Tuesday, August 27, 2013

New app: XLIFF Localization Helper

My newest app has just been published.  My XLIFF Localization Helper lets you review translation resources directly on your Windows Phone 8 phone.  If someone emails you a translation, you can open it up in the app and review the phrases and translations.  It's currently free.  The next version will allow you to make changes to the file and send it back with updates.  The modify feature will probably have a low price to it.  It registers itself for the XLF extension so you don't need multiple steps to open your file.  Let me know how it works for you!

Note: The XLIFF standard is pretty extensive.  Current functionality is limited to features used by Microsoft's Multilingual App Toolkit.



Link: XLIFF Localization Helper

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Translation help

Looking for help coming up with the right words when you are translating into other languages?  I speak Spanish moderately well, but I am lacking so many technical terms!  My go-to source for translations of computer terms has become Office.com and other Microsoft web sites.  Most of the content is available in a variety of languages, and you can switch between them easily.  For example, if I search on a given topic, I will get a URL like the following:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/touch-mouse-and-search/using-touch-gestures-tap-swipe-and-beyond

This is a page that includes information about using touch gestures (tap, swipe, etc.) on touchscreens.  Being sure of the right way to translate this could be difficult.  Instead, I trust that Microsoft has done their homework!  In order to change language, just look for your default language in the URL (/en-us/ in my case).  Now, just change that to the language you want to check:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/es-mx/support/touch-mouse-and-search/using-touch-gestures-tap-swipe-and-beyond

Bam!  Now you are seeing the page with all of those pesky specialized words translated for you!  You can use this for software-related terms or phrases.  Obviously, it's not very helpful if you don't know anything about the target language, but if you are just looking for a set of terms, this might be the way to do it!