Parser for Microsoft Excel Files
The Passolo Excel add-in allows the localization of strings stored in Microsoft Excel files.
The localization concept is different from solutions offered by document translation tools. The Excel add-in doesn't translate the whole document. It only extracts the content of a selected column and stores the translations into a different column. In addition it supports processing meta data like IDs, length limitations and other properties.
This add-in overcomes the limitations of the Add-In for ODBC Databases where the underlying Microsoft OLE DB driver for Excel is not Unicode compliant. This add-in supports all languages.
It is based on Microsoft Excel, so to read source strings and to write translations a license of Microsoft Excel must be installed. This add-in extracts the localizable strings stored in a sheet of the workbook. The Excel Sheet Options dialog allows the selection of a column as the source of localizable strings. Additional meta data can be extracted and stored in the localization project. The Excel Translation Column dialog allows the user to specify where the translated strings are to be stored.
Supported Excel versions
Microsoft Excel 2003 and newer versions are supported. Microsoft Office usually installs so-called Primary Interop Assemblies. Depending on the installation sequence on your system it might happen that these Interop Assemblies are not available. In this case Passolo is reporting an error containing Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel. In this case download the Primary Interop Assemblies for your actual version of Office from the Microsoft website and install them on your system.
Excel Sheet Options
The configuration must be set locally for string list separately Select one Excel source files in the project view, then in the menu select or use the context menu to call String List Settings. In the properties dialog, click on the button Options.
Sheet Name
This entry field is mandatory. Insert the name of the Excel sheet where the translatable strings are stored.
Start translation at row
This entry field is mandatory. Insert the row number where the first translatable strings is stored. This allows you to skip empty rows or rows with header names.
ID column
This entry field is optional but recommended. Insert the column name where the IDs for translatable strings are stored. Using IDs will support an easy update process, when the next version of the Excel sheet must be translated. Empty IDs are not allowed. When reading source strings into the project, Passolo extracts strings from all rows until a row without ID is found.
Grouping column
This entry field is optional. Insert the column name where the group for translatable strings are stored. Passolo will use the content of this field to group the translatable strings in the Passolo resource view. This field supports merged Excel cells.
Source text column
This entry field is mandatory. Insert the column name where the translatable strings are stored. If no ID column is defined, Passolo will read source texts to the project until an empty cell is found.
Comment column
This entry field is optional. Insert the column name where the comment for translatable strings are stored. Passolo will add the content of this field to the comment field in the Passolo project.
Maximum length column
This entry field is optional. Insert the column name where the maximum length in characters for translatable strings are stored. Passolo will add the content of this field to the max-length field in the Passolo project. This allows you to perform individual length checks for each row.
Maximum line count column
This entry field is optional. Insert the column name where the maximum line count for translatable strings are stored. Passolo will add the content of this field to the max-lines field in the Passolo project.
Additional Properties
This entry field is optional. Insert the column name and how the content is named in the Passolo project. Separate column and name using a : character. If multiple properties should be extracted for the sheet separate them using the; character (e.g. "AF:Screen;AG:Reference"). Using additional properties you can add additional context to translators. Properties can also be processed using macros.
Maximum width column, Maximum height column, Font alias column
These entry fields are optional. These entry fields are optional. Insert the column names for corresponding properties that are used by the TexRenderer add-in to visualize and check translations in a specific device font. (see Text Renderer)
Excel Translation Column
To specify how the translated strings are to be stored in the target Excel file, open the Properties dialog for the translation list and click Advanced to open the Excel Translation Column dialog. Please note that you have to call this dialog for each target language.
Translation Column
This entry field is mandatory. Insert the column name where the translated strings must be stored.