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Programs to use for translation

Last modified: May 28, 2009 - 02:06

Recommended PO file editors are (in no particular order):

  • XEmacs (with po-mode): runs on Unices with X
  • GNU Emacs (with po-mode): runs on Unices and Windows
  • KBabel: runs on KDE
  • Lokalize: the replacement of KBabel in KDE4. Formally known as KAider
  • poEdit: Linux, MacOSX, and Windows
    poEdit does support multiple plural forms since version 1.3..
  • OmegaT is another translation tool that can translate PO files. It is written in Java so it is available for multiple platforms (including GNU/Linux and Windows). It can be downloaded from SourceForge.
  • For Mac OS X there is AquaEmacs and a port of GNU Emacs available using carbon for OS X. Also see the Emacs wiki for more usage help and tips. po-mode is not included, but is easy to add. Get it from the GNU gettext distribution.
  • GNU Gettext (Linux/Unix) used for the GNU Translation Project. Gettext also provides msgmerge that makes merging translations easy.
  • Vim (Linux/Unix and Windows versions available) with PO ftplugin for easier editing of GNU gettext PO files.
  • LocFactory Editor (OS X).
  • gted is an eclipse plugin that turns eclipse into a gettext editor. Eclipse is written in Java, so this editor is platform independent.
  • gtranslator has been around and works fine under GNU/Linux:
    http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net

Be sure to get a recent version for all editors, multiple plural forms are a recent addition to the gettext standard.

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OmegaT is my favourite

Thomas_Zahreddin - December 6, 2009 - 13:33

I tried a lot of tools, what worked best for me is OmegaT, http://omegat.org

I works on all OSs, because it is Java based (linux users: Suns java is faster, than other runtime environments).
OmegaT needs a few configuration tasks:

- take care to set the encoding for the filetype .po and .pot to utf-8
- activate Googe Translator
- if possible activate a spellchecker (you find information in the helpfile)
- dictionary: add the path to a dictionary like stardict, good description in the english help for that

Feature i do not use in the moment:
- glossar

Realy helpful people you find in IRC #omegat

one more:
http://www.globalsight.com/

not tested so fare, very interesting featueres.
-> maybes someone has time to test it and reports here?

Wish you success!

Thomas

Combining IT and arts to organize
http://it-arts.org

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