Translate an app?

[Chris230291]

Hello. Is it possible to translate someone else's OS X app to another language?

Thanks,
Chris.

 

[benwiggy]

The internal make-up of OS X applications includes language modules called "localizations", so that a computer running OS in French, say, will use the French localization first, if there is one.

However, whether you can easily add a localization to an app, without having the source code and recompiling it to include the new data, is less certain.

You might be best off contacting the developers and telling them that you want to help make a particular localization, and whether they would be interested in your doing this.

 

[Chris230291]

I dont think contacting the dev is possible unfortunately. I was hoping i could retro fit the language pack somehow?

I thought it might be as simple as manually translating each button etc, then having a file with the English translation for each word (wouldn't that be nice and simple?).

Does anyone know if this is possible?

 

[benwiggy]

If you look inside the contents of an application bundle (right click: Show Package Contents), in the Resources folder, you'll see folders named "en.lproj" (English); "es.lproj" (Spanish) and so on.

Each one contains the interface files (nib files) for that language. So that's the menus, dialogs, tooltips, windows, palettes, etc.
You need to use Xcode to create these files. You used to be able to open nib files in apps in Xcode, but they are now compiled so you need the source.

In short: it's not as easy as modifying some text files.

 

[Chris230291]

If you look inside the contents of an application bundle (right click: Show Package Contents), in the Resources folder, you'll see folders named "en.lproj" (English); "es.lproj" (Spanish) and so on.

Each one contains the interface files (nib files) for that language. So that's the menus, dialogs, tooltips, windows, palettes, etc.
You need to use Xcode to create these files. You used to be able to open nib files in apps in Xcode, but they are now compiled so you need the source.

In short: it's not as easy as modifying some text files.

Arh well that sucks.

EDIT: Using the info you provided i managed to find an app in the Mac App Store called "nibTranslate". I'm going to have a play around with that and see what happens.

Thanks.