| 1 | Translating the help files. |
| 2 | =========================== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | I have tried to write the help files in plain english with good grammer. |
| 5 | Since English is not my strong point you probably can't tell, but I hope it |
| 6 | helps. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The help files, at this point, are devided into functional areas. Each .hlp |
| 9 | file represents a different functional block of how the program looks to the |
| 10 | user. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Hopefully as SquirrelMail is more widely used, non-english translations will |
| 13 | be used to make other non-english translations. You might want to keep this |
| 14 | in mind when writing yours. Remember that these will be used all over the |
| 15 | world and in many different environments so local language dialects might |
| 16 | confuse someone else. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | File Structure |
| 19 | ============== |
| 20 | |
| 21 | All translated files should be placed under the help directory. Under the |
| 22 | help directory create another directory. This directory MUST be named to the |
| 23 | two letter standard abbreviation for the language. English is "en" and Polish |
| 24 | would be "pl" for example. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | The help files are written in a basic xml format. Don't worry, XML isn't hard |
| 27 | at all. All it does is contain values inside tags like <start> and </start>. |
| 28 | For these help files, the tags must be on their own line like this: |
| 29 | <tag> |
| 30 | Value for this tag |
| 31 | </tag> |
| 32 | |
| 33 | There are two types of main tags: <chapter> and <section>. There can be only |
| 34 | one <chapter> tag in a .hlp file. However, there can be many <section> tags. |
| 35 | Inside both of these tags, their can be any combination of any of the following |
| 36 | tags: <title>, <description>, <summary>. Here is an example: |
| 37 | |
| 38 | | <chapter> |
| 39 | The title can only | <title> |
| 40 | be one line long | My first chapter |
| 41 | | </title> |
| 42 | Summary may be many | <summary> |
| 43 | lines, but is short | Just a brief summary |
| 44 | | </summary> |
| 45 | | <description> |
| 46 | Description can be | This is a more detailed description that |
| 47 | very long. It is | can span many lines. Usually this is the |
| 48 | the main part of | bulk of the help section or chapter description. |
| 49 | the help section. | </description> |
| 50 | | </chapter> |
| 51 | |
| 52 | |
| 53 | Translating |
| 54 | =========== |
| 55 | |
| 56 | To translate, just copy all the .hlp files from help/en into your new directory |
| 57 | that you created for this language (i.e. help/pl). You only need to translate |
| 58 | what is inbetween the tags. Do not translate the actual tags such as <chapter> |
| 59 | or <summary>. The tag names need to remain in English. You should only translate |
| 60 | the text between tags. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | Often there may be other HTML tags such as <b> for bold or <a href...> to make |
| 63 | a link. If you see any of these tags, just leave them and don't translate |
| 64 | them either. Only what is contained inside them if needed. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | That should be all!! |