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How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | Handling placeholders and variables in software localization

Rodolfo Abachi — Sun, 10 May 2026 13:38:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Rodolfo Abachi
Post title: Handling placeholders and variables in software localization

Great discussion! Adding to what Daryo and Sergei have already explained:

When dealing with software localization (especially Adobe products), there are generally three types of variable markers you'll encounter:

1. Named placeholders like {name} or {0} - these are NEVER translated. They represent dynamic values that the application inserts at runtime. Keep them exactly as they appear.

2. Quote delimiters (single vs double quotes) - As Sergei explained, the single quotes often serve as markers for the parser, while the double quotes inside them become visible to the user. When translating to languages that use different quotation conventions (like Swedish, German, or French), the safest approach is to translate ONLY the visible/user-facing text and leave the structural characters (single quotes, curly braces, ^1, etc.) intact.

3. Context markers like ^1, %1, @1 - these are typically ordinal placeholders showing WHERE a value goes. They should NOT be translated.

For the specific case mentioned with Adobe products: I recommend requesting reference screenshots or the rendered UI from the client/LSP whenever possible. This way you can see exactly what the user will see in the final product, making it much clearer what to translate and what to leave unchanged.

Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator) | 2010 Question That Just Got Revived

Ade Indarta — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 08:53:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator)
Poster: Ade Indarta
Post title: 2010 Question That Just Got Revived

Wow—seeing this 2010 thread come back to life made my day! Feels like opening a time capsule. 😄 The topic might be outdated now, but it’s a fun reminder of how far tech has come. Nowadays, modern CAT tools can easily handle PO files without any issues. Thanks for the unexpected trip down memory lane!

Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator) | Thank you

CafeTran Trainer — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:18:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator)
Poster: CafeTran Trainer
Post title: Thank you

Thank you for reporting this. I've created a ticket at CafeTran Freshdesk, quoting the info you kindly provided.

Perhaps you want to share the PO file too?

[Edited at 2025-08-07 06:32 GMT]

Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator) | CafeTran and OmegaT

Samuel Murray — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:40:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator)
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: CafeTran and OmegaT

[quote]CafeTran Trainer wrote:
You can also use CafeTran Espresso to translate PO files — it's fully supported and works seamlessly. [/quote]
I just tested it, and neither OmegaT nor CafeTran handles [b][u]the one most important feature[/u][/b] of PO files: plural forms.

My test file contains this plural definition in the header:
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n%10>=2 && n"
"%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;\n"

And it contains this segment:
#, c-format
msgid "One file removed"
msgid_plural "%d files removed"

And if it worked, it would have asked me to translate "%d files removed" twice, since there are three plural forms. But CafeTrans shows me only "One file removed" and "%d files removed", and only those two translations make it into the final file (so, two plural forms instead of three plural forms).

Even if I manually update the PO file myself and change the segment to:
#, c-format
msgid "One file removed"
msgid_plural "%d files removed"
msgstr[0] ""
msgstr[1] ""
msgstr[2] ""

...then CafeTran still only shows me "One file removed" and "%d files removed", and in the final file the msgstr[2] is removed.

What's more, CafeTran changes the file name (which no client will be happy with) and it doesn't update the file extension from POT to PO.

[Edited at 2025-08-06 09:42 GMT]

Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator) | Pairaphrase is wa-a-a-a-a-ay too expensive

Samuel Murray — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:27:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator)
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Pairaphrase is wa-a-a-a-a-ay too expensive

[quote]Ronika Kashyap wrote:
PO files can feel really limiting if you’re used to the full feature set of tools like Trados or Wordfast. [/quote]
Whether you are able to use the "full feature set" of Trados or Wordfast does not depend on the file type.

[quote]If you're looking for something easier to work with but still professional, you might want to check out Pairaphrase. [/quote]
Their cheapest package is USD 3420 per year. Or, you can buy a 30-day pass for USD 399, but then you're limited to 100 000 words. Hardly something that one would recommend to a freelance translator.

[quote]That said, it’s completely reasonable to ask your client if they can provide the content in a different format like XLIFF or even Word if possible. [/quote]
Sure, you ask them to use a PO2XLIFF converter for you (you can't use it yourself!). But if you break something in the XLIFF file, or translate it in a way that their XLIFF2PO converter can't handle, then their dev department would not be able to figure out how to unbreak it unless they are very clever. Speaking from experience working in such a department and dealing with PO and XLIFF.

Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator) | CafeTran Espresso

CafeTran Trainer — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 05:27:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator)
Poster: CafeTran Trainer
Post title: CafeTran Espresso

You can also use CafeTran Espresso to translate PO files — it's fully supported and works seamlessly.

Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator) | Easier Alternatives for Handling PO Files

Ronika Kashyap — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Best TM tool to handle PO file? (for a non-tech-savvy translator)
Poster: Ronika Kashyap
Post title: Easier Alternatives for Handling PO Files

PO files can feel really limiting if you’re used to the full feature set of tools like Trados or Wordfast. If you're looking for something easier to work with but still professional, you might want to check out Pairaphrase. It supports a wide range of file formats, and while it's more focused on document translation, its interface is much more user-friendly compared to tools like POedit or OmegaT.

That said, it’s completely reasonable to ask your client if they can provide the content in a different format like XLIFF or even Word if possible. Many dev teams default to PO for convenience, but they might not realize it's creating extra work on your side. A quick conversation could save you a lot of trouble.

You can read this blog: [url removed]

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | The problem with this kind of texts

Daryo — Wed, 07 May 2025 08:59:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Daryo
Post title: The problem with this kind of texts

The problem with this kind of texts (i.e. 'translating' software) is that you have in fact a mixture of different types of texts, that must obey each their own rules of syntax.

You have some parts that are 'ordinary/plain text' (in fact alphanumerical strings) meant for human consumption - to be translated any other text.

Then you have some other text that MAY look like 'normal text' but is in fact meant for the machine (a.k.a. the 'coding') - that MUST obey the syntax of whatever programming language was used.

All too often this kind of 'mixed texts' are dumped on people who can't spot the difference, by project managers who themselves are blissfully unaware of it.

Separating the two (what to translate and what must be left EXACTLY as is) is not so simple – it’s really a very specialised niche. If you don't know the syntax of the specific programming language used it's all to easy to 'trash the code' - make it unusable.

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | ...

Sergei Leshchinsky — Tue, 06 May 2025 12:53:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Sergei Leshchinsky
Post title: ...

I would translate
directories '^1' and '^2' were not found
as
directories '"^1"' and '"^2"' were not found
to get as an output
directories "Directory_A" and "Directory_B" were not found

@0, @1, @2 look like just different values to be inserted.

You'd better ask for the convention or get the rendered text for reference. Thus you will see which tags turn into which values.

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | Are placeholders always to be kept exactly as in the original text?

Fredrik Pettersson — Tue, 06 May 2025 11:54:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Fredrik Pettersson
Post title: Are placeholders always to be kept exactly as in the original text?

I found out now with the help from a friend in Sweden who is also translator that I should keep the single quotes exactly as they are as they are placeholders.

What about these instances?:

The Media Cache directories '^1' and '^2' were not found or are not writeable.

For a normal Swedish text, I would like to change the single quotes to double quotes. But, as they are placeholders, do you think I should keep them exactly as they are in the original? So that under no circumstances I change the original placeholders?

More examples:

1) The selected file does not contain @0 media used by clip references in one or more sequences.
Here, I translated with
Den valda filen innehåller inte @0medier som används av klippreferenser i en eller flera sekvenser.
I found this sentence already translated at Adobe's help center, so it should be correct. Otherwise, normally, there would have been inserted a hyphen after @0.

2) These @1 clip references will be deleted, and cannot be undone.
Here, I translated with
Dessa @1klippreferenser kommer att tas bort. Detta kan inte ångras.
I found also this sentence already translated at Adobe's help center, so it should also be correct. Otherwise, normally, there would have been inserted a hypen after @1 also here.

Sorry if I use wrong terminology, but isn't placeholders the same as what you call code Sergei?

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | Single quotes are "code"

Sergei Leshchinsky — Tue, 06 May 2025 10:10:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Sergei Leshchinsky
Post title: Single quotes are "code"

These single quotes must not be visible in the final representation as they are "for the computer" to differentiate "processable entities" from the plain text around. The parser (syntax analyzer) simply processes the text inside the single quotes in some pre-defined way to generate the output without those single quotes but with the processed entities from within the single quotes.

As to the style of these single quotes, everything depends on the smartness of the parser. Good parsers understand all types of single quotes (they have different codes in the character set, e.g. ASCII, ANSI or Unicode) as a "generic" single quote and process accordingly. Anyway, there are two options too: 1) using straight quotes while typing (can be batch replaced later by find-replace if needed) OR 2) copying the source segment to target and translating within the original layout preserving those original single quotes.

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | Changing inward angled single quotes to straight single quotes for a Swedish text?

Fredrik Pettersson — Tue, 06 May 2025 09:40:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Fredrik Pettersson
Post title: Changing inward angled single quotes to straight single quotes for a Swedish text?

Thank you Sergei! This is of great help to me.

Maybe a Swedish native language speaker would need to answer my follow-up question, but in general, what do you think - could I use single quotes outside the double-quotes in my translation even though they never appear outside of double-quotes in Swedish texts? For instance, I could change them to straight single-quotes because these inward angled single quotes look weird in a Swedish text:

Hopplänken till målresan är bruten eftersom målresan '"{name}"' har tagits bort.

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? | Single quotes are "code"

Sergei Leshchinsky — Tue, 06 May 2025 09:04:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Sergei Leshchinsky
Post title: Single quotes are "code"

Between the single quotes is some placeable text, which includes double quotes.
In the final set-up, it appears as text in double quotes.
E.g.:
... target journey ‘"{name}"’ has been...
renders as
... target journey "autoexec.bat" has been...

{name} should NOT be translated as it is a tag to be replaced dynamically by some meaningful text (filename, user name, etc.) in the rendered UI.

$1 should NOT be translated either as it is a tag for a numeral to be inserted.
E.g.:
Failed to preview $1 files.
renders as
Failed to preview 27 files.

[Редактировалось 2025-05-06 09:12 GMT]

How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?

Fredrik Pettersson — Tue, 06 May 2025 01:05:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: How do I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to?
Poster: Fredrik Pettersson

I am translating different parts of the UI for different applications from Adobe that are referred to by their help center, and for one segment, it says this:

Jump link to target journey is broken because target journey ‘"{name}"’ has been deleted.

I don't understand the usage of simple and double quotes here. Can someone please explain? In my native language, Swedish, that I am translating to from English, we don't use single quotes but replace them with double quotes. In this case, in my translation to Swedish, would it be possible to enter double quotes two times so it becomes like this?:

Hopplänken till målresan är bruten eftersom målresan ""{name}"" har tagits bort.

The only instance in Swedish where single quotes are used is when the double quotes are outside the single quotes. But in this case, the usage in English is the opposite - the single quotes are used outside the double quotes, which is not possible in Swedish.

I suppose "name" within the { } shouldn't be translated, right?

But how should I know which type of contents the different variables for dynamic contents relate to? Another example is this:

Failed to preview $1 files.

Here, the dollar sign refers to number of files. For my first example then, what function(s) does the single quotes and double quotes fill?

Getting all target strings from Passolo Translator Edition | Passolo macros

Philippe Noth — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:55:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Getting all target strings from Passolo Translator Edition
Poster: Philippe Noth
Post title: Passolo macros

Does someone still have these macros? I had a Passolo job today and wished I could manipulate the whole translation to perform a few external checks.

They are referred here.

Philippe

Translating InDesign files | Affinity Publisher

Paolo Tramannoni — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 23:13:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Translating InDesign files
Poster: Paolo Tramannoni
Post title: Affinity Publisher

I subscribe (pun intended) to the above suggestion of using Affinity Publisher for previewing IDML files. InDesign features missing from Publisher will not be previewed, but most of the content should be fine.

I concur to the feeling that refining the translation in the final page makes for a much better translation. However, I would't want to renounce to the speed and ease of drafting a first translation using a translation memory. In my use cases, IDML carries (linked) images with text, so rebuilding the page layout file from it would result in seeing everything as in the original file.

As translators, we should really push on Serif/Canva to make their Publisher able to export IDML files, and make the importer/exporter as good as possible. It would be a powerful, inexpensive tool to work on the final page, wether it will end up into a Publisher document or an InDesign one.

Japanese typesetting: mobile vs. desktop | A bit late, but the website does it

Andrej Preradovic — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:35:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Japanese typesetting: mobile vs. desktop
Poster: Andrej Preradovic
Post title: A bit late, but the website does it

I realize this thread is almost 3 years old at this point, but since I'm familiar with the topic I wanted to help out anyone who might stumble across this thread in the future, to prevent even more "solved but not really"-situations ;)

Generally, line-breaking rules in Japanese are determined by the JIS X 4051 standard, of which [url= [url removed] #Line_breaking_rules_in_Japanese_text_(Kinsoku_Shori)]Wikipedia[/url] has an overview.

When it comes to web content however, line-breaking is usually handled by the web designer. There is a CSS property called [url= [url removed] ]line-break[/url], which determines how strict the line-breaking rules for a piece of text on a website should be; a setting of "strict" would prevent characters like ー or っ from appearing at the beginning of a line, while "anywhere" won't impose any rules at all.

So basically, when typesetting online content, it's not necessary to keep linebreaks caused by variations in screen size in mind, because it should be handled automatically by the website.

Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French | French speaker here

Quentin NEVEN — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 10:55:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French
Poster: Quentin NEVEN
Post title: French speaker here

Hello Wendy,

This is a very interesting question actually.

If we take into consideration the target audience, then "tu" is more natural.

However, we are in a video game, and we have to take into consideration the fact that the narrator addresses the player through the character he is supposed to be. Obviously, this is a bit more confusing in a VR game, since the frontier between the player and the character is not as clear. If the whole idea of the game is to project anyone in the zombie apocalypse, regardless of their age or status, then "tu" makes a bit more sense.

However, the way you described it makes me think that the player is supposed to embody some sort of soldier or combattant receiving orders and advice from their headset. In this particular case, the difference between the player and the character is clearer.

Now, we have to discuss whether "tu" or "you" is more typical in a military context. It is likely that the narrator has some sort of authority on the character, he is speaking to a subordinate.

I have no military experience and I could not find any serious documentation on the topic, so I had a look at various testimonies on the subject.

The answers varied dramatically from one context to another (private army or not, air forces, land forces, the marine, etc). It is not uncommon that a higher ranking soldier uses "tu" when dealing with a subordinate, especially when the former is younger but the opposite is not the norm.

That being said, I would choose "vous" because it gives more credit to the character (sense of respect and seriousness) and it is better in terms of immersion because the player embodying a soldier expects to be addressed this way.

Hope this helped

Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French | Then definitely “tu”

Lingua 5B — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 11:04:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French
Poster: Lingua 5B
Post title: Then definitely “tu”

I’d go with “tu” then, but I’d like a native French speaker to confirm. In my language, I’d go with “tu” (we also have tu/vous distinction).

Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French | More info

Wendy Cummings — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French
Poster: Wendy Cummings
Post title: More info

The game is rated 13+ and its likely to appeal to the teen/20/30s market.

Players are fighting a zombie invasion, and they receive information/hints/tips through their headset about where to go and what to do.

Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French | Who are the players?

Lingua 5B — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 10:56:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French
Poster: Lingua 5B
Post title: Who are the players?

How old are the players? Not sure I understood the characters or the game environment you described.

If the consumers are mostly youth and children, I’d go with “tu”.

Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French

Wendy Cummings — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 09:32:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Correct form of address for a VR FPS in French
Poster: Wendy Cummings

In terms of the VO for a first person shooter in VR, how would you expect the player to be addressed by the narrator - tu or vous?

This applies to the various pop-ups throughout the game with hints and info, e.g. "point upwards to reload", "Hold tight and brace yourself", "are you standing up or sitting down"?

Or would it depend on the usual rules of the relationship between narrator and player (e.g. an army general addressing the lower ranks)?

[Edited at 2024-01-02 10:29 GMT]

Converting date format (programming) | Try this ... ?

Jennifer Levey — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:44:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Converting date format (programming)
Poster: Jennifer Levey
Post title: Try this ... ?

As Dan points out, it would help enormously to know what 'language' we're dealing with.

That said, if [dddd, MMMM Do YYYY] yields [Sunday, December 10th 2023], then we can deduce with a fair degree of confidence, that dddd represents the full name of the day of the week ('Sunday', as opposed to 'Sun.'), MMMM represents the long name of the month (December), D followed by o is the day number (with no leading zero, otherwise it would probably be DD) and the suffixed o refers to the 'ordinal' number (10th) as distinct from the cardinal number (10), and YYYY is the four-digit year.

If you want the cardinal day number '10' instead of the ordinal number '10th', I suggest it may well be either D (with no suffix), or maybe Dc. The punctuation is fed through 'as is' to the resulting date string.

On the basis of my reasoning above, I'd wager a chocolate digestive biscuit on:
[Sunday 10 December 2023] --> [dddd D MMMM YYYY]

JL

Converting date format (programming) | More info

Dan Lucas — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 18:40:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Converting date format (programming)
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: More info

Samuel, not quite clear what you're trying to achieve here. Do you mean you need a formatting string to take a date and return a version in the format of "Sunday, December 10th 2023"? And is this for use within a CAT tool, some actual code, or some kind of utility...? The page to which you link is very specific - some kind of date-handling library.

Dan

Converting date format (programming) | Could be JS...

Samuel Murray — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 17:50:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Converting date format (programming)
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Could be JS...

This seems to be consistent with JS code, here:
[url removed]

Converting date format (programming)

Samuel Murray — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 17:08:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Converting date format (programming)
Poster: Samuel Murray

Hello everyone

I have a date code and I don't know what date code method is being used, but basically, [dddd, MMMM Do YYYY] yields [Sunday, December 10th 2023]. I need the code for [Sunday 10 December 2023]. Does anyone have a URL for this one?

Thanks
Samuel

Calculating Word Count for Website Translation | Much appreciated

Lamine Boukabour — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 16:48:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Calculating Word Count for Website Translation
Poster: Lamine Boukabour
Post title: Much appreciated

Thank you @Jennifer for providing me with this insightful source.

Calculating Word Count for Website Translation | Suggested reading...

Jennifer Levey — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 12:38:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Calculating Word Count for Website Translation
Poster: Jennifer Levey
Post title: Suggested reading...

[url removed] #2722472

HTH
JL

Calculating Word Count for Website Translation | expressisverbis

Lamine Boukabour — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:12:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Calculating Word Count for Website Translation
Poster: Lamine Boukabour
Post title: expressisverbis

Thank you for the valuable link.

Calculating Word Count for Website Translation | It may be useful:

expressisverbis — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:36:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: Calculating Word Count for Website Translation
Poster: expressisverbis
Post title: It may be useful:

You can find many Word Counter Websites on the Web:

[url removed]