Localization Effort

[waydabber]

Current localization status

The following table contains the localizations currently being worked on as well as their current completion state.

(last update: 24/10/2024)

The latest localization files are always available in the BetterDisplay-localization repository for download (click the green Code button and select Download ZIP.

The latest interim builds (with latest localizations at the time) are available under the Assets section here (after a fresh public release the latest app version might be more-up to date):

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/releases/tag/pre

Localization process

Every localization gets a GitHub issue in the BetterDisplay-localization repository that can serve as a place for communication for a language. General chat can also happen at the app Discord channel's Localization forum.

Regular volunteers can be assigned to the language specific issue in the BetterDisplay-localization repo.

Note

Contributing to a localization does not require one to volunteer regularly, anybody can fix something or add to a localization by creating a PR in the localization repo or attaching an updated zip file to the language specific issue.

The localization process is rather simple:

1. If you want to volunteer to do a localization as a regular, please contact @waydabber in this thread or on the app Discord channel's Localization forum, or by creating an issue about it in the Issue page of the BetterDisplay-localization repo. If the localization you want to contribute to already exists, then simply drop a comment about it in the existing Issue.
2. @waydabber will register you to the desired language and update the localization repository with the language specific localization file (in xcloc format) if it is still not available. You can download the localization repository (in zip format) or clone the repository and start working on your language's xcloc file using XCode (see below). You can also create a fork using GitHub and work on that.
3. You need to download and install Apple's free XCode app (available on the Mac App Store) to work on the localization.
4. After installing XCode, simply click on the xcloc file corresponding your language (for example es.xcloc for Spanish).
5. In the appearing Window on the left panel go to BetterDisplay/Localizable and translate all items marked with NEW. Enter the translation in the third row (corresponding to the target language).

6. If you are using a GitHub fork, just create a Pull Request (see below) when you want to submit your changes. If not, then simply upload the updated zipped xcloc (for example es.xcloc.zip) file to the language specific GitHub issue asking @waydabber to check it and import it to the project.
7. If everything is all right, the localization will be part of the next release.

Contribute to localization via Pull Requests - OPTIONAL

You can fork the (BetterDisplay-localization repository)[https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization] repo for yourself, work in a versioned environment (by using git or GitHub Desktop) and create a Pull Request in the (BetterDisplay-localization repository)[https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization].

GitHub Issues for Localizations

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc

FAQ

• The first item (Empty string) does not need to be localized.
• If the localization string contains a code starting with % (like %@, %lld) it should be incorporated into the translation (these codes denote a programmatically changing value that appears somewhere in the text to be localized).
• Items that only contain % values are not needed to be localized (but if they are copied over, that is fine as well).
• The InfoPlist items are not needed to be localized.

If you have any questions regarding or during localization or want to volunteer, just hop to the app Discord channel's Localization forum (or alternatively post a comment here).

[gpnunes75]

Hi @waydabber, I'd like to contribute with PT-BR localization.

[waydabber]

Hi @gpnunes75 - amazing, thank you! Is pt-BR and pt-PT similar? Should I add both or only one of them?

[waydabber]

I created an issue for Portuguese - if you add a comment there, I'll add you as assignee!

Here are the latest localization files, pt-BR included:

(removed)

Let me know if you need any help or have questions!

[gpnunes75]

Hi @waydabber PT-PT and PT-BR are similar but not identical. If you should create only one or both of them depends on you. My sugestion, You should create pt-br and if someone wish to do PT-PT then you can create it.

[waydabber]

All right!

[MazlumSerbest]

Hey @waydabber, I'd like to contribute to Turkish language support.

[waydabber]

Hi @MazlumSerbest - thank you, adding Turkish would be great! I created a thread, please add a comment there so I can assign you. I'll also provide a turkish localization file for you to work on!

[waydabber]

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2315

[waydabber]

Hi @hakanyalitekin - please add a comment to the Turkish thread so I can assign you as well. I recommend you guys (with @MazlumSerbest) to coordinate the effort with each other how to best divide up the work.

[hw0603]

Hello @waydabber, I'd like to contribute to Korean translation with @Ryan-Dia

[waydabber]

Sure, thank you! Just add a comment here: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2245 and join the Localization forum at the app's Discord Channel at https://discord.gg/aKe5yCWXSp !

[JoshuaLau0220]

Hi @waydabber, I'd like to contribute to the zh-TW translation.

[waydabber]

Hi @JoshuaLau0220 - great, thank you! :) Please add a comment here so I can assign you: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2332

[chisishis]

Hi @waydabber, I would like to contribute to Korean translation.

[waydabber]

Hi @chisishis - there is an ongoing effort https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2245 - you can join. Please add a comment to the Korean thread so I can add you as an assignee there. I am not sure what the current progress is and how to best divide up the task, but we could discuss it under the thread. Thank you!

[FrankBeckerDE]

Hi @waydabber is it a deal when i localize it to full german and get a pro license? :-)
Cheers, Frank

[waydabber]

Hi @FrankBeckerDE - you need to contact Mick (see the German localization issue https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2164 @mickimnet or the Localization forum in the app's Discord channel) as he is in charge of the german translation and see how you guys can cooperate. :)

[dimaitre]

I'd like to contribute to Russian translation.

[waydabber]

Also, updated the localization zip file with Russian included, so you can start right away and work at your own pacing. Thanks for volunteering! Don't forget to join the Localization forum on the Discord channel! :)

[dimaitre]

There is an issue to join the Discord Channel

[waydabber]

Hmm. Interesting. Did you install Discord?

[yeager]

hey @waydabber I would like to translate Better Display to Swedish (sv)

[waydabber]

Hi @yeager - great, thanks for volunteering! I created a Swedish thread, please add a comment so I can set you as an assignee. Will update the localization file with a swedish one as well.

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2421

[dimaitre]

Hey @waydabber
Could you please correct the assignment for Russian?
@mikevic18 responsible for Romanian, not for Russian

Thanks a lot

[waydabber]

Sorry, copy-paste error. :) Fixed!

[MapleLeaf14]

Hi, I do love BetterDisplay. I'd like to contribute to Italian translation. @waydabber

[waydabber]

Hi @MapleLeaf14 - thank you, an Italian translation would be great! I created an issue for it - please drop a comment there so I can add you to the assignees!

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/issues/2448

Thank you!

[stonkol]

Is there any way I can translate, for example, from Portuguese (instead of English) to Spanish in the same window? Because it will be easier to do it in that way, except opening another extra window to see the Portuguese translation.

[waydabber]

I think you can only open Portuguese in a separate Window. But I think you should always read and translate based on the English to avoid the "photocopier" effect - any misunderstandings or mistranslations accumulate when a translation is based on an other translation instead of the original language.

[waydabber]

Hi All,

I moved the downloadable localization files to a separate new repository:

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization

I'd like to make contributing to localization much more relaxed than now. You can use existing means and communication channels to work on the localization, but if you are up to it, you can also fork the localization repo, work in a versioned environment (you can use git or GitHub Desktop) and then publish a Pull Request in the new localization repo with your changes.

Localization issues are also moved to the new repository:

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization/issues

From now on any number of volunteers can work on a localization and tight communication/coordination is not needed anymore. This change seems to be needed because of a number of inactive primary volunteers for a language - new volunteers did emerge, but could not proceed due to lack of communication from sometimes inactive primary volunteers. The lack of communication resulted in no clear way to properly divide up the work or join the effort. Now as localization is properly versioned in GitHub, the process should get simplified and more self-organizing over time (at least that's the hope).

I updated the Localization effort discussion opening post accordingly.

I hope these changes will not cause a total meltdown in the process (lol) - if they do, we'll figure out something else. 😄

[waydabber]

@stonkol successfully added the first PR to the new repo with Spanish translations (stands at 69% now). Congratulations!

[waydabber]

Just a note, did a deeper review - there were some texts in the app unreachable with localization. Fixed that, hopefully now all parts of the app is localizable. Updated the localization repo.

#2596

[MapleLeaf14]

Update: I successfully imported the Spanish.

As you can see, there is progress for each language.

Also, when you translate, you can see, as a reference, the translation of another language (small OT: I do appreciate Spanish that translate every single foreign word :) ).

So, the Spanish translator can use Crowdin as well.

The last thing that I have to check is the procedure to translate new text in the future (e.g. new version of BD). I'm pretty sure it's easy to manage. Among other things, if this were not possible, the platform could still be used to translate the main software and, in the future, manually translate the new text (I don't think the amount of new text is that high).

[waydabber]

How did you import an existing translation? I can't do that, whenever I import anything no translation shows up (progress remains at 0%).

[waydabber]

Hmm. Ok, I see now that things are set up differently than how we tried with @giulianopires.

[waydabber]

But I am not sure this is right either, as the imported Spanish translation is somehow part of it.xliff:

Anyway, I sent an invite to @MapleLeaf14 for the other BetterDisplay crowding project. Somehow we should consolidate the two and make one working solution lol. :)

[giulianopires]

@MapleLeaf14 Can you call me on Discord?
@giulianopires

[MapleLeaf14]

Unfortunately, during the week it is difficult for me to organize a call due to work. Can we talk over the weekend? If so, is your time zone Italian?

[waydabber]

I think we could simply chat on the Discord localization forum, no need for a call.

https://discord.com/channels/903276571773771796/1142501637961826404

[waydabber]

Ok, I figured out what was wrong with Crowdin (creating a "strings based" translation will not work, it's a new feature and has issues). I created a new Crowdin project, imported all translations and configured the source language and XLIFF export settings so it uses proper titles, file names and export file names as well.

https://crowdin.com/project/betterdisplay-pro

@MapleLeaf14 @giulianopires - sent you invites, please join to this project (and to avoid confusion, please delete the other projects). If things work out, I'll try to migrate other translators to use Crowdin as well. For now I'll leave things as is for others, but of course anybody can join the Crowdin project.

Thank you!

[waydabber]

Also enabled Translation Memory now.

[Svec-Tomas]

Is the translation process moved now to Crowdin? If so, may I ask for an invite and can I ask to add Slovak language as well? Thanks.

[waydabber]

Hi @Svec-Tomas - no, it did not move to Crowdin - there was some effort but eventually it seems nobody is using it so the Crowdin project was removed. You can simply use Xcode to fill out localization (or even a text editor as the file is a rather simple XML, let me know if you need help with this).

I created a localization thread here: waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization#54 - please add a comment there so I can add you as an Assignee. :)

Thanks for joining! :)

[Svec-Tomas]

Thanks! Just let me know please which file(s) are needed to translate exactly and I will start to work on them when I get a time. I am using some apps that were built to translate .strings .xcstrings .xliff .xcloc etc file, so I hope there will be no need for Xcode, which is just a overkill for translating purposes in my opinion :)

[waydabber]

Sure, I'll attach the file to the Slovak thread thread in the localization repo, but please make a comment there: waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization#54.

You can of course use any other tool that can handle an .xliff file, no XCode is needed!

[nunoebarros]

hi @waydabber I would like to translate Better Display to Portuguese (European) (pt-PT)

[waydabber]

Hi @nunoebarros - amazing, thank you! I'll add the language files for that and upload to the GitHub repo!

[waydabber]

waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization#32

[gpnunes75]

Hi @giulianopires,

pt-BR.xcloc.zip

Here is the new PT-BR file with all lines translated. Can you do a double check ?

[giulianopires]

Absolutely. I've been traveling and tomorrow I'll review everything.
Thank you for letting me know @gpnunes75.

[waydabber]

Thank you guys! I imported and re-exported the package, I recommend using this (or getting the one form the localization repo).

pt-BR.xcloc.zip

[PuzzledUser]

I've jumped in and changed 119 items from US to UK English. I may have missed some less common differences, but the app should now grate less to UK eyes. I hacked this in a text editor (no XCode for me), so the file is not identified as UK. Perhaps that is easy to adjust? I hope it's helpful!
Localizable.xcstrings.zip

[waydabber]

Hmm. I am not sure if this can be processed this way, I think you changed the source language texts. I can export a proper UK localization template for you - you can still use a text editor for changing the XLIFF file (it's XML), I can provide some guidance on how to do it. Would that be ok?

[PuzzledUser]

Oh rats. That was silly of me. Sure, maybe I can use a diff of my edits to help me update a template.

[waydabber]

Hi @PuzzledUser - created a thread for UK English under the Localization repo. Just hop over there, add a comment so I can add you as assignee. I'll attach a proper UK English localization file there to localize! Thank you!

waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization#49

[timpritlove]

Please change

  <trans-unit id="Quit %@" xml:space="preserve">
    <source>Quit %@</source>
    <target state="translated">Beenden %@</target>
    <note/>
  </trans-unit>

to

  <trans-unit id="Quit %@" xml:space="preserve">
    <source>Quit %@</source>
    <target state="translated">%@ beenden</target>
    <note/>
  </trans-unit>

The current form is just wrong.

[waydabber]

Hi there - Not sure what language this is, but the best way forward is to contribute the translation you find lacking :) - just go to the localization repo, download the file, edit missing or problematic localizations and then a PR or post the zip so at the localization specific repo I can incorporate the changes to the app. :)

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay-localization