Lingobit Localizer

Lingobit Localizer is a powerful software localization tool for Visual C /MFC, Delphi, .NET and Java applications. State of the art automatic tools for QA, translation reuse and project management guarantee high productivity and outstanding quality.

Pros: The localizer application provides good tools for translating a program into multiple languages. The package provides tools to extract resources to be translated, coordinate activities between translators and developers and management of the project. Dialogs, forms and menus can be corrected directly in a visual editor provided for the purpose.

As the extraction of strings to be translated is automatic, one could avoid the need to understand any technicalities/internals of the application to be translated or source code to be looked at.

Cons: One of the biggest problems with localization is with the user interfaces, translated strings causing problems in the interaction screens because of altered length of the translated strings. This application provides tools for doing it manually by thoughtfully providing a nice layout edit tool. That works, as long as number of screens to be handled is limited. But in any major application the number of screens to be altered grows combinatorially to huge numbers very soon. Single user manual interactions tools will be completely inadequate. What is needed is the ability to detect these problems automatically, quite often by comparing bit image of the original and the translated screen.

That leads to the second problem that of running regression tests automatically and catching these problems. So, not only you need to test automatically, but one needs scripting support with this test tool to be able to program and set up screen captures, compare functionality etc.

A third issue that has not been addressed is if a multi byte language is the target language, such as simple/ traditional Chinese or Japanese, Korean etc. Unless it has been planned originally, this issue cannot be tackled as an afterthought.

Overall quite a nice and easy to use program. Quite valuable too as it makes collaboration between translators and developers quite easy. But as discussed above there could be problems with localization of large packages. This application is clearly suitable for comparatively simpler programs. But for that niche this a useful package and delivers required tools. The application is definitely a 4 star performer.

Lingobit Localizer is a powerful software localization tool that translates MFC/Win32, Delphi, .NET and Java applications into foreign languages. It simplifies and automates localization process, delivers tools to assess quality, manage projects and coordinate participants thus improving efficiency and decreasing localization costs. Lingobit Localizer works by extracting localizable resources directly from MFC, Delphi or .NET executable files and then letting you translate strings, dialogs, forms, menus and other resources. After translation, Lingobit Localizer creates localized application. From now on, no source-code is required and all technical details are hidden behind intuitive and easy to learn interface. Once you localize your software, it is much easier to translate further updates. Lingobit Localizer leverages your previous work so only new and changed resources require translation. Lingobit Localizer provides an ideal environment for effective interaction among managers, translators and testers. State of the art automatic tools for QA, translation reuse and project management guarantee high productivity and outstanding quality. Get the free download and enjoy software localization with Lingobit Localizer.