Appendix B. Translate ImageFuser into your own language.

ImageFuser has an easy method to create translations into your own language. No matter what that language is, as long as it can be defined in UTF-8, you can add your translation.

How to translate ImageFuser into your language.
If you go to the ImageFuser.app application in your Finder, you can right-click (Ctrl-click) it. You will see a popup like this (probably in your own language):



Choose the option "Show Package Contents" (whatever it's called in your language).
A Finder window will open allowing you to explore into the package. Move to: Contents -> Resources. In this "Resources" folder you will find a couple of files and a couple of "language/country.lproj" folders. Open such a folder. You will see the following files:

And as an example:


The "Localizable.strings" file is a UTF-8 ASCII text file containing the strings that are used in the program. Either as "screen" texts or as "dialog" texts. "Screen" texts are the ones on your screen (not a surprise), "dialog" texts are the ones that are displayed when popups appear asking you for names, confirmation or for displaying progress and error messages and so on.

If you simply double-click the "Localizable.strings" file it will open. Below you will see an example: (dutch localizable.strings file)

/*
* The setup of this file is as follows:
* "String used by program" = "translated string that is displayed";
*
* When you see the double quotes with a \ ( a backslash) like \", leave them in. It means that the text is "escaped". In this case
* the " is escaped and will not be interpreted as a string separator but as a "normal" character.
*
* When you see a \n , leave it in. It means that there is a "hard" linefeed to create a new line.
* line 1\nline 2 will be displayed in the program as
* line 1
* line 2
*
* Be very careful with Search & Replace. The "left side string" used by the program should never change.
* Otherwise the total string is no longer useful.
*
*/

/* Menu items */
/* First submenu's title is program name */
"About ImageFuser" = "Over ImageFuser";
"Preferences" = "Voorkeuren";
"Hide ImageFuser" = "Verberg ImageFuser";
"Quit ImageFuser" = "Stop ImageFuser";

"File_Menu" = "Archief";
"Open Bracketed Set" = "Open Bracketed Set";
"Save Enfused Image" = "Bewaar Enfused afbeelding";
"Save HDR Image" = "Bewaar HDR afbeelding";

"Options_Menu" = "Opties";
"Align Only" = "Alleen uitlijnen";
"Simple Batch" = "Bulk uitvoering";
..
..
..
/* General dialog texts */
"NoImgYet" = "U hebt nog geen afbeeldingen toegevoegd!";
"PlAddImg" = "Voeg a.u.b. afbeeldingen toe";
"ImgFImgName" = "Geef de naam van de nieuwe te bewaren afbeelding (zonder extensie)";
..
..etcetera

Your "language/country(code)".lproj is available
In case your language/country(code).lproj is already available, it's easy. You can modify the strings of the "localizable.strings" file inside your "language/country(code)".lproj folder. Once you have saved the file, you can restart ImageFuser and your translations will be visible.

Your "language/country(code)".lproj is NOT available
In case your language/country(code).lproj is not available (Norwegian for example), you have two options.

  1. In "System Preferences", set your system language to English, open the English.lproj folder and start modifying the english localizable.strings.
  2. Find out your language/country(code), create a new "your code".lproj (like "Swedish.lproj" or "Spanish.lproj" or "pt_BR.lproj" (portuguese brazilian)) and copy "*.strings" from the "English.lproj" into your newly created .lproj folder. Go into your newly created .lproj folder and start modifying the localizable.strings file.

The above is too complicated for me but I like to have ImageFuser in my own language.
Just send me a mail. I will send you the ASCII file (a direct download of the file sometimes result in a non UTF-8 file). You translate it and send it back to me.

Note: Please send your translations to me (you can find my email address in (Menu:) ImageFuser -> About ImageFuser; email me). I will add them to the regular distribution.
Note 2: Make copies of your localizable.strings on regular base. It's very easy to forget a dubble-quote (") or semi-colon (;). In that case your complete localizable.strings file will no longer be readible which means that you will end up with an "empty" ImageFuser. It might take some time to find where your accdentally removed the quote or semi-colon.
Note 3: Be very careful with "Search & Replace". It's very easy to use that and modify one of the "left side program strings". In that case your translated file won't be useful anymore until you corrected that.
(For note 2 and 3: Believe me. I've been there.)



© 2008-2010, Harry van der Wolf