66 lines
2.7 KiB
Text
66 lines
2.7 KiB
Text
Translating the help files.
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===========================
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I have tried to write the help files in plain english with good grammer.
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Since English is not my strong point you probably can't tell, but I hope it
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helps.
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The help files, at this point, are divided into functional areas. Each .hlp
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file represents a different functional block of how the program looks to the
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user.
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Hopefully as SquirrelMail gets more widely used, non-english translations will
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be used to make other non-english translations. You might want to keep this
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in mind when writing yours. Remember that these will be used all over the
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world and in many different environments so local language dialects might
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confuse someone else.
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File Structure
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==============
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All translated files should be placed under the help directory. Under the
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help directory create another directory. This directory MUST be named in the
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two letter standard abbreviation for the language. English is "en" and Polish
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would be "pl" for example.
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The help files are written in a basic xml format. Don't worry, XML isn't hard
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at all. All it does is contain values inside tags like <start> and </start>.
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For these help files, the tags must be on their own line like this:
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<tag>
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Value for this tag
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</tag>
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There are two types of main tags: <chapter> and <section>. There can be only
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one <chapter> tag in a .hlp file. However, there can be many <section> tags.
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Inside each of these tags, there can be any combination of any of the following
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tags: <title>, <description>, <summary>. Here is an example:
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| <chapter>
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The title can only | <title>
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be one line long | My first chapter
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| </title>
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Summary may be many | <summary>
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lines, but is short | Just a brief summary
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| </summary>
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| <description>
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Description can be | This is a more detailed description that
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very long. It is | can span many lines. Usually this is the
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the main part of | bulk of the help section or chapter description.
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the help section. | </description>
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| </chapter>
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Translating
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===========
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To translate, just copy all the .hlp files from help/en into the new directory
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that you created for this language (i.e. help/pl). You only need to translate
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what is between the tags. Do not translate the actual tags such as <chapter>
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or <summary>. The tag names need to remain in English. You should only translate
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the text between tags.
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Often there may be other HTML tags such as <b> for bold or <a href...> to make
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a link. If you see any of these tags, just leave them and don't translate
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them either. Only what is contained inside them if needed.
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That should be all!!
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