• | As of Publisher version 3.8 (available for Windows & Macintosh) we are using the Sisulizer translation tool instead of Multilizer. Please ask for a free translator edition together with your newest translation database. |
• | We have started using Subversion SVN (similar to Dropbox) to exchange translation files, so you will be needing a tool like Slik-Subversion, RapidSVN or TortoiseSVN. If you use Slik, then we will send you a simple BAT script to exchange files - the other tools have a GUI and require a little more experience. |
• | Translate the missing strings in the .SLE translation database, which were sent to you by email or SVN. |
• | In Sisulizer, set Datatype in the right pane to "String" only. DO NOT translate colors, fonts or numbers. |
• | Don't rely on the filter to find missing translations, because a string may not always have a "new" status, if it is empty! Instead, empty strings can be or sorted, or accessed one-by-one by pressing CTRL+G. Put the cursor in the foreign language column for this. You can see the number of untranslated strings in the statistics section at the bottom. |
• | Automatically validate your translation in Sisulizer, and correct mistakes. Check especially for missing translation, inconsistent format string, invalid amount of new lines, invalid amount of white spaces, missing colons, etc. |
• | Send back the .SLP translation database file to 1STEIN. |
• | We will now create and upload your BETA binary to the 1STEIN server. This is automatically downloaded by the SetupWizard when you create a new installer. |
IMPORTANT translation notes!
• | Install the Software that needs to be translated. If applicable, switch to "Expert mode" so you see all the features. Thoroughly test the software. This will later help you to understand the translation strings better. |
• | Some strings appear to be already translated. These were imported from OTHER projects, and could have different meanings. So please check them in any case. |
• | Strings can be copied between columns with CTRL+C and CTRL+V. You should copy strings from the native source column to your language column, if the format of the string looks complicated, and you only need to translate parts of it. This way it's less likely that you break the format while translating. |
• | You can leave out lines that you have questions about, and later find these with CTRL+G, if the cursor is in your language column. |
• | In the left tree, always keep the focus on the top node. Don't worry about any forms or context nodes |
• | Try to keep the translations smaller or equal in length to the original. If the field in the translation column turns DARK Pink, or even Red, the translation is too long! It's not a problem if the translated strings are LIGHT Pink. You don't need to abbreviate until they are white. Hint strings (see context column) are not that critical. It usually is a problem, if it is the caption of a toolbar button, because there is limited space for all the buttons in the toolbar. If the strings are too wide, then some of the buttons disappear into the "More.." menu of the toolbar. Also, dialogs and forms may have limited space for some of the captions. Thus, the final binary needs to be tested carefully, in order to find problems with overflowing strings. |
• | Don't change the sequence of "%s %d" etc. operators. If you cannot keep these operators in semantical order, because the sentence might sound better switched around, change the first "%s" in the original to "%0:s", the second "%s" to "%1:s", and so on. |
• | Usually html tokens should not be translated. Typical exceptions:
<a href="mailto:order@codedcolor.com?subject=Firmen/Mehrplatz-Lizenz"> Here you should translate "Firmen/Mehrplatz-Lizenz".
<a href="javascript: Infobox('%s?doc=http://www.codedcolor.com/en/license_s.html')"> Here you should change "en" to "xy", where xy is your language. |
• | Please make sure you have exact translations! Here's an example of a translation that was obviously wrong and produced an error:
"Compression Ratio: %2.0f%%" was translated to "Ratio de compression : %2.Of%%". Can you see the error? The zero was turned into an alphabetic O, leading to a crash. |
• | Filefilter strings like *.pdf|PDF files|*.doc|Winword files... are very complicated and delicate, so if in doubt, just copy the whole string and translate only the necessary parts in it. In the example, only the word "files" needs to be translated. |
• | Some strings have spaces at the end, displayed by a dot in the language column!
Example: "Result empty: " was translated to "Aucun résultat:", which is obviously not the same. So make sure you watch the tiny dots! |
• | Make sure the translated string has the same number of line breaks, and at the same locations! If you miss line breaks, text may not be visible in some forms, and info boxes won't look very nice. The validation can also show you these format errors. |
• | Some strings have "&" in the middle. These are menu items, and the letter following the "&" is the key that can be accessed with ALT. In your translation, you can put the "&" wherever you like or better leave it out (nobody uses this nowadays). Example: if you have "Print Page" and "Print Doc", you could write "Print &Page" and "Print &Doc". The first item can then be accessed by ALT+p, the second by ALT+d. In the menu, the corresponding letter is underlined. If you are currently using an editor to read this document, check the menu items for underlined characters and try the ALT key. |
• | Strings containing the word "dummy" don't need to be translated. |
• | If you can't find the string anywhere in the interface (switch to Publisher's expert mode before!), then it's probably an error message, or it's not used. If you leave it untranslated, then the English string will be shown. |
• | If in doubt, please ask. It's virtually impossible to identify problems later. Just send the translated file back to us, and refer to the line numbers that you have questions about. |
• | When you're done, do a "Validate" to find missing characters and line breaks! |
How to translate to UTF8 / UNICODE
If you have a language which requires Unicode characters, ask the supervisor to switch the target language in the database to UTF8.
To enable Sisulizer to store Unicode characters, use the following steps in Windows 7. The steps should be similar on other versions of Windows:
1. | In Windows, open the "Control Panel", then "Region and Language" |
2. | Select the tab "Administrative", then "Language for non-Unicode programs" and click on "Change system locale..." |
3. | Select the corresponding language system locale. You may have to try out a few until you find the correct one. |
4. | Then restart Windows so that your settings will take effect. The characters will then be stored correctly in the SLP database. |
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