Localization
Localization is the process of translating text, images, and audio into a specific language and resizing dialogs and controls to accommodate translated text. Localization occurs after an application has been globalized.
Use the following checklist to confirm that an application can be easily localized into all supported languages:
- Does not hide or overlap user interface controls.
- Adds 30 percent additional user interface space to dialog box strings.
- Ensures that text can wrap.
- Ensures that no localizable elements are hard-coded.
- Avoids including text in images and icons.
- Adds at least one extra line per variable to text boxes.
- Avoids placing controls within a sentence.
- Doesn't store button text in a string variable. Instead, button text is stored in a button property so that the string is localized in the appropriate context.
- Doesn't contain code for unused dialog boxes and strings.
- Avoids composite strings that are built at runtime.
- Doesn't break a sentence into multiple strings.
- Allocates text buffers dynamically or allows maximum buffer size.
- Stores only localizable strings in resource files.
- Doesn't change resource identifiers during a project.
For more information about localization guidelines for user interface text, see Localized Text.
For more information about localization, see the localization documentation under "Planning Distributed Applications" in the MSDN library.
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