Checks

RC-WinTrans is equipped with a set of check functions to support high-quality software localization and eliminate the need for manual checks.  The check functions are available as individual commands which can be executed singly or as part of a comprehensive check ("multi-check," also performed automatically whenever RC-WinTrans creates a project report).

In order to make found problems and inconsistencies easier to find and resolve, check results are listed in the Check Results tab view and clearly marked in other views (e.g., the Text Table view).

Figure:  The Checks toolbar.

RC-WinTrans' check functions can be executed by clicking one of the buttons in the Checks toolbar (see figure above) or by selecting the appropriate command from the Checks menu.  Any errors that are found are listed in the Check Results tab view where individual entries can be selected for editing.

All check functions are performed automatically whenever a project report is created.  The number of errors found are shown in a table in the report.

RC-WinTrans is equipped with the following check functions:

A single source text can appear several times within one source file, just as the same text can appear in another source file.  Translations for a given source text can be found in dictionaries, or other projects.  The uniform translation check compares identical source texts from different sources (files in the same project, dictionaries, other (open) translation projects) and reports any inconsistent translations found. In other words, the uniform translation check function checks all translation units having identical source texts and determines whether they have all been translated the same way.

Options for the check can be set in the Uniform Translation Check dialog box.  Determine which sources will be used when comparing the source and translation texts- you may elect to check for consistency within the current translation project only, or you may want to include other translation projects and/or dictionaries in the check.

The results of the uniform translation check will be listed in Check Results tab view, where clicking on listed errors causes the differences between translations to be displayed in the Differences tab view.

NOTE:  A translation unit can be marked as having a "unique translation," which will exclude it from this check; see the discussion on unique translation flags and the "Translating Identical Source Texts (Repetitions)" topic for more information.

Whenever a placeholder (e.g., {1}, {2}) is used in the source text, RC-WinTrans' placeholder check will verify whether the translation (target) text contains the same placeholder.

NOTE:  This check can only be performed for Win32 resource files, Java properties files, and .NET files; all other file types are excluded.

Two types of placeholders are checked in Win32 resource files:

While the printf-type placeholders need to be equal in respect to their position within the format string as well as to their format specification (a "%s" in the source language text must have a corresponding "%s" in the target language text), the FormatMessage-type placeholders are more flexible.  FormatMessage-type placeholders come with a position specification, so simply checking for the presence of each placeholder in both the source and the target language texts is sufficient.

A well-known problem in software localization is making sure that leading and trailing spaces in the source text are carried over to the target text.  If a given source text has a certain number of leading/trailing spaces, this function verifies whether the target text has the same number of leading/trailing spaces as are present in the source text.

NOTE:  This function also checks for whitespace characters (TAB characters in particular).

This function checks for each occurrence of a colon (:) or ellipsis (three dots, (...)) at the end of a source language string.  In such cases the check determines whether the target language text also ends with a colon/ellipsis.

This function looks for any occurrence of the C-language-type control sequences "\t" and "\n" (meaning a horizontal TAB and a line break, respectively).  For all such occurrences the control character check makes sure that the same control character with the same ordering (as in the source text) is present in the target language.

This function performs the following two actions inside a dialog box or menu resource to find missing or doubled hotkeys:

This function checks each (non-menu, non-dialog) string (i.e., a string within a Win32 RC/EXE or .NET stringtable) for a missing hotkey.  If the source language text has a hotkey (i.e., a single ampersand character ("&") in front of a non-whitespace character), then an error will be reported if this is missing in the target text.

This is the same check as the first action of the hotkey check for menus and dialogs, applied exclusively to strings.

The duplicate shortcuts check function checks for doubled accelerator keys (or shortcuts) in menu and dialog box resources.

The text fit check finds texts exceeding the borders of a control, as when the translation text is much longer than the source text and doesn't fit within the item's given dimensions.  Text is checked for horizontal and vertical fit within a control (vertical check is optional).  You may also choose to set vertical and horizontal tolerance values for RC-WinTrans to take into account when performing the check.  This supports layout guidelines so that you can, for example, keep text from running into the control item's borders.

When the Dialog Box view is active (i.e., has the input focus) the Text Fit Check command is performed for the (single) selected dialog box; otherwise the command runs the check for all dialog boxes at once.

Notice that the Text Fit Check toolbar button has a drop-down menu for quick access to the check settings/options.  Click on the arrow on the right side of the button to open the Text Fit Options dialog box where the horizontal and vertical tolerance values for a dialog box item can be set. The same dialog box can also be accessed via the Text Fit Options command in the Checks menu, or via the Options button in the Text Fit tab (Dialog Box view).

The tex -fit check is equipped with settings for extra space required in the horizontal (x) and/or vertical (y) directions.  For positive values, the control's size has to be the given number of pixels larger in order to fit.  Negative values will result in a less critical test in that each control may be the given number of pixels smaller (i.e., a negative value accepts an overhang of the text).

EXAMPLES:

Values in the range -10 through +10 are allowed.

NOTE:  A dialog box control can be excluded from the text fit check by unchecking the Enable checking checkbox in the Text Fit Tab View (Dialog Box view).

This function checks to see if a string exceeds a specified maximum string length.  The Maximum String Length dialog box is used to specify the maximum string length and to enable the check for a string item.

See also:  "String Length Check."

As with the text fit check, this function applies to Win32 resource-type dialog box controls and .NET Forms controls.  The overlapping items check determines whether any controls overlap one other.

NOTE:  A control that lies completely inside another control will be assumed valid and will not result in an overlapping error.

In the case of a complex dialog with more than one "layer," it may be useful to explicitly exclude certain controls from this check function.  To exclude a dialog box control from the overlapping items check, simply uncheck the Enable overlapping items check option in the Overlapping tab view (Dialog Box view).

RC-WinTrans is equipped with a spellng check capability  that is accessible interactively while working in the Translation Edit bar.  This check function lets you run the spell check for an entire project (or for the active Dialog Box or Menu view) in a single step.  For a more complete description please refer to the "Spell Check" help topic.

Checks to see if the size and/or color depth of target images differ from the source images.

The multi-check function runs all or a selection of the available checks at once.

See also:  "Multi-Check Dialog Box."

NOTE – Global vs. local CHECKS:  RC-WinTrans' check functions will normally check all the data contained in the current translation project.  However, there are two exceptions for which the validation functions will only check the current local context:

In both cases, all checks will only take the data of the selected dialog box or menu into account.

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