I wanted to propose a feature request: adding a "spoken language" field for Contacts, pretty much like there is a field for Gender.
I was thinking of the standard 2-letters language (eg: "EN", "ES", "DE", etc.).
This field should be accessible via macros, and it could be used for conditional operations in Templates. It could tie-in nicely with email enconding and spell checker. Maybe it should also allow multiple languages per contact -- beside the default one. This would allow to implement checks of the type "if contact X speaks language Y" beside checking the default spoken language.
Currently, I'm using as a workaround Address Book Groups: I've created a Group for each language I use ("EN", "IT") and set that the "IT" group should use custom templates for New and Reply mails --- whereas "EN" just uses the default ones. But this system is not very practical.
I believe that the language field is as important as the gender field (if not more). Scenarios like customer support demand for access to the spoken language of the various customers -- for generating automatic responses in the correct language, and so on.
I would also advice that such a feature should integrate with mass mailing: Mass mailing to a specific group (eg: "Customers" group of Address Book) should be able to handle different emails according to contacts languages. While the mass mailing operation remains a single one (eg: "Christmas sales"), the actual contents will different according to languages required. Basically, TB should check how many languages are present within the target group, and allow to create different contents for each language, and handle automatically the rest (ie: sending the right locale to the right contacts).
In dual language countries, this would allow sending the same email in different languages without sending multiple mails to single contacts. Of course, using templates would easy up the task.
PS: I've noticed that in the "Edit Address Entry" dialog there is a text field right next to "Gender" drop down menu. What is it for? Is it meant for when Gender is set to "Other"? Could this text-field be exploited to implement a language field?
Am I missing out some TB features which already allow to implement all this?
What are your thoughts about this proposal?
B.R.
Tristano
I was thinking of the standard 2-letters language (eg: "EN", "ES", "DE", etc.).
This field should be accessible via macros, and it could be used for conditional operations in Templates. It could tie-in nicely with email enconding and spell checker. Maybe it should also allow multiple languages per contact -- beside the default one. This would allow to implement checks of the type "if contact X speaks language Y" beside checking the default spoken language.
Currently, I'm using as a workaround Address Book Groups: I've created a Group for each language I use ("EN", "IT") and set that the "IT" group should use custom templates for New and Reply mails --- whereas "EN" just uses the default ones. But this system is not very practical.
I believe that the language field is as important as the gender field (if not more). Scenarios like customer support demand for access to the spoken language of the various customers -- for generating automatic responses in the correct language, and so on.
I would also advice that such a feature should integrate with mass mailing: Mass mailing to a specific group (eg: "Customers" group of Address Book) should be able to handle different emails according to contacts languages. While the mass mailing operation remains a single one (eg: "Christmas sales"), the actual contents will different according to languages required. Basically, TB should check how many languages are present within the target group, and allow to create different contents for each language, and handle automatically the rest (ie: sending the right locale to the right contacts).
In dual language countries, this would allow sending the same email in different languages without sending multiple mails to single contacts. Of course, using templates would easy up the task.
PS: I've noticed that in the "Edit Address Entry" dialog there is a text field right next to "Gender" drop down menu. What is it for? Is it meant for when Gender is set to "Other"? Could this text-field be exploited to implement a language field?
Am I missing out some TB features which already allow to implement all this?
What are your thoughts about this proposal?
B.R.
Tristano