How to change language at runtime without layout troubles

Question

I have a winforms application that the users must be able to change the language at runtime.

To generalize the switch and avoid having to hard code control names I tried the following extension:

    internal static void SetLanguage(this Form form, CultureInfo lang)
    {
        ComponentResourceManager resources = new ComponentResourceManager(form.GetType());

        ApplyResourceToControl(resources, form, lang);
        resources.ApplyResources(form, "$this", lang);
    }

    private static void ApplyResourceToControl(ComponentResourceManager resources, Control control, CultureInfo lang)
    {
        foreach (Control c in control.Controls)
        {
            ApplyResourceToControl(resources, c, lang);
            resources.ApplyResources(c, c.Name, lang);
        }
    }

This does change all the strings.

However a side effect of this is that the entire contents of the window is resized to that windows original startup size, no matter what the current size is.

How can I prevent the layout from changing or initiate a new layout calculation?

Answer 1

This is the complete code I am using now.

The change is to manually change the Text property only. If I get to localize other properties, the code will have to be expanded afterwards.

    /// <summary>
    /// Change language at runtime in the specified form
    /// </summary>
    internal static void SetLanguage(this Form form, CultureInfo lang)
    {
        //Set the language in the application
        System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = lang;

        ComponentResourceManager resources = new ComponentResourceManager(form.GetType());

        ApplyResourceToControl(resources, form.MainMenuStrip, lang);
        ApplyResourceToControl(resources, form, lang);

        //resources.ApplyResources(form, "$this", lang);
        form.Text = resources.GetString("$this.Text", lang);
    }

    private static void ApplyResourceToControl(ComponentResourceManager resources, Control control, CultureInfo lang)
    {
        foreach (Control c in control.Controls)
        {
            ApplyResourceToControl(resources, c, lang);
            //resources.ApplyResources(c, c.Name, lang);
            string text = resources.GetString(c.Name+".Text", lang);
            if (text != null)
                c.Text = text;
        }
    }

    private static void ApplyResourceToControl(ComponentResourceManager resources, MenuStrip menu, CultureInfo lang)
    {
        foreach (ToolStripItem m in menu.Items)
        {
            //resources.ApplyResources(m, m.Name, lang);
            string text = resources.GetString(m.Name + ".Text", lang);
            if (text != null)
                m.Text = text;
        }
    }