The first step in localizing strings in an application component
is identifying the best candidates for translation.
Procedure
- Determine which elements of the application need translating. Good candidates for localization include the following:
- Graphical user interfaces: window titles, menus and menu items, buttons,
on-screen instructions
- Prompts in command-line interfaces
- Application output: messages and logs
- Assign a unique key to each element for use in message catalogs
for the application. The key provides a language-neutral link between
the application and language-specific strings in the message catalogs. Establishing
a naming convention for keys before creating the catalogs can make writing
code with these keys much more intuitive for interface programmers.
Example
Suppose you are localizing the GUI for a banking system, and the
first window contains a pull-down list to use for selecting a type of account.
The labels for the list and the account types
in the list are good choices for localization. Three elements require keys:
the list and two items in the list.
What to do next
Create message catalogs for
the language-specific strings.