Make an HMI text entry keypad match the selected language

Why the keypad stays English

Two settings do two different jobs. The language selector chooses which set of translated screen text the panel shows. The entry object opens a keypad when the operator touches it, and that keypad is a separate object in the project. A new project loads one default keypad, and it is English. A fully translated screen over an English keypad is the normal starting state, so selecting the language again changes nothing on the keys.

Switching an HMI between English and Spanish at runtime covers the screen-text half of the job. If the selected language itself reverts after a restart, that is a different fault, and finding the runtime selector behind a language that changes back covers it. This page is about the keys.

What you need

• The project in its editor, on the version installed at the machine.
• The list of languages operators must type in, and for each one the exact special characters. Get that list from the people who type, not from a guess.
• Every entry object that accepts typed text, counted.
• The editor help file, topic CM098, Define Keypad.

The editor's user-defined keypad help, topic CM098, documents the scope: one of these definitions replaces the layout or the size of a password, numeric entry or text entry keypad. If the panel carries a physical keypad beside the screen, those keys can serve some entry objects directly, so check which path the object uses before you build a window nobody opens.

Build one keypad per language

1. Open the project. Open the keypad definition, help topic CM098, and find the default English keypad.
2. Copy the English keypad and paste it into a new keypad window. Leave the original untouched; it remains the English keypad.
3. Name the new window for its language. Distinct names stop the assignment step from grabbing the wrong window.
4. Edit the keys. On every changed key, set the character it sends first, then the label. A relabeled key that still sends the old character is the most common defect in this build.
5. Check the function keys. Space, delete and enter must still work on the copy.
6. Save, then point that language's entry task at the new keypad. The assignment sits with the entry object or with the screen that opens it, and linking a user-defined keypad to an entry object shows the pattern.
7. Repeat from step 2 for every language on the list.

Keep the key labels readable

Plan key labels with the rule you already use for screen text: 30 ft of viewing distance per inch of capital-letter height on the FHWA planning figure, and 20 ft per inch when the reading is hurried. Keypad use is hurried. The operator reads keys at about 30 in, which is 2.5 ft. At 20 ft per inch, 2.5 divided by 20 gives 0.125 in of capital height, about 3 mm. Build no key label smaller.

Translated labels run longer than the English ones, Spanish most of all. When a label will not fit at 3 mm, shorten the label. If the whole keypad needs bigger text, a custom keypad with larger key text is the pattern to copy.

Example: one comment field, three languages

A packaging line has one text entry object for a lot comment. Operators type in English, Spanish and French.

Keep the default English keypad and make two copies, one per added language. The project ends with 3 keypad windows: 1 original plus 2 copies.

The Spanish copy starts from the English grid of 26 letters and 10 digits, 36 character keys. Add the 8 keys Spanish needs, ñ, á, é, í, ó, ú, ¿ and ¡, and the grid carries 44 character keys plus space, delete and enter. The French copy adds 5 keys to the same base, é, è, à, ç and ô: 36 + 5 = 41 character keys.

Key labels sit at 0.125 in, about 3 mm of capital height, from 2.5 ft divided by 20 ft per inch, because the operator works at 30 in.

Test with real words: batch, cañón and élève, 5 characters each, 15 characters across 3 languages. The ñ and the ó in cañón exist only on the Spanish copy, and élève uses two of the five new French keys, so a skipped key edit fails the test at the panel instead of downstream in the data.

What Korean and Chinese entry needs

Latin-script languages put one character on one key, and the copy-and-edit build above is the whole job.

Korean assembles syllable blocks from 24 letters, 14 consonants and 10 vowels, so a key-per-letter keypad is the right shape for it. Build it, then run one extra test: type the letters of a single syllable into the real entry object and read the field. One syllable block means the letters were assembled on the way in, and the keypad ships. Three separate letters means the field stores exactly what each key sent, and free Korean typing will not work on that object. Give the language a preset string list instead.

Chinese runs to a few thousand distinct characters in ordinary use. No key grid you can build holds that, and a keypad definition edits layout and keys; it carries no character lookup. Do not build a Chinese keypad. Put the fixed strings where operators pick them, in a multilingual text list, or scan them into the text entry object.

How to check it worked

For each language on the list: select it at the panel, open the real entry object, confirm the keypad that opened is the one you built, type the test word, read the field. Then look past the screen: the entry object writes a string tag, so bind a display object to that tag or watch it from the programming software, and confirm the stored string matches the typed one.

Switch back to English and type once more. That final pass catches the mistake that costs a shift: a copy that replaced the default keypad instead of joining it. Run the whole check on every entry object, not just the first one. The same discipline belongs in the buying stage, and testing HMI localization text paths lists those checks.

Recommendation: build one keypad per language operators type in, starting each from a copy of the English keypad, for every Latin-script language and for Korean when the syllable test passes. Use a pick list, or a scanner into the entry object, for Chinese and for Korean when the test fails. Keep the English keypad as the default and test it last.

Questions