Susan Widmar wrote: I'll be running a course in Vietnam on questionnaire design and data
management. As part of the course I'm thinking of adding a session on EpiData. Can anyone answer the following question: How do people in non-English speaking countries manage with EpiData?
I just wish to remind all that with the re-written software the whole issue of local languages is very simple: There should be no problem since all text field contents as questions (variable labels) can be written with the character set UTF-8.
As is shown with the sample file coming with the test versions of EntryClient and Manager the same file contains data in many different languages including Chinese, French, Spanish, English, Danish, Arabic (shown right to left) and more. Check yourself with the software available for test from http://www.epidata.dk/testing.php
Whether this comes in due time for your course I cannot know. The intended mode of work in the future will be that a given file/project can contain several languages. For a given variable the variable name is given only once for the project, but the question (variable label) and value labels will have (can have) translations and the user can change language during entry or definition.
Regarding the interface we will also accomplish translation: The interface for translation is not final, but will resemble the page you can see at: http://www.epidata.info/asger3/
Timetable for release depends on attaining stability and sufficient function. I have learned NOT to promise anything, but as I wrote earlier my own plan is to start using the new software for courses by the end of february.
Currently I am quite convinced that by the end of february we will have a functional level of aspects now in the test versions and also features for jumps, mustenter and a stable interface for the design in Linux and Windows - some problems will most likely still be present in the Mac version, which unfortunately will require finetuning later.
Regarding GCP functionality I expect this towards the end of first quarter or middle of second quarter if all goes well.
regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association