In the article “Develop your app for everyone–localize your UI”, Tim Heuer shows how to localize the language of a Windows 8 .NET App along with various tools that can help in the process.
Following are a few of the main points from the article -
- New Resource model in WinRT with Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources and Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources.Core (this applies to both HTML+JavaScript and XAML+.NET)
- No need to do data binding of Resource generated class to XAML elements – x:Uid attribute of the XAML element maps to the key in your ResW file
And Tools you can use -
- RESX translator with Bing to translate your ResW files to different languages
- Multilingual App Toolkit for VS 11 Beta – again to manage your Resource files and translate them using Bing
- Amanuens – a service where a translator will translate these files for you
Obviously, globalization goes beyond language localizations and also involves currency, units of measurements, data formats (e.g. address, names) and more. If your Windows 8 App is built on .NET, you can use the capabilities provided by the System.Globalization namespace for some of these aspects. Microsoft’s Go Global Development centre contains a lot of resources regarding globalizing a .NET app, the article-series “Globalization Step-By-Step” being a good starting point.
Community comments
Tool to localize windows apps
by Cosette Malinowski,
Tool to localize windows apps
by Cosette Malinowski,
Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.
I recommend to anyone involved in Windows apps localization projects to use this online tool to help them manage their strings translation process: poeditor.com/