Definition
The term "group" comes from the XLIFF "group" format element. Because the underlying data files of RC-WinTrans are XLIFF format files, the term "group" is used in the same way as is specified in the XLIFF standard.
In XLIFF, a group is an XML element that can have translation units as child elements. Child elements can also be additional group elements.
[Excerpt from the XLIFF standard specification: "Group - The <group> element specifies a set of elements that should be processed together. For example: all the items of a menu, etc. Note that a <group> element can contain other <group> elements. The <group> element can be used to describe the hierarchy of the file."]
RC-WinTrans XLIFF Data Files
Take for example the "RC file <> XLIFF file" converter used by RC-WinTrans to convert the data in an RC file to the XLIFF format. A dialog box is converted to a group with the restype "dialog" and each dialog box item is converted to a group that is appended as a child node to the dialog box group. A group (that is the dialog or a dialog box item) has a number of translation units that can be edited/translated. Translation units of a dialog box item "label," for example, are usually the caption text (resource type: "caption"), the location (resource type: "x-location"), the size (resource type: "x-size"), and the style (resource type: "x-style"). The translation units are the data that can be edited/translated with RC-WinTrans.
Groups are structural elements which are not changed/edited by RC-WinTrans. A translator can access the translation units in a group for editing (<target> element data only).
NOTE: Because RC-WinTrans handles software resource files by only working with XLIFF files, and because the source of the data can come from various source file formats, the term "group" as well as the term "translation unit" (trans-unit) must have common meanings across different types of source file formats.
