First Published 21 July 2024                 Last Updated 23 July 2024

When installing Windows or Office, the default language (and locale) is English (United States). However, other languages can be chosen during the installation process.
As I am based in the United Kingdom, I chose to install both as English (United Kingdom)

Choosing a different language/locale means that the menus, ribbons and control tip text are localized accordingly.
Of course, for UK English, that should be spelt localised with an 's' rather than a 'z'!

The differences between UK English and US English are relatively minor. For example, colour (UK) and color (US).
For non-English languages, the changes are obviously far more significant!

In almost all cases, localization works well. However, occasionally things go wrong and the results can at times be very odd!

For example, Access provides an alternate row colour (UK spelling) for use with datasheets. Compare the form datasheet ribbon menus for US / UK English:

English (United States)

English (United Kingdom)

The localization team correctly adjusted the spelling of color (US) to colour (UK). However, the use of 'alternative' in this context is completely wrong.
This is a long-term error that I mentioned in an earlier article in March 2024: Form Datasheet ribbon missing in popup form
It was supposedly fixed in Access 365 version 2403 but that fix didn't actually happen!

The second example is extremely bizarre. Users running Office 365 Beta Channel are currently able to see a 'pre-release' version of the improvements to modern charts.
The new features should be released to the current channel at the end of August 2024
The improvements are very welcome with many additional chart types and additional functionality such as optional gridlines for existing chart types.

The screenshots below show the latest modern chart ribbon items for Access 365 version 2408 Build 17911.20000 Beta Channel:

English (United States)

English (United Kingdom)

The new Waterfall chart type has been incorrectly localized as Waterautumn!

This is related to the fact that in the UK we refer to Autumn whereas in the US it is called Fall.
However, we still call a waterfall a waterfall! This is clearly taking localization too far.

Both the above issues were reported to the Access team on 18 July and they have already been forwarded to the localization development team to be fixed!
Hopefully, any corrections will not lead to even more peculiar outcomes!

UPDATE 23 July 2024:
Only 4 days after being reported, the 'Waterautumn' error has been fixed in the latest Beta channel build 17830.20016 released today. That is a very impressive response.
The alternative row colour error has not yet been fixed.



Why do localization errors occur?

These are nothing to do with the Access team itself. An entirely separate development team is responsible for localization (as is also the case for VBA issues)

The randomness of the above localization issues does make me wonder whether these changes are implemented largely (or even entirely) using AI tools such as CoPilot.

If you are aware of other localization issues in English (UK) or any other language/locale, please email me using the contact form below and I will forward the details to the Access team. Please include the language/locale and relevant screenshots. Thank you!



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Colin Riddington           Mendip Data Systems                 Last Updated 23 July 2024

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