Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Supporting Non-English Languages
Translating labels and messages into languages other than English is known as
localizing
an application. Local-
ization improves an application's sales prospects, but it can be time-consuming and should be done selectively.
Dialects of French and Spanish cover much of the non-English world and should be considered essential.
Chinese is becoming an important market. Germany, Japan, and Korea have enthusiastic technology markets
and are worth considering. Other languages can be supported as needed for specific applications and locations.
IB supports localization in two ways:
Each supported language has a separate nib file, with custom labeling.
Each language also includes a .strings file with a dictionary of text strings, each of which has an associ-
ated key.
Creating these extra files is easy in IB. In the Project Navigator, select the main project tab at the top of the pane.
Select Project in the adjacent pane, and select the Info tab in the main settings panel.
To add a language, open the Localizations sub-pane and click the Add (+) icon, as shown in Figure 8.17. Scroll
down the long list to select the new language.
Adding a new language duplicates the current collection of nibs. It
doesn't
translate the contents. You must up-
date the labels and other features of each nib manually. This may require expert input.
