1. Multilingual
How to provide a multi lingual User Interface in
PowerApps
 July, 2018
Peter Heffner
@Lingualizer

2. About
This is an example of how PowerApps can support multiple
languages.
Here a custom Sharepoint list provides the source text and
the translated text in columns. Each language has its own
column and can easily expanded if additional languages are
needed.
The desired language is selected in PowerApps and the
corresponding text is displayed by the Lookup-function for
the “Text” attribute.
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3. Concept
 Provide a translation table
 One row for each text or phrase
 One column for each language
 PowerApps
 Select the language and store it in a Global Variable
 „Text“ attribute with Switch command
 Switch selects text through lookup
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Watch out!
Depending on the country settings you need
to replace the semicolon ; with a comma ,
in the formulas.

4. Create a Translation Table
 Create a custom list
 Use the [Title] field as a reference
 Add single line text fields for each language
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5. PowerApps
Add a Data Source
 Open an existing PowerApp
 Add the Sharepoint list with the translations as a data
source
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6. PowerApps
Create a Collection
 Create a Collection „OnStart“ and load the translation
table
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Tip: For development create the collection in „OnVisible“.
This way you don‘t need to close and re-open the App
if you add more translation text to the SP list.

7. PowerApps
Set the Language
 Insert a button control for each language
 Set a Global Variable „OnSelect“ of each button
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8. PowerApps
Test with a Button
 Insert another button control and enter the following
formula in the „Text“ attribute:
Switch(varSelectedLanguage;
"EN";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="save";EN);
"DE";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="save";DE)
)
 Depending on the Global Variable
„varSelectedLanguage“, the Switch command looks for
a match in the [Title] column and retrieves the content
of the language column.
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9. PowerApps
Add another Button
 This time we duplicate (copy/paste) the previously
created button
 Now we only need to adjust the „Text“ attribute:
Original formula:
Switch(varSelectedLanguage;
"EN";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="save";EN);
"DE";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="save";DE)
)
New formula:
Switch(varSelectedLanguage;
"EN";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="submit";EN);
"DE";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="submit";DE)
)
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10. PowerApps
Now with a text field
 All we need to do is copy the formula from a previous
button or text
 Again, We only need to adjust the „Text“ attribute:
Switch(varSelectedLanguage;
"EN";LookUp(collTranslation;Title=„tip_1";EN);
"DE";LookUp(collTranslation;Title="tip_1";DE)
)
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11. Thanks for watching!
(c) Peter Heffner 11
Peter Heffner
@Lingualizer