in SQL statements or query expressions; use only English.
• Use English language parameters (rather than localized ones) for the GetOption and SetOption methods in Visual Basic for Applications.

NOTE: Do not mix two non-English language editions from different code pages.