Getting Started with Multilizer Day Evaluation

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1 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 1 Getting Started with Multilizer Day Evaluation Multilizer 2011 Getting Started with Multilizer Day Evaluation Updated January 2011 Copyright 2011 Rex Partners Inc. All rights reserved. Multilizer is a registered trademark of Rex Partners Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

2 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 2 1.INTRODUCTION BASIC CONCEPTS 3 PROJECT 3 SCAN 3 BUILD 3 2.INITIAL SETTINGS FILE LOCATIONS AUTOMATED TRANSLATIONS 4 TRANSLATION MEMORY 4 READ ACCESS TO EXISTING TRANSLATIONS 5 TRANSLATE DUPLICATES AUTOMATICALLY ROW AND TRANSLATION STATUSES RECOMMENDED SETTINGS 5 3.CREATE PROJECT MULTILIZER PROJECT, M7P NEW NEW FROM TEMPLATE INITIAL STATE OF PROJECT 6 4.PROJECT CONFIGURATIONS CONFIGURE TARGET OPTIONS 7 RE-USE OF TARGET OPTIONS ADD MORE TARGETS TO PROJECT 7 5.TRANSLATION AUTOMATED TRANSLATION 8 RE-USE OF EXISTING TRANSLATIONS 8 MACHINE TRANSLATION 8 ALIGN 9 RE-USE OF EXISTING LOCALIZATION WORK 9 6.BUILD LOCALIZED VERSIONS HOW DOES BUILD WORK CONFIGURATION 10 NAMING CONVENTION 10

3 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 3 1. Introduction 1.1.Basic concepts The following basic concepts are used throughout this guide and form the core of Multilizer usage: Project The project file created with Multilizer. This file contains information about the software/content to localize, strings to translate, translations, source and target language definitions, and more. The files to localize are referred by filename. Therefore you should ensure that the files are kept in the same place throughout the process. Scan This procedure means that Multilizer picks the strings and other localizable data from the software/content to localize and compares the result with existing data in Multilizer project. At this point Multilizer compares, if software/content to localize has changed and marks them accordingly. Build Build is the last part of localization process. At this point Multilizer creates the localized files.

4 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 4 2. Initial settings Omitting the settings below may result in decrease in quality and increase of localization costs. 2.1.File locations Multilizer maintains information about the relative path to the source file compared with the project file location. Therefore Multilizer works in the best possible way, if Multilizer project is in the same directory as the files to localize. (See illustration below). c: My project all Notepad.exe en Notepad.exe fr Notepad.exe Notepad.exe Notepad.mpr Files and folders created by Multilizer with build command. Original non-localized file Multilizer project By default, Multilizer refers to files to localize with absolute path. Whenever possible, change to relative path. 2.2.Automated translations When setting up a localization project with Multilizer it's time also to check the availability of existing translations. Multilizer is able to re-use translations from 10s of different file formats. Machine Translation and Translation Memory plug-ins even increase the possibilities for automated translation. Translation Memory The Translation Memory allows both reading existing translations and writing new (in Multilizer written) translations to it. Multilizer allows the user to configure (Menu: Tools Translation Memories ) one or more Translation Memories. One Translation Memory is active at time. The translations that Multilizer finds in the active Translation Memory are shown in Assisted Translation Expert.

5 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 5 Read access to existing translations Configure in Assisted Translation Expert (Also see main menu: Tools Assisted Translation Expert Options...) the files that are used as translation reference. Multilizer supports multiple file formats as translation reference, including machine translation. Translate duplicates automatically Because importers are used for automated translation, it's recommended that auto-propagation is turned off. This is done in Productivity Expert. 2.3.Row and translation statuses Ensure that scanning project doesn t clear row statuses. This way user has the control of changes between versions in the software/content to localize. 2.4.Recommended settings Add log entries to project (on) Create backup files (on)

6 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 6 3. Create Project 3.1.Multilizer project, M7P Before anything can be localized with Multilizer, a Multilizer Project (M7P) must be created. Each Multilizer project can contain 1...N localization targets. Each target contains 1 N files; a target can be software executable, a.net project, a directory with property files, or database, just to name a few. Multilizer project keeps all information needed in localization, such as list of targets along with native (source) language. In addition target languages are included. The core idea of working with Multilizer project is to maintain always the same project file; therefore project should be created only once. In order to keep Multilizer project and targets synchronized, you can force Multilizer to scan targets; this is called re-scanning. Re-scan checks, if there are any changes in targets; any changes are flagged in the project so that user easily see the changes. 3.2.New This allows user to select a file to localize. Multilizer will detect what kind of file it is. 3.3.New from template This lets user create a new typical project with pre-defined project settings. User can create his own templates when needed. 3.4.Initial state of project In its initial state the project contains texts just in context and native columns. Context tells the location of the string in the source files. Native contains the text to be translated. All rows are marked with 'N' (new string) status, meaning that all strings are new. Normally row status can be cleaned right after creating a project.

7 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 7 4. Project Configurations After creating the project there are two tasks to do: Configure target options Add more targets to project Before doing this however it's recommended to save the project to the desired location. After saving the project, it's easy to specify relative paths when configuring target options. 4.1.Configure target options Target (scanner) options specify how Multilizer picks localizable data from the software/content to localize and how it builds localized versions. By fine-tuning the settings the amount of rows in Multilizer project can be reduced significantly and only to those strings that really need localization. One of the most important settings is the filename/path that points to the file(s) to localize. As it's by default absolute it should be changed to relative. This ensures that scan, and build commands work properly regardless user's directory structure. Most target options are file format specific and there are more details in Scanner plug-in on-line help. (Click Help button in scanner options dialog to get details). Re-use of target options Once the scanner settings are configured properly, it is recommended that the settings are exported in an external file. To do this, choose Options >> Save in scanner options dialog. The settings are saved in a scanner settings template. This template can be used when adding more targets in the project. 4.2.Add more targets to project As mentioned earlier one project can contain an arbitrary number of targets. To add more targets, simply choose Project Add target. The file(s) to localize is chosen again in the same way as with the first target. If the targets are of the same type as the first one, the user can use the scanner settings template instead of re-configuring all settings a new.

8 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 8 5. Translation Translation work requires knowledge of the following tasks in Multilizer: Automated translation, Entering of translations in Multilizer Note! Translation can also be outsourced. There is an efficient built-in support for translation outsourcing in Multilizer. 1. Exchange Wizard to send out translations made 2. Import Wizard to import translations made by the translator. 5.1.Automated translation Before translating anything manually the user should try automated translation. Multilizer has an extensive support for automated translation and the user can work either in batch or interactive mode. Re-use of existing translations Multilizer is able to use existing terminology to translate the project. There are several ways of doing this. Method Mode Scope Import Wizard Batch Entire project, active target Assisted Translation Expert Interactive Row Assisted Translation Expert Translation Memory Batch Interactive (re-use) Batch (save to TM) Rows in the grid ("active view") Row (re-use) Project (save to TM) Productivity Expert Batch Project Command-line 1 Batch Entire project Machine Translation There are plug-ins that add support for machine-translation software. For instance the Atlas machine translation plug-in adds support for translating the Multilizer project automatically from English to Japanese or vice versa. 1 Command-line feature is a Multilizer Enterprise version feature.

9 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 9 Machine translation plug-ins are used in the same way as existing translations. Align Sometimes the translations are in two or more files. For example there might be an English and German version of the same software. To support importing of translations in this situation, there's an Align Importer plug-in for Multilizer. It automatically aligns the two executables by matching corresponding resource id's and returns corresponding translations. Re-use of existing localization work There are situations in which localization has been done with other tools than Multilizer. In these situations Align Importer plug-in is useful. There are also backwards compatibility importers for Multilizer 2011, which add support to as old versions as Multilizer (Innoview Multilanguage) 3.x.

10 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation Build localized versions Build is the last step in Multilizer localization process; it creates localized items of targets. 6.1.How does build work Localized software items are created by reading original files, and writing localized files using localization information found in Multilizer project. Multilizer never overwrites the original files. The result of localization depends on the type of files that are localized. Due to this architecture the structure of localized files is generally the same as in original file. 6.2.Configuration Output directory for localized files has to be configured for each target separately. By default localized files are built in sub-directories, where the directory name is the ISO code of the language. Naming convention Output files should follow this naming convention <basename>.<iso-code>.<extension>

11 Getting Started with Multilizer Evaluation 11 MORE RESOURCES: EXPERTS: Multilizer Experts speed up both translation and validation work involved in localization. TRANSLATION MEMORY: Translation Memory plug-ins add support for Translation Memories in Multilizer. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS WHAT'S NEW IN MULTILIZER EVALUATING MULTILIZER FOR YOUR LOCALIZATION NEEDS We hope that this document has been useful to begin your evaluation process. In case you have any questions about the product or need assistance with some features, please contact us and we will do our best to show that Multilizer is the best localization tool for your needs. You can contact us directly by at or fill in the contact form from our website. We are looking forward to hearing from you!! Multilizer Team