With the release of NAV2016, more new features have been added than ever before. This raises a challenge that we have not had in a while. Translations.

My NAV Skills partner in crime, Luc van Vugt event has a blog tag about this.

Microsoft internally develops in US English and has translation agents do the translation. This is based on predefined translations and keywords giving us a consistent translation across product versions.

But new features have to be translated for the first time. And this is where NAV2016 has some funny ones in Dutch.

Workflow

The Dutch word for workflow is, well, workflow. At least this is what I’ve always used. Aparently Microsoft decided to call it “Werkstroom”. According to my fellow MVP in Holland, Arend-Jan Kauffmann this is a normal translation that is used in some other ERP as well. Personally I don’t think it needs translation.

Workflow Step Instance is translated to Workflowstapinstantie. In this page you can see outstanding workflow steps. I don’t think this is explained by the translation.

Deferrals

With deferrals you can create entries across multiple posting dates. Many partners had already built this, so had I. I called it Verdeelsleutel. The Dutch translation from Microsoft is Uitstelcode, which is the litteral translation but not one that makes sense.

How to change

I had a small chat with Microsoft about this. The official procedure if you don’t like the translation is to put it on MSConnect. It will be evaluated and maybe changed.