Introduction to Resources and Localization

This tutorial walks you through the process of developing three small programs that use the next generation of Visual Studio language tools to take advantage of the new .NET Framework and common language runtime. You will see how to build a simple calculator program that uses different text strings for such things as program titles and command-button captions. These text strings are constructed from text files, and you will learn how to build separate files — and compiled resources — that work in different localized environments. You will also learn how to build an application that uses different image resources — in this case, JPEG images — to display localized graphics at run time. Finally, you will learn how to build a Web application that returns localized strings and images, depending on the user's language preference that is indicated by the browser.

Many organizations find it convenient to divide this process into two distinct operations: localization and development, which are often handled by different groups of people. Therefore, this tutorial describes the development process in two distinct phases: creating and packaging resources, and accessing resources from your code.

See Also

Common Resource Concepts | Creating Resources | Retrieving Resources Using Code | Resources Summary | Appendix A: Additional Resource Information | Appendix B: Resource Tools