When I sent the materials to my localizers I included a lot of information and some detailed instructions. The idea was to preempt any questions, delays, and mistakes. I put all the localizable files into a folder and ZIPped it for sending. Included in that package were the localized string files from Aperture itself. In that way the translators could see how Apple had expressed the terminology and maintain consistency.

The first item in the instructions was a series of screen shots of the plug-in. Several were needed to show the basic interface plus the pop-up menus popped up. The screen shots give the strings context and make it possible for localizers to work with the plug-in even if they cannot run it.

Here are the instructions I provided:

Enclosures
Enclosed is a ZIP file with a Localizable.strings file that was created by the genstrings utility. It contains all the strings that are localized in the application code. Also included is a file.strings file that has all the strings from the nib (user interface) and a TIFF image.

There is a folder for each language enclosed that contains a copy of the strings file used by Aperture. You can use this as a reference to see how Apple has translated things like Version Name. This will help consistency. 


What To Do
You will need to use an editor that can handle UTF-16 encoding. TextWrangler can do this as can many others. Apple recommends this simple editor:

ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Localization_Tools/ADViewer_2.1.dmg

Edit the text in the strings files to make the second string the translation. For example if I were doing a British English translation:

/* NSMenuItem : (oid:278) */
"Period" = "Period";

becomes:

/* NSMenuItem : (oid:278) */
"Period" = "Full stop";

Do not alter the comments or the other strings in the files. Be aware of the semicolon at the end of each line.

The Localizable.strings file is a slightly different format with the comment and the first string telling you what the string is used for:

/* Continue renaming after failure */
"rename-error-continue" = "Continue";

This helps distinguish some subtle differences in meaning or tense that may not be conveyed by English.

The strings may include substitutions. These are identified by a leading %. For example:

"%@ のコピー %d";

The substitutions should be left alone and just the text translated. Notice that some strings have numbers prefixing the substituted arguments. The numbers define the order of the substitutions in the first string:

/* Message in alert dialog when something fails */
"%@ Error! %@ failed!" = "%2$@ blah blim, %1$@ bloo!";

The translated message above reverses the arguments, as may be needed in some languages.

You can enter characters directly into the second string and can use Unicode by prefixing with \U. For example \U0020 is a unicode space.

In addition translations are needed for:

"No Image"
This appears in the table (as a graphic) when no thumbnail image is available for display. I will create a graphic for each language unless you want to do that. I have enclosed the graphic I currently use.

Please do translate "Random Wok". If you can!

One part of the interface has a plural that is used if more than one image is present: "3 images selected", but "1 image selected". Please provide both the singular and plural translations for this phrase. I handle the pluralizing in code, and depending on the language will have to change the way I do this.

What To Deliver
The files you deliver (Localizable.strings, file.strings, and a file containing the translation for No Image and the two forms of Images Selected) must be encoded UTF-16. Please ZIP the files together so they don't get mangled by email systems.

For technical background information see Apple's documentation:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPInternational/index.html

Specifically this page:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPInternational/Articles/
NotesForLocalizers.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000044

What Happens Next
I will take your strings files and put them into the project. For those that live in the nib, I duplicate the nib file and then will adjust the layout so that things fit. It is likely, English being such a terse language, that things will have to move somewhat. That is OK, but finding translations of similar size would be most helpful.

I will send you a beta of the plugin when it is ready so you can check that is still OK. Your comments on the beta as well as what I have done with your strings will be welcome.

There were actually some problems. I had mistakenly left a macro in my source files that contained strings that were nothing to do with my plug-in, so that was translated unnecessarily. Despite my efforts with the screen shots, not all of the meaning was clear and I had to answer some questions about some words. One of the ZIP files came back empty for unknown reasons. I also realized that the way I have implemented the pluralization of the number images selected -- providing a method to add the pluralising string "s" -- is unlikely to work in all languages. So I will need to change that.

The name itself, Random Wok turns out to be hard to translate. A Wok is literally a Chinese Pot in Japanese. So I opted for the more phonetic Randamu Wokku ランダム・ウオック. And the phrase No Image is seven characters that I am supposed to keep on one line inside a small button. So I had to request a different meaning for that.

Tags: Aperture, Plug-ins, Localization