Documentation Center

Text Format

You can export translation lists in ASCII format, which can be edited with any given ASCII editor.

This export format is available in the list of export formats, and is called Passolo Text Format. However, it is generally recommended that exports be made to translation bundles, which the translator can process using SDL Passolo. Please also note that with ASCII export, the string lists are not locked and the project can continue to be edited.

Click on Settings to configure the ASCII export.

By default, only strings that have not yet been translated are exported. If you also want to export existing translations, activate the Write strings that are already translated option.

Normally, multiline strings are written to multiple lines for ease of editing. However, if you would rather output these strings on a single line, activate Write multiline strings into a single line. Individual lines within the multiple line text are then separated by the line break character "\n".

You can select ANSI, Unicode or UTF-8 as the output character set. The ASCII export works with the existing codepage and produces a pure ASCII file. Therefore only translations which work with the existing codepage can be exported and imported. For this reason, you should select Unicode or UTF-8 if possible, after making sure that the text editor to be used supports these formats.

ASCII File Structure

The following extract from an ASCII export illustrates the file format:



0001  @ ASCII Translation file

0002  @ Translation List - QC.exe, English(USA) -> German

0003  @ Don't modify lines starting with '@'!

0004  @ For translation change lines after "=" Line

0005  @ID 3910295906

0006

0007  @5  Entry 57606 in Menu 2--------------------------------

0008  Print Set&up...

0009  =

0010  Printer Set&up...

0011

0012  @6  Entry 57605 in Menu 2--------------------------------

0013  Page &Setup...

0014  =

0015  Seiten &Setup...

0016

0017  @7  Entry 57607 in Menu 2--------------------------------

0018  &Print...\tCtrl+P

0019  =

0020  &Drucken...\tStrg+P

0021

0022  @8  Popup 1 in Menu 2------------------------------------

0023  Database &Administration

0024  =

0025  Datenbank&verwaltung

Line 0001 identifies the file as an ASCII translation file.

Line 0002 defines the translation list (program and language pair) to which the file belongs.

Lines 0003 and 0004 contain brief instructions of how the individual lines are to be edited.

Line 0005 contains the ID with which the ASCII file can be uniquely assigned to a translation list.

Line 0007 identifies an exported entry of the translation list.

Line 0008 contains the entry's source string.

Line 0010 also contains the source string to be replaced with the translation.

The subsequent lines contain additional entries to be translated in the same format.

During translation, lines starting with the @ character must under no circumstances be changed. Beyond this, the translation must always occur in the lines located below the equal sign ( = ).