How to use the Multilingual App Toolkit (Windows)

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The Multilingual App Toolkit integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 or Visual Studio Professional 2012 to provide Windows Store apps with translation support, translation file management, and localization editing tools.

The toolkit:

Helps to verify and note changes in resources over time.
Provides a UI for choosing languages.
Supports the localization industry-standard XLIFF file format.
Provides a pseudo-language engine that helps identify translation issues during development.
Connects with the Microsoft Translator for quick translation suggestions.

Instructions

Step 1: Design for globalization and localization.

The Multilingual App Toolkit requires your app to be designed for globalization and localization. Once your app supports the Windows Store app globalization and localization design model, the toolkit makes adding additional languages quick and easy. Refer to Quickstart: Translating UI resources for more information about how to globalize Windows Store apps.

Step 2: Download the Multilingual App Toolkit.

Download and install the toolkit from Multilingual App Toolkit for Visual Studio 2012.

Step 3: Enable the Multilingual App Toolkit.

The Multilingual App Toolkit must be enabled for your project before you can begin to localize the app.

To enable the Multilingual App Toolkit:

Open the project solution file.
Select the desired project in the solution explorer.
On the Tools menu, select Enable Multilingual App Toolkit.

The Multilingual App Toolkit is now ready to use as indicated by the message "Multilingual App Toolkit was successfully enabled on the selected project" in the Multilingual App Toolkit output window.

Step 4: Add languages to the project.

To add languages to your project:

Right-click your project.
Select Add translation languages.
In the Translation Languages window, select the languages you want to release and click OK. The Multilingual App Toolkit output window will confirm the addition of the selected languages.
Right click the project and choose Rebuild to populate contents of the .xlf files in the MultilingualResources language folder.

Note:

The language(s) you selected have been added to the MultilingualResources folder. Language file(s) are empty when initially created. Strings are populated into these files during the next rebuild.
Pseudo Language is listed at the top of the Available Languages list by default. Pseudo Language is the best resource to test that your app is properly globalized and localizable. For details on how Pseudo Language can be used during testing, see the next step: "Test your app using Pseudo Language".
The Microsoft Translator service can be used to machine-translate your app when the Microsoft Translator icon appears after the language name.
If you want to remove languages later, right-click the language(s) in MultilingualResources folder and select Delete. Once added to the project, languages cannot be removed by un-checking the box in the Translation Languages window.

Step 5: Test your app using Pseudo Language.

Pseudo Language is an artificial modification of the software product intended to simulate real language localization. The pseudo language can be used to detect potential localizability issues or bugs early in the project cycle, before the actual localization starts. For more details about localizability testing with Pseudo Language see Localizability Testing.

To generate pseudo-localized translations:

Right-click Pseudo Language (Pseudo).xlf in Solution Explorer.
Select Generate pseudo translations.

Before you test a pseudo-localized app, you must add Pseudo Language to your Windows 8 language preferences.

To add Pseudo Language to Windows 8:

Open the Control Panel, and select Clock, Language, and Region > Language.
Click Add a language.
In the search box, type qps-ploc. Be sure to type the full language code; anything less will not return Pseudo Language in the search results.
Select English (pseudo-qps) and click Add.
Ensure that English (qps-ploc) is at the top of your preferred language list.

You can now start testing your pseudo-localized app.

Step 6: Translate your app into selected languages.

The Multilingual App Toolkit is incorporated within the build process. During each build, updated strings are automatically added to each language .xlf file under the MultilingualResources folder.

After you've tested your app by using Pseudo Language, there are three options to translate your app into other languages for release.

Translate the app yourself.

If you have language skills in more than one language, use the Localization Editor to translate strings individually.
1. Right-click the .xlf file you want to translate.
2. Click Open With...
3. Select Multilingual Editor (default).
4. Select the row that contains the string you wish to translate.
5. Type the translation into the Translation column.
Send the .xlf files to a third party for translation.

Send and receive .xlf files.

You may outsource the translation and editing work to localizers. You can send your file by e-mail or to a location on your hard drive from within the Multilingual App Toolkit.

To send your .xlf file to localizers:
1. Right-click your desired language .xlf file and select Send for translation.
2. Select File folder location when you want to send your .xlf file to a local folder.
  
  -OR-
  
  Select Mail recipient when you want to send your .xlf file by e-mail.
Import translated .xlf files into your project.

After localizers complete translation work and you receive the translated .xlf file, you can import the translated .xlf file into your project and build the localized app.

To import a translated .xlf file to your project:
1. Right-click the desired language .xlf file.
2. Select Import translation.
3. Select the .XLF or TPX file to import.
Note The import process performs basic validation before importing. This ensures that the target culture information matches between the existing .xlf and the .xlf being imported.
Machine translate using the Localization Editor.

To use the Microsoft Translator service for translation suggestions, select a string and click the Translate button. The Multilingual Editor inserts the machine-translated strings into the Target field for you. After the translation suggestion is provided, you are able to fine-tune the string for your translation style.

You and your translator(s) can manage the status of translations in the Multilingual Editor to review uncertain translations later. You can set the status of each string in the Properties tab. Status values are: New, Needs review, Translated, Final, and Signed off. The indicator at the left of the row shows the status. When all rows show green in the Multilingual Editor, your translation work is done.

Step 7: Upload your app to the Windows Store.

Before you start the Windows Store Certification process, we recommend that you exclude the Pseudo Language (Pseudo).xlf file from your project. Pseudo Language is not a selectable language by the Windows Store, and including it provides no value to your customers.

How to use the Multilingual App Toolkit