Language Translation Guide

Omniscope is capable of supporting potentially all the languages of the world. To see the available languages, just open Omniscope and go to the Tools > Language menu. You can easily switch languages without re-installing Omniscope, although closing and restarting is strongly recommended. Note: only languages more than 90% complete for that version will be shown.  To see other languages which are less than 90% complete, enable experimental features from Tools > Advanced Tools > Application-wide settings > Show experimental features.

Anyone can contribute new and improved translations. You can make minor corrections, create country-specific language variants, or add an entirely new language, using only Omniscope... and perhaps an online dictionary ;>)

We offer Translators working with beta versions of Omniscope free 3-month Professional keys, extendable by another 3 months following successful translation of the current release candidate. If you would like to participate in our Translators program, please contact us.

Translation Process

Editing translations:

1. Start Omniscope, and from the Tools > Language menu, choose Edit translations. 
2. The .IOK file containing English phrases and all the existing translations will open.
3. Make your changes to the IOK file, being careful to follow the guidelines below.
4. Save the IOK file to its current location, by choosing Save (and not Save as) from the File menu.
5. Restart Omniscope to see your changes.

Submitting translations back to Visokio:

1. Start Omniscope, and from the Tools > Language menu, choose Submit edited translations.
2. You will be prompted with the location of the exported locally edited languages IOK file.
3. Send this file as an attachment in an email to us.  
4. Please provide clear details of which columns or rows you have made changes to, and which version/build of Omniscope you are working with.

Doing further translations:

1. After you have submitted translations to Visokio, do not do any further translation work until you hear from us. We will incorporate your translations into an new build of Omniscope and let you know which release will include your translations.   
2. Install the newest build of Omniscope containing your work to date.
3. Delete your locally edited languages .IOK file (after keeping a backup, just in case). This file can be located by starting Omniscope and choosing Submit edited translations as described above.  Find the file, called "editedLanguages.iok", close Omniscope, and delete the file.
4. Start Omniscope again and continue as per Step 1 of "Editing translations", above.

Please respect the Languages .IOK file structure

• Each record (row) is a word or phrase from that version/build of Omniscope
• The Count field contains the number of locations the phrase occurs in the Visokio codebase. Zero means the phrase does not exist - this can happen occasionally when the software is changed. Do not edit this field
• The Location code field contains internal references to the location in the Visokio codebase. Please quote this value when querying us. Do not edit this field
• The Location keywords field gives a few keywords as to the location of the phrase. You can sort by this field to group similar phrases. Do not edit this field
• The En field contains the original English version of the phrase, which is used as a unique key. Do not edit this field
• Other fields with two-letter names (e.g. Es) contain a "default" translation. The field name matches exactly the appropriate 2-letter "ISO 639-1" language code. For example, the field Es contains the default translation for all Spanish countries.
• Fields with "xx_YY" names (e.g. en_US) contain country-specific language translations. The "xx" part of the field name is the 2-letter language code and the "YY" part is the appropriate 2-letter "ISO 3166-1 alpha-2" country code For example, the field en_US contains the US English differences. Where the En value is correct for US English, the en_US value is left blank.

Translation Guidelines

Case A: Translating a language for the first time

You create a translation for a language used in the country of origin (the "mother country" for the language). For example, UK English, Spanish from Spain, French from France (as opposed to American English, Mexican Spanish, etc.).

You need to create 2 columns:

1. The name of the first column will be appropriate 2-character code for the language. So for Spanish the name of the field would be "es". This field will contain the default language translations for all local variants.
2. You create a second "xx_YY" column where "xx" is the same 2-character language code as above and "YY" is the 2-character country code. So for Spanish of Spain it would be "es_ES".
3. Edit the first column (e.g. "es"), adding translations. If you leave blank cells or cells containing "=", Omniscope/FeatureFinder will use the English text.

Note : This "es_ES" column will always be empty, because the "es" column will contain all default Spanish translations. You must create this blank "es_ES" column so it becomes available in the Omniscope/FeatureFinder Languages menu.

Case B: Adding country-specific text to already-translated "mother" language

For example, we have already translated into Spanish (Spain), and you want to translate local variations for Mexican Spanish.

In this case the default language column (named using the 2-character language code) already exists (e.g. "es" for spanish). So a single column has to be created. Following the above example, to add translations for Mexican Spanish you would create the column "es_MX" and translate just those phrases that are different in Mexico. Where the default Spanish translation is sufficient the cell can be left blank.

Case C: Corrections to existing translated text

Note:This is not possible for "en" field

Add a new field called "Amended". Locate the field for the language you are correcting (see Languages IOK file structure, above). Use the filters to search for the incorrect phrase.

Make your corrections as required. For every record you have updated, insert "Y" into the Amended field, so we can keep track of changes.

General notes and rules

• If a word or sentence doesn´t need to be translated (e.g. "OK") you can leave the cell blank. You may choose to enter "=" instead to indicate that the text is definitely the same.

Note: When Omniscope looks up a translation, it first checks for a field such as "es_MX" (if you are in Spanish Mexico). If the field does not exist or contains a blank, "=" or "?", Omniscope then looks for a field such as "es" (if you are in a Spanish speaking locale). If that field does not exist or contains a blank, "=" or "?", Omniscope then uses the original English phrase.

• In case of doubt enter just ? and we´ll explain further when you submit your changes. Don´t enter: "? I don´t understand .." as it will be taken as a translated text
• When first translating into a new language the file can be ordered by "count" field (which contains the # of times a text appears in the application) and start translating those texts which higher count.
• All non-alphabetic text and upper/lower case has to be preserved in the translations. e.g. "english: (Number)..." must be translated as "spanish: (Numero)..." and not "Spanish (numero)".
• Some phrases contain embedded HTML tags such as "<html>" and "<b>". You must preserve the text between the "<" and ">" characters.
• Many times you will find something like "<b>Concatenate</b>". If the sentence is "<b>Concatenate</b> is used to ..." and in your language the word concatenate has to be "moved" to a different place then the surrounding "<b>" and "</b>" must also be moved. e.g: "Use <b>Concatenate</b> to ..."
• The same can be applied for "<i>some text</i>" and other pairs of HTML tags.
• Some phrases contain numbered parameters. For example, "{0} files named '{1}' were found" might appear to the user as "3 files named 'joe' were found". When translating, you can may the parameter order around to suit the language.
• The <b> can be more complex like: "<b style='color: #880000'>File does not exist" in this case the whole <b style='color: #880000'> will be treated like a single <b> and whaever is between < and > is not translated.
• <br> means new line (in html) so it must be placed more or less in the same places where found in english.
• Don´t translate: </font>

Notes on English terminology

• "Data source". The data source is where the original data was imported from, such as a database or an Excel file. The "refresh from source" option retrieves and updates data from the original file or database.
• 'Slide' means a PowerPoint slide. A 'slider' is one of the formats for Side Bar filter devices. Slider has nothing to do with a PowerPoint slide.