How to translate the Free Audio Editor user interface to your own language

A FREE way to get our products that need registration to Deluxe version - you could help us translate the interface and/or the help files of our products into your native language and as a reward for your assistance, you would get the Deluxe License for our software products, which is completely free of charge. Please send your questions and propositions concerning the translation to translate@free-audio-editor.com - any suggestion would be appreciated.

This page is intended to be a general guideline for translators and keep this in mind - you don't have to be a programmer to translate our products to your native language.

Please follow these steps to begin your translation:

1. Download the latest version of SIL Editor from here (SilEditor_Setup.exe) and launch it.

2. Click "Open" or press Ctrl+O to open the browser window. Choose the file "lang.sib" (Click here to download it) and click "open".

3. Now you can select the items listed on the left to translate (Let's take the item "TMainForm - Captions" for example here).
Click "Captions" and you can see five columns: "String ID", "English", "German", "French" and "Spanish".

4. Translate.
(Let's take the words "File" and "Effect" for example here)

• English - German

• English - French

• English - Spanish

5. Click "Save current files" or press Ctrl+S to save your translation.

6. When you translate all the listed items, please check for spelling mistakes and proper capitalization.

7. When you finish checking, please send us (translate@free-audio-editor.com) the file "lang.sib".

8. We will send you a setup file as soon as possible. Please launch the file to install the program.

9. Congratulations! Now you can see your translation on the interface of our product - just one step to go - please re-check your translation and see if the translated texts fit the buttons and shorten them if needed.

10. Send your reconfirmed "lang.sib" file to us (translate@free-audio-editor.com) and we'll send the License for the software product to you immediately when we ultimately confirm the translation.

Translating suggestions

In the translation process there are two languages involved: the source language and the target language. When translating Free Audio Editor, English is the source language. For a successful translation it is required that you are "perfect" in the target language - which is supposedly your mother tongue.

It is useful to take a look at the most commonly used software packages translated into your language in order to use the same expressions for similar commands and buttons. In this way everybody will understand your translation.

When translating phrases or sentences it is a good idea to go by the meaning (instead of translating word by word). Once you have understood the precise meaning of the phrase or sentence in English, forget the words and use a phrase in your own language . Construct a sentence that conveys the meaning (the idea) of the original and sounds natural in your language.

Another issue coming up often during translations is the use of the formal or informal language. In many languages there are different forms, for example the German "du" vs. "Sie", or French "tu" vs. "vous". Check which one is mainly used in other translations - or what is culturally accepted in your language. As Free Audio Editor is a commercial software program, please use the formal language wherever possible.

Some English texts in the PO file does not seem to make sense, for example "1.20", "xxx", "-", or ">>". Just keep these characters as they are and do not translate them.

Many texts contain an ampersand character ("&"). The ampersand specifies the accelerator key. For example, the text for the File menu is "&File" so that you can press Alt + F in the Free Audio Editor main window to access the File menu. As it is very time consuming to test which accelerator keys have already been specified for the same window, you can choose to not use accelerator keys at all.

IMPORTANT LIMITATIONS!