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Pete Batard edited this page Mar 10, 2023 · 142 revisions

Table of Contents

Introduction

Rufus is meant to natively support about 40 main languages (meaning that the same executable supports ALL these languages without the need to download additional files).

Internally, this is accomplished through the use of a simple rufus.loc file, containing elementary commands that look something like this (the following is an excerpt for the French translation): 

################################################################################
l "fr-FR" "French (Français)" 0x040c, 0x080c, 0x0c0c, 0x100c, 0x140c, 0x180c, 0x1c0c, 0x200c, 0x240c, 0x280c, 0x2c0c, 0x300c, 0x340c, 0x380c, 0xe40c
v 1.0.23
b "en-US"

g IDD_DIALOG
t IDS_DRIVE_PROPERTIES_TXT "Options de Périphérique"
t IDS_DEVICE_TXT "Périphérique"
t IDS_BOOT_SELECTION_TXT "Type de démarrage"
t IDC_SELECT "Sélection"
t IDS_IMAGE_OPTION_TXT "Option d'image"
t IDS_PARTITION_TYPE_TXT "Schéma de partition"
t IDS_TARGET_SYSTEM_TXT "Système de destination"
t IDS_FILE_SYSTEM_TXT "Système de fichiers"
t IDS_CLUSTER_SIZE_TXT "Taille d'unité d'allocation"
t IDS_LABEL_TXT "Nom de volume"
t IDS_FORMAT_OPTIONS_TXT "Options de Formatage"
t IDC_BAD_BLOCKS "Vérification de mauvais blocs"
t IDC_QUICK_FORMAT "Formatage rapide"
t IDC_EXTENDED_LABEL "Ajouter un label étendu et une icône"
t IDS_STATUS_TXT "Statut"
t IDCANCEL "Fermer"
t IDC_START "Démarrer"
t IDC_LIST_USB_HDD "Lister les disques durs USB"
t IDC_OLD_BIOS_FIXES "Ajouter les options de compatibilité pour vieux BIOS"
t IDC_RUFUS_MBR "Utiliser le MBR Rufus avec ID"

(...)

g IDD_UPDATE_POLICY
t IDD_UPDATE_POLICY "Paramètres de mises à jour"
t IDS_UPDATE_SETTINGS_GRP "Options"
t IDS_UPDATE_FREQUENCY_TXT "Recherche mises à jour"
t IDS_INCLUDE_BETAS_TXT "Inclure les bétas"
t IDC_CHECK_NOW "Chercher maintenant"
t IDCANCEL "Fermer"

t MSG_001 "Autre instance détectée"
t MSG_002 "Une autre instance de Rufus est en cours d'exécution.\n"
	"Veuillez fermer la première instance avant d'en lancer une seconde."
t MSG_003 "ATTENTION : TOUTES LES DONNEES DU VOLUME '%s' VONT ETRE EFFACEES.\n"
	"Pour continuer cette opération, cliquez sur OK.\nPour quitter cliquez sur ANNULER."
t MSG_004 "Mises à jour"
t MSG_005 "Voulez-vous autoriser Rufus à chercher des mises à jour en ligne?"
t MSG_006 "Fermer"
t MSG_007 "Annuler"
t MSG_008 "Oui"
t MSG_009 "Non"
t MSG_010 "Blocs défectueux détectés"
t MSG_011 "Vérification complète : %d bloc(s) défectueux détecté(s)\n"
	"  %d erreur(s) de lecture\n  %d erreur(s) d'écriture\n  %d erreur(s) de corruption\n"
t MSG_012 "%s\nUn rapport plus détaillé peut être obtenu à :\n%s"

These elementary commands can:

  • Change the text being displayed on a UI element (including dialog titles)
  • Change the orientation of text back and forth between left-to-right and right-to-left
However, because it is inconvenient to have to edit a text file manually, as a translator, you do not edit the rufus.loc file manually, but instead use an application called Pollock (Which stands for PO → LOC, as its main goal is to convert a .po file to a .loc file) along with Poedit, to conveniently edit the translation for a specific language.

Creating a new translation

This option is no longer available at this stage, as we consider that we have now covered the main set of languages we wanted the application to be translated into.

Editing an existing translation

IMPORTANT: Starting with version 3.2 you should NOT edit rufus.loc directly but use Pollock and Poedit instead, as advised below.

  1. Make sure you have Poedit installed in the default location. If you don't have Poedit installed, download it from here.
  2. Download the latest pollock.exe from here.
  3. Save it to the directory that you will use to carry out your translation work. Be mindful that Pollock might erase any previous translation files and data that exists there.
  4. Launch Pollock and follow the instructions on the screen. Entries that require editing should be highlighted in orange in the right part of Poedit.
  5. Make sure you have a look at the Translation Changelog that lists all the changes that occurred between the existing version of the translation and the one you are updating to. Especially, the Changelog may contain details on how you can proceed to display the new messages from within the application. Please make sure you translate/update ALL the messages mentioned in the Changelog or I will not be able to accept your translation!
  6. Edit and test your translation. When done, simply close Poedit. Pollock should prompt you if you want to e-mail the .po file.
  7. E-mail the .po file and congratulate yourself on another job well done... ;)
NOTE Do not bother translating a message if it's the same as the English version (e.g. "OK", "Start", "Windows to Go", etc.), as the translation will not be preserved for the next time you edit your language. In other words, you should leave entries blank if they don't need to be translated.

Testing a translation

The following provides a series of tests you can run to ensure that most of the elements of the UI are tested for a translation:

Main dialog

  • Select FAT32 as the file system, select FreeDOS for the boot type and click Start.
    • Pay attention to the warning that says that all data will be erased. Ensure that it is properly translated.
  • Run the same test as above, but check the Bad blocks checkbox. Let the bad blocks check run for a while and check that the message on the status bar is correct. Then click Cancel, and confirm that you get an Operation Cancelled message in your language.
  • Click on the Show advanced drive properties and Show advanced format Option. The advanced options will be displayed. Confirm that they look OK.
  • If you haven't done so already, download the menu_c32_test.iso (Don't worry - it's only 120 KB). Select that menu_c32_test.iso file. If you click START, you should get the Obsolete menu.c32 dialog. Confirm that your translation is correct and select Yes to download the file.
  • You will now see the 'ISOHybrid image detected' dialog. Confirm that your text is properly translated for this message and leave 'Write in ISO Image mode' selected, then click OK.
  • Select either OK or Cancel on the 'ALL DATA WILL BE DESTROYED' dialog.
  • Press the cheat-mode combinations (Alt-Something) listed here and have a look at the message on the status bar for each of those. The ones with enabled/disabled can be pressed multiple times. At the very least you should issue the Alt-R combination to delete all registry settings.
  • Quit Rufus and restart it. Because you use Alt-R above, you should get the initial dialog about allowing the check for updates. Pay special attention to this dialog as this is usually the first one people will see. You can use Alt-R and exit Rufus at any time if you want to test that dialog again.
  • If you haven't done so already, download the Windows To Go.iso (356 KB). This should enable the display of the Windows To Go options on the main dialog. Note that since this is a dummy image, an attempt to create a bootable flash drive with it will fail.
  • I also encourage you to test the creation of a Windows-based and Linux based bootable ISO of your choice, as well as trying to open a non-bootable ISO, for completion of the main dialog test.
  • Also make sure that you check each dropdown, including the one in the advanced options.

Log dialog

  • Click the Log button on the Main dialog. There are only 3 buttons that should be translated, so it should be easy to check. The log content itself will always be in English, regardless of your language.
  • Make sure the title is translated if needed (t IDD_LOG "Some translation")
  • Note: For a right-to-left translation, you will find that the content of the log will still be displayed as a left-to-right control (i.e. left-aligned text, scrollbar on the right). This is intentional as the content of the log is meant to be 100% in English.

About dialog

  • Click the (i) button from the main dialog
  • Besides all the other elements, make sure a line such as English translation: John Smith is being displayed (MSG_176) under Copyright © 2011-2018 Pete Batard / Akeo. I insist on giving you credit for your work!!
  • The text in the Additional Copyrights is not translatable, and for a right-to-left translation, you will also find that the content is displayed in full left-to-right mode. This is intentional.
  • Make sure the title is translated.

License

  • From the About dialog, click the License button.
  • Make sure the title and the Close button are translated
  • The GPLv3 license is not translatable and is always displayed left-to-right mode. This is intentional.

Update Check

  • If you haven't done so, go back to the main dialog and press Alt-Y to force the update check to succeed, then click the Settings button.
  • Make sure you check each dropdown as well as the title.
  • Click Check Now. The update check should succeed and the New Version dialog will be displayed.

New Rufus Version

  • Before testing this, you need to enable the "Force update" setting. This is done by pressing Alt-Y on the Main dialog. You must see a message telling you that Force Update is enabled.
  • If you have seen the message, then you should click About → Updates → Check Now.
  • After Rufus contacts the update server, and because "Force update" is enabled, you should see the new version dialog.
  • Ensure that all elements are properly translated, then click download and save the new version.
  • Pay attention to the Download button, which should change to Launch after the download is complete.
  • Also pay attention to the various message appearing on the status bar during this operation (remember that you can also open the Log to view them.

Other checks

  • While a Rufus application is already running try to launch it again. You should get a translated message indicating that no 2 Rufus applications can run at the same time.
  • (Optional) If you have a Windows 7 or later ISO, start a format operation using it, and then cancel when Rufus starts to write the sources\install.wim file. This will display the warning about blocking operation (MSG_080).
If you go through all of the above, then you should have all the important features of your translation covered.

Translating the Rufus Homepage

To translate the Rufus Homepage (https://rufus.ie):

  • Before you begin, please send an e-mail indicating the language you are interested in translating so that I can tell you if somebody else already volunteered a translation for the same language. I'd rather not have you waste your time if somebody else is already working on it.
  • Download and install the latest version of Poedit.
  • Download the Rufus Homepage POT file index.pot.
  • Launch Poedit.
  • Click on the button: Create new translation — Take an existing PO file or POT template and create a new translation from it..
  • When prompted, select the index.pot you just downloaded.
  • Select your language (using the primary location for your region, e.g. for French, you would use fr_FR).
  • Translate the strings, making sure to preserve the various HTML markup (e.g.: <a %s>, <b>, –, etc.). Please make sure NOT to add extra spaces, especially on the closing tags (for instance it's <\a>, NOT <\ a>).
  • Save the file under the name index, and send me both the generated index.po and index.mo.
    IMPORTANT: Please make sure you send me the .po and NOT the .pot.

Additional notes

Please make sure you pay attention to the "Notes for translators" as they may provide additional information.

Once you have provided me with a translation, and I have applied it to the site, it is always a good idea to copy/paste the whole content of the translated webpage into a text editor (Word, etc.) and use the spell check to check for typos. Also note that one the translation has been applied, you will always find the most up to date copy of your index.po and index.mo in the https://github.com/pbatard/rufus-web/tree/gh-pages/locale directory from the site. For instance, the index.po for French can be found under https://github.com/pbatard/rufus-web/tree/gh-pages/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/.

Finally, as the web page gets updated with new content, the translation may need to be updated as well. This is very easy to do however: Just open the latest index.po, then download the current [https://github.com/pbatard/rufus-web/tree/gh-pages/locale/index.pot index.pot] and then go to Catalog → Update from POT file and select the updated index.pot. Poedit will then let you know the strings that need to be edited. I will of course alert you when an update may be required.

Editing an existing homepage translation

If you want to edit an existing homepage translation:

  • Download and install the latest version of Poedit.
  • Navigate to https://rufus.ie and select the language you want to edit in the menu (even if the page was already displayed in the language you want). The URL will change to something like https://rufus.ie/xy
  • Remember the xy part and now navigate to https://github.com/pbatard/rufus-web/tree/gh-pages/locale. You will see a bunch of directories, including an xy/LC_MESSAGES one.
  • Click on the link above to access index.po and index.mo. Download both these files to your computer.
  • Launch Poedit, select Edit a Translation and open the index.po file you just downloaded (or if you set Poedit to automatically open .po files, double click on it).
  • It's also usually a good idea to reapply the current .pot at this stage by:
    • Downloading the very latest index.pot (just click this link and select Save As in your browser
    • Going to Catalog → Update from POT file and select the index.pot you just saved
  • Edit the translation and save it, then send me both the updated index.po and index.mo.

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