You can use any text editor (one that allows you to enter text in your language, and also to read text in English at the same time). For instace, use Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, WordPad. If your language uses non-English characters (like japanese, hebrew, arab...) use (if possible) Microsoft Word, and send us a copy in .DOC format and also a copy in .HTML format (use the File/Save as... menu).
Here an example of a translation file for Brindys Software programs:
26 Aún no se ha descargado ninguna noticia. Encara no s'ha descarregat cap notícia. No news downloaded yet. 27 Acerca de... Al voltant de... About... 28 Haga clic para visitar la web de WinRSS Feu clic per a visitar la web de WinRSS Click to visit WinRSS website 29 Haga clic para configurar WinRSS Feu clic per a configurar WinRSS Click to configure WinRSS |
In the example, you can see four messages, numbered from 26 to 29, translated each one of them into three different languages. In the example, the languages are Spanish, Catalan and English. Translation into English of message 26 is "No news downloaded yet." (the third line after number 26).
To add a new language, you should add a new line to each message number. For instance, to add a ficticious language called "UPPERCASE ENGLISH" it would be like this:
26 Aún no se ha descargado ninguna noticia. Encara no s'ha descarregat cap notícia. No news downloaded yet. NO NEWS DOWNLOADED YET. 27 Acerca de... Al voltant de... About... ABOUT... 28 Haga clic para visitar la web de WinRSS Feu clic per a visitar la web de WinRSS Click to visit WinRSS website CLICK TO VISIT WINRSS WEBSITE 29 Haga clic para configurar WinRSS Feu clic per a configurar WinRSS Click to configure WinRSS CLICK TO CONFIGURE WINRSS |
Now, we have four translations for each message.
After some message numbers, a text explains how to perform the translation. For instance, if the text is not clear and needs an explanation.
Comments are preceded with a ; symbol. You do not have to translate them, as they are only there to help translators, comments will not be seen by end users of the programs.
Like in the following example:
26 ; This is a comment. This message appears when a new feed has just been added to the program Aún no se ha descargado ninguna noticia. Encara no s'ha descarregat cap notícia. No news downloaded yet. |
Symbol ¬ means "put a space at the start or end of the text". If the translation in your language needs also an space, copy that symbol. Use Copy and Paste functions in your editor to copy that character (or select the text and use the Edit/Copy, Edit/Paste menus).
Many times, the use of the ¬ symbol means that the following message will continue the text. For example, to build the text: "My name is Peter and I live here."
Like in the following example:
66 Mi nombre es¬ My name is¬ 67 ¬y vivo¬ ¬and I live¬ |
The first messages on each translation file have special meaning, and must be translated differently from the rest. Anyway, each line on each message is used for each different language, like in the previous examples. Here is a copy of the first messages of one translation file:
0 ; for help on translating this file, visit http://www.brindys.com/trans/help.html Error en diccionario de WinRSS¬ Error al diccionari de WinRSS¬ WinRSS dictionary error¬ 1 ; find your language 3-letter token at: http://www.brindys.com/trans/idi.html CAS VAL IUK 2 ; enter here the encoding used to write your translation iso-8859-1 iso-8859-1 iso-8859-1 3 reservado reservat reserved 4 WinRSS Gestor de fuentes de información WinRSS Gestor de fonts d'informació WinRSS Information feeds manager |
Message number 0 is displayed when the translation file (or dictionary) is broken or has any kind of errors.
Message number 1 is the three-letter language name of the translation. In the previous example, "IUK" (meaning British English) is declared as the third language on each message.
Message number 2 is the name of the encoding used to write texts in your language. For instance, English and Western European languages use ISO-8859-1 encoding. Russian uses windows-1251 encoding. Arab uses utf-8 encoding. If you are not sure about which is your encoding, don't worry and we will try to discover it.
Message number 3 is reserved, just write "reserved"
Message number 4 is the program name followed with a short description of the program use. Except for BriNotes/BriNotas program, the rest of our software have the same name all over the world. For BriNotes, replace "Notes" with the name in your language for the yellow sticky notes used at offices to write reminders. For non-latin (or non-English alphabet) languages, replace also "Bri" with the word for the verb "to give this to someone". If not bad-sounding, use only the first sillabe for that word. Please contact us if you have any doubt or have a good idea for changing the name into something more interesting.