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\title Guide to the Qt Translation Tools
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\granularity chapter
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\chapter Introduction
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Qt provides excellent support for translating applications into local
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languages. This Guide explains how to use Qt's translation tools for
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each of the roles involved in translating an application. The Guide
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begins with a brief overview of the issues that must be considered,
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followed by chapters devoted to each role and the supporting tools
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provided.
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\link Release... Chapter 2: Release Manager \endlink is aimed at the
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person with overall responsibility for the release of the
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application. They will typically coordinate the work of the software
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engineers and the translator. The chapter describes the use of two
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tools. The \l lupdate tool is used to synchronize source code and
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translations. The \l lrelease tool is used to create runtime
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translation files for use by the released application.
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\link Translators Chapter 3: Translators \endlink is for translators.
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It describes the use of the \e {Qt Linguist} tool. No computer
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knowledge beyond the ability to start a program and use a text editor
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or word processor is required.
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\link Programmers Chapter 4: Programmers \endlink is for Qt
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programmers. It explains how to create Qt applications that are able
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to use translated text. It also provides guidance on how to help the
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translator identify the context in which phrases appear. This
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chapter's three short tutorials cover everything the programmer needs
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to do.
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\section1 Overview of the Translation Process
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Most of the text that must be translated in an application program
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consists of either single words or short phrases. These typically
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appear as window titles, menu items, pop-up help text (balloon help),
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and labels to buttons, check boxes and radio buttons.
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The phrases are entered into the source code by the programmer in
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their native language using a simple but special syntax to identify
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that the phrases require translation. The Qt tools provide context
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information for each of the phrases to help the translator, and the
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programmer is able to add additional context information to phrases
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when necessary. The release manager generates a set of translation
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files that are produced from the source files and passes these to the
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translator. The translator opens the translation files using \e {Qt
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Linguist}, enters their translations and saves the results back into
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the translation files, which they pass back to the release manager.
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The release manager then generates fast compact versions of these
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translation files ready for use by the application. The tools are
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designed to be used in repeated cycles as applications change and
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evolve, preserving existing translations and making it easy to
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identify which new translations are required. \e {Qt Linguist} also
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provides a phrase book facility to help ensure consistent
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translations across multiple applications and projects.
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Translators and programmers must address a number of issues because
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of the subtleties and complexities of human language:
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\list
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\i A single phrase may need to be translated into several different
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forms depending on context, e.g. \e open in English might become \e
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\OEFFNEN, "open file", or \e aufbauen, "open internet connection", in
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German.
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\i Keyboard accelerators may need to be changed but without
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introducing conflicts, e.g. "\&Quit" in English becomes "Avslutt" in
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Norwegian which doesn't contain a "Q". We cannot use a letter that is
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already in use -- unless we change several accelerators.
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\i Phrases that contain variables, for example, "The 25 files selected will
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take 63 seconds to process", where the two numbers are inserted
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programmatically at runtime may need to be reworded because in a
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different language the word order and therefore the placement of the
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variables may have to change.
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\endlist
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The Qt translation tools provide clear and simple solutions to these
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issues.
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\RULE
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Please send comments and suggestions regarding this tutorial to the
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\link mailto:doc@trolltech.com?subject=Translation_Tutorial Qt doc
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team \endlink. Bugs in the tools should be sent to \link
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mailto:qt-bugs@trolltech.com?subject=Translation_Tutorial
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qt-bugs\endlink.
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\input linguist-manager.leaf
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\input linguist-translator.leaf
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\input linguist-programmer.leaf
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