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Glossary

Software localization glossary.

Short definitions of the terms you meet when you localize a Windows desktop application: resources, formats, translation tools, and testing. Each term leads to the guide that covers it in practice.

In depth.

Terms from A to Z.

Accelerator key and hotkeymnemonic, access key

A hotkey is the underlined letter of a menu item or control, written with &: &Save. An accelerator is a shortcut such as Ctrl+S. Each translation needs its own hotkey letter, and two items in the same menu or dialog must not share one.

Validation finds duplicate hotkeys

BAMLBinary Application Markup Language

The compiled form of WPF XAML that the build stores inside the assembly. The text of a compiled WPF window lives in its BAML, so WPF is localized by translating the BAML and shipping it in satellite assemblies.

What BAML is and how it is localized

Binary localizationbuild-based localization

Translating the compiled application, the EXE and DLL files, instead of the source resource files. The translated resources are written into a copy of each file, into language DLLs, or into satellite assemblies, without a rebuild.

Binary localization explained

CAT toolcomputer-assisted translation tool

The editor a professional translator works in, with translation memory and terminology. Software strings reach a CAT tool as XLIFF and come back the same way.

XLIFF and TMX

Code pageANSI encoding

The single-byte or double-byte character set a non-Unicode file or program uses, such as 1252 for Western Europe or 932 for Japanese. Text that the code page cannot hold turns into question marks; Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16) has no such limit.

Localization QA

Culture namelocale name, language tag

The name .NET and Windows use for a language and region: de-DE for German (Germany), de for German in general. Satellite assemblies, .resw folders, and output paths are named after it.

.NET satellite assemblies

Fuzzy matchpartial match

A translation memory entry whose source is similar to the new text but not identical. It is offered as a suggestion to edit, not as a finished translation.

Translation memory in Lingobit

Globalization (g11n)

The whole effort of making a product work in many markets: internationalization of the code plus localization for each language and region.

Software internationalization

Hard-coded stringembedded string

User-facing text written directly in the source code instead of in a resource file. It cannot be translated without changing the code, so it is moved into resources first.

Lingobit Extractor

Internationalization (i18n)

Preparing the code so it can be localized without changes: text in resources, Unicode, locale-aware formats, layouts that grow with longer text.

Software internationalization

LCIDlocale identifier

The number Windows uses for a language and region: 1033 for English (United States), 1031 for German (Germany). Win32 resources and the Lingobit command line (-lang:1031) use it.

Command line interface

Localizability

How easily an application can be localized without code changes. Text in code, sentences glued from parts, and fixed-size controls lower it; pseudo-localization shows where.

Localizability: what lowers it, how to test it

Localization (l10n)

Adapting a product to a language and region: translating the user interface, help, and messages, and fitting layout, formats, and images to the market.

Localization guides by platform

LocBaml

A Microsoft sample tool that extracts BAML text from WPF assemblies to CSV and builds satellite assemblies from the translated CSV. It targets .NET Framework.

LocBaml on .NET 5–10

Machine translation (MT)

Automatic translation by a service such as DeepL, Google Translate, or Microsoft Azure Translator. In software localization it gives a first draft that a translator reviews.

Machine translation in Lingobit

MUIMultilingual User Interface

The Windows mechanism that keeps the resources of each language in a separate .mui file in a language folder, such as de-DE\app.exe.mui.

Win32 / MFC localization

Pseudo-localizationpseudo-translation

Replacing every string with an altered, longer version, for example [Šåvé fîlé···], to find hard-coded text, cut-off labels, and unsupported characters before real translation starts.

Pseudo-localization

Resource file

A file that holds the user-facing text of an application apart from the code: .rc for Win32, .resx for .NET, .properties for Java, .po for gettext, .ts for Qt.

Supported formats

Resource-only DLLlanguage DLL, satellite DLL

A DLL with the dialogs, menus, and strings of one language and no code, next to a single EXE: MyAppDEU.dll for MFC, MyApp.DEU for Delphi.

Resource-only DLLs

Right-to-left (RTL)bidirectional text, mirroring

Languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left, and their user interface is mirrored: the layout runs from the right edge.

Visual localization: Flip for RTL

Satellite assembly

A .NET DLL that holds the resources of one culture, in a folder named after it: de\MyApp.resources.dll. The application loads it by the current UI culture.

.NET satellite assemblies

Source and target languagenative language

The source language is the one the application is written in; target languages are the ones it is translated into.

Localization guides

String tableSTRINGTABLE

The Win32 resource that holds numbered text strings such as messages and status texts, loaded with LoadString.

Translate .rc files

Terminologytermbase, glossary, TBX

The approved translations of product and domain terms. A CAT tool or Lingobit checks that a translation uses them; TBX is the exchange format.

Terminology in Lingobit

Text expansion

Translations are often longer than the English source; short labels can double. Layouts that do not grow with the text cut it off.

Test it with pseudo-localization

TMXTranslation Memory eXchange

The open XML format for moving translation memory between tools: pairs of source text and translations, without keys or statuses.

What a TMX file is

Translation memory (TM)

A database of earlier translations, reused when the same or a similar text appears again.

Translation memory in Lingobit

Truncationcut-off text

Text that does not fit its control and is cut off in the translated user interface.

Truncation checks in dialogs

Visual localizationWYSIWYG localization, in-context translation

Translating with the dialog or form in view, and fixing its layout where the translation is longer.

Visual localization

x:Uid

The attribute that gives each WPF element a stable ID, so its translation is found again in the next build. msbuild /t:updateuid adds them.

WPF / BAML localization

XLIFFXML Localization Interchange File Format

The OASIS XML format for handing strings to translators and taking the translations back, with IDs and states. Version 1.2 is the most widely supported.

XLIFF and TMX