Translating skinning and theme software
It's not that easy, but with community help...
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
This article is directed to those that do not use English as your primary language as well as the Stardock developers.
Why care about localization?
I was very happy when WindowBlinds could be localized. (All though WindowFX has had this feature earlier I was not aware of it and it turns out to be flawed.) One of the reasons that this made me happy where that I now finally could have my parents and other computer novice people use these skinning programs. It's not that I think that Stardock products are overly complicated to use, but for people that aren't that comfortable with computers and how they work, it's not ideal for them to use a program in a foreign language. Not only is it an a foreign language, but it contains terms and phrases that you don't really learn in school. At least not in the same context. ("Skinning", "Widgets" etc.) All though English is a very common language that most people have at least some knowledge and understanding of even if it's not their primary language, it's obviously better for the user to be able to use he/she's primary language. It makes the software more friendly and doesn't alienate as much. And why have my software in English when I get Windows OS localized?
Problems with localizing software
When WB could be localized I immediately started translating the language files. I quickly saw that translating software wasn't that easy as I thought. First of all: what should call all the names for the different controls of the GUI? English speaker: "Can't you just look up the dictionary?". No, you can't. It's not that easy. Words doesn't always have an exact equal in every language. Not even in English even though I know that many English people would like to think so. Anyways, I have seen some software that's been very poorly translated. It's sometimes seemed like it's been sent though the Word spell checker and that's been it, resulting in a very awkward grammar that doesn't belong in any language and stuffed with English terms and technical words. That was not what I was going to do. I went to Google the problem, but the results weren't that impressive. However, Firefox came to the rescue. Over at the website for Norwegian Mozilla translation I found links to resources they use when they translate the Mozilla software. What I found from there was very interesting and educational. I'm no good when I comes to grammar and spelling, so it was very nice for me to read tips and gotcha's from people who do know this stuff. (This text is going though the spell checker before I post it.) It was based on that information that I could get on to the next problem: terms and technical words that's exclusive to the skinning world of software and does not yet exist in my own language. But with the new knowledge and tips I had gotten from the articles and resources I had read I eventually manage to translate WindowBlinds into Norwegian (Bokmål).
Tips to those of you who wants to translate any software into your own language: Do your research before you get started.
Additional problems caused by the software
It's not just the linguistic that causes problems for localizing software. Sometimes it's the software it self that doesn't allow for more space. Ever so often you want to use more words or longer words to precisely translate the meaning of whatever you are translating.
Stardock specificly
I have some specific request for Stardock about localizing their software.
I hope Stardock will continue to make their software available for localizing and encourage the current progress greatly.
(P.S.: How do Stardock quality check the language files they get from users before they distribute them? Surely, distributing a poor localization can't reflect good on the company)
-cheers Thomas Thomassen
Why care about localization?
I was very happy when WindowBlinds could be localized. (All though WindowFX has had this feature earlier I was not aware of it and it turns out to be flawed.) One of the reasons that this made me happy where that I now finally could have my parents and other computer novice people use these skinning programs. It's not that I think that Stardock products are overly complicated to use, but for people that aren't that comfortable with computers and how they work, it's not ideal for them to use a program in a foreign language. Not only is it an a foreign language, but it contains terms and phrases that you don't really learn in school. At least not in the same context. ("Skinning", "Widgets" etc.) All though English is a very common language that most people have at least some knowledge and understanding of even if it's not their primary language, it's obviously better for the user to be able to use he/she's primary language. It makes the software more friendly and doesn't alienate as much. And why have my software in English when I get Windows OS localized?
Problems with localizing software
When WB could be localized I immediately started translating the language files. I quickly saw that translating software wasn't that easy as I thought. First of all: what should call all the names for the different controls of the GUI? English speaker: "Can't you just look up the dictionary?". No, you can't. It's not that easy. Words doesn't always have an exact equal in every language. Not even in English even though I know that many English people would like to think so. Anyways, I have seen some software that's been very poorly translated. It's sometimes seemed like it's been sent though the Word spell checker and that's been it, resulting in a very awkward grammar that doesn't belong in any language and stuffed with English terms and technical words. That was not what I was going to do. I went to Google the problem, but the results weren't that impressive. However, Firefox came to the rescue. Over at the website for Norwegian Mozilla translation I found links to resources they use when they translate the Mozilla software. What I found from there was very interesting and educational. I'm no good when I comes to grammar and spelling, so it was very nice for me to read tips and gotcha's from people who do know this stuff. (This text is going though the spell checker before I post it.) It was based on that information that I could get on to the next problem: terms and technical words that's exclusive to the skinning world of software and does not yet exist in my own language. But with the new knowledge and tips I had gotten from the articles and resources I had read I eventually manage to translate WindowBlinds into Norwegian (Bokmål).
Tips to those of you who wants to translate any software into your own language: Do your research before you get started.
Additional problems caused by the software
It's not just the linguistic that causes problems for localizing software. Sometimes it's the software it self that doesn't allow for more space. Ever so often you want to use more words or longer words to precisely translate the meaning of whatever you are translating.
Stardock specificly
I have some specific request for Stardock about localizing their software.
- Clean up WindowFX's translation files to the same fashion as WindowBlinds and DesktopX
- Be able to localize Stardock Central. (It's your most important software, wouldn't it make sense to have it localized?)
-
Include _Changes.txt and _How to translate.txt files with WB, WFX and any other software you intend to localize in same manor as DX.
I prefer the way DX let me name the files Norwegian (Bokmål) (Norway) as oppose to WB that do not approve of the Norwegian characters in the language list. A uniform and informative way of selecting your language in the entire SD product range would look better. - Allow for some more space, please...
- A forum section on Wincustomize dedicated to localizing would be very nice. To be able to discuss issues with other would help greatly. As well as a central place to look for resources. (I'd encourage people to leave links to resources if such a section would be created.) I tried the SD news server when I was working on my Norwegian WB translation, but got no reply. I had hoped to get in touch with other Norwegian users of WB. And I could really do with some help on localizing WFX and DX because they got some terms that I really got me trubbled on how to translate.
I hope Stardock will continue to make their software available for localizing and encourage the current progress greatly.
(P.S.: How do Stardock quality check the language files they get from users before they distribute them? Surely, distributing a poor localization can't reflect good on the company)
-cheers Thomas Thomassen