Localization Preparation

When preparing your application for the localization process, focusing your efforts in the following areas can reduce costs and expedite the process.

• Determine the working language set - Prior to beginning the localization process, you need to know which languages and cultures you will support in your application. You might need to add features to support localization or locale-specific features for your target markets. For more information, see Globalization .
• Test your application for globalization issues - The goal of globalization testing is to detect potential problems in application design that could inhibit your application while functioning under different cultures/locales. It makes sure that the code can handle all international support without breaking functionality that would cause either data loss or display problems. Globalization testing checks proper functionality of the product with any of the culture/locale settings using every type of international input possible. For more information, see Globalization Testing .
• Create resource-only libraries (DLLs) - The greatest aid to localization is to separate localizable resources from application source code. Separating these resources from source code eliminates the need to recompile source code. For more information, see Isolating Localizable Resources .
• Test your application for localizability issues - Localizability testing verifies that you can easily translate the user interface of the program to any target language without re-engineering or modifying code. Localizability testing catches bugs normally found during product localization, so localization of the program is required to complete this test. As such, localizability testing is essentially a hybrid of globalization testing and localization testing. Successful completion of localizability testing indicates that the product is ready for localization. You can use pseudo-localization to avoid the time and expense of true localization. Pseudo-localization is perhaps the most cost-effective way of finding localizability bugs. For more information, see Localizability Testing .
• Recycle text from translation memories - If your application or a similar application has been previously localized, you can use Lingobit Localizer to import previous translations for recycling. This could reduce the cost of localization by reducing the number of strings a localizer needs to translate.

Related Links

Isolating Resources
Preparing User Interface