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Hello IMatch 5 (Beta) Users,

we are looking for users who want to help translating IMatch into different languages.
Except for English and German, which are handled by myself, we're looking translators for Español, hrvatski, italiano, langue française, Nederlands, Norsk, Português, slovenský jazyk, suomi, Svenska, ...

For some of the above languages we already have more or less partial translations. Help is welcome for adding new translation content, and also for reviewing and spell-checking existing contents.

To tell you the truth, the initial effort of translating IMatch to a new language is considerable. I know it, I did two languages for you. If the initial translation work can be shared between multiple users, it is manageable. Many hands make easy work. If we can find two to four translators for each language, we're on the safe side. Later updates only require to translate a few new strings, messages or commands. Between a few minutes and maybe an hour of work for a new release.

How IMatch is translated

IMatch pulls all resources (strings, text, messages, command names, property names etc.) from XML text files stored in a special folder. These files contain the resources for all supported languages. For example, this is how a menu command (Help > About IMatch) looks like:

<cmd resid="ID_APP_ABOUT">
    <c xml:lang="en" hotkey="" helptext="Show information about IMatch">&amp;About IMatch</c>
    <c xml:lang="de" hotkey="" helptext="Informationen über IMatch anzeigen">Übe&amp;r IMatch</c>
</cmd>

When you translate IMatch, you add a new row for your language to this statement. For example, if you do the translation for Swedish, you would add

<cmd resid="ID_APP_ABOUT">
    <c xml:lang="en" hotkey="" helptext="Show information about IMatch">&amp;About IMatch</c>
    <c xml:lang="de" hotkey="" helptext="Informationen über IMatch anzeigen">Übe&amp;r IMatch</c>
    <c xml:lang="se" hotkey="" helptext="Visa information om IMatch">&amp;Om IMatch</c>
</cmd>

Easy. You look at what's already there (using the English text as the base) and then write your translation. Translators have additional commands available in the IMatch user interface. For example, you can reload the resources at any time to see your changes.

If you are interested...

I suggest you first work with the IMatch 5 beta for a while to get used to IMatch 5. Then we setup a dedicated board here on the community to manage the translation process and for communication between the users who work together on the translation.

Software Required

You need only three things:

• IMatch 5
• A text editor which can handle UTF-8 encoded XML files. The free Notepad+ application is cool, any programmer editor or even Windows Notepad can do it.
• The free Tortoise Version Control software. This software allows you to connect to my source control server and to download the latest version of all IMatch resources.  After making changes, you use this software to check your modified files back in. This is all very easy and requires only a few mouse clicks. The process ensures that none of your changes can be overwritten accidentally, that multiple users can safely work on the same set of files and that I can always ship the most recent set of translated files with IMatch.

I have detailed instructions on-line for the entire process. If you join the translator team you will get access to this information and the version control server.

I can help with the French translation

Francis

Great  :) Contact me via my support email (see my signature below).

I offer my work for the Italian translation.

Marco

Hi, Marco

we currently have no translators for the Italian language. I would prefer if we could find at least a second person to help you with this. The initial translation effort is rather huge, and sharing the work with at least one other person makes it much easier.

I'll send you the details in reply to your email so you can have a look and see for yourself.

Is there another tester from Italy who wants to help with this?

Mario

although I realise that the Dutch translation is mostly done, I still offer my help for the Dutch translation if that would be needed, wanted helpful.

Kind regards

Mees

Excellent! More help is always welcome, and if it's just proof-reading. The Dutch market always has been larger than the German market for IMatch  :)

Please contact me via my support email (see below) for details on how to access the translator resources.

Translating IMatch is much easier and faster now!! A good deal of the work can be done automatically and that saves an awful lot of time.

Also managing a translation is far easier than it used to be. No longer any hassle with GitHub or TortoiseSVN.

So: why not give it a try?