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Localizing Windows Phone apps: New terminology and Style Guides posted

  • Artigo

Another 15 localization style guides for developing international Windows Phone apps have just been made available by the Windows Phone team.

Style guides provide instructions to help ensure that your app speaks to the user in the same tone, style and level of formality as Windows Phone itself. For example, should you say please or address the user as you and what level of formality is appropriate; should you use Sie or du in German? And how do you abbreviate words for a smartphone screen?

Translations of the individual terms and phrases, such as live tile, hub, pinch or stretch are also available through the Microsoft Language Portal online search.

The 15 new languages follow the style guides already posted for UK English, German, Italian, Spanish and French, bringing the total number to 20:

Here are a few examples from the guides of things to know about international style, tone and terminology:

  • UK English: Airplane mode is called Flight mode in UK English.
  • Danish: Enthusiastic expressions like Aha! and Oops! should be toned down since the Danish culture is more restrained.
  • Korean: It is recommended that the word you referring to end users be omitted in the Korean translation.

For more in-depth reference material about globalization and building localized apps for Windows Phone, visit the Globalization and Localization for Windows Phone pages on MSDN.

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    (This comment has been deleted per user request)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Absolutelly wrong for Russian! Guide for Russian - absolutelly wrong! It's not about real Russian language but about some "automaticly-translated interfaces". Please, hire the real Russian corrector for achieve good quality of translation! Please. please, PLEASE don't trust this work to "some immigrants"! Only to person with real technical English-to-Russian translation skill! Current quality of Russian translation in Windows Phone 7 is horrible and absolutelly unacceptable! Ask Local Office to support! Тому переводчику, который составлял этот документ. Нормы языка для таких систем общения (компьютерных интерфейсов) абсолютно отличаются от изложенных в документе. Например, нормой считается обезличенное обращение к пользователю. Вместо "Вы должны выбрать пункт меню" следует использовать "Выберите пункт меню". В русском языке нет слова "иконка", есть "Икона", но оно относится к церковной утвари; tile лучше оставить как "тайл", это подчеркнёт уникальность термина. В русском языке нет практики использования капители, это чуждый для языка тип выделения текста. Использование междометий для таких интерфейсов неприемлимо. И так далее по всему тексту.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2012
    The Style Guide (French version) is not available.

  • Anonymous
    January 07, 2012
    I still have to go trough the languages in which I intend to localize my app, but the initiative sounds great!

  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2012
    I'm also looking for the French version. Please let me know if somebody knows where to get it adriana.dosal@gmail.com Thanks!