Generating Machine Object (MO) files

The final step in the localization process is that the PO file generated by Passolo can be converted to a binary Machine Object (MO) file using the msgfmt tool. If the translations are compiled into a binary file, access to the translations by the running target application is quicker.

Before you begin

The msgfmt utility for PO file validation is not distributed with Passolo. You need to install iconv.dll and msgfmt.exe separately and specify their path in the PO Parser Options dialog you will get to below.

Access https://sourceforge.net/projects/gettext/files/ and select the following:
  • libinconv-win32 > 1.9.1 > libiconv-1.9.1.bin.woe32.zip to get iconv.dll
  • gettext-win32 > 0.13.1 > gettext-tools-0.13.1.bin.woe32.zip to get msgfmt.exe.

Copy iconv.dll in the folder where msgfmt.exe is.

Procedure

The dialog can be opened as follows:

  1. Go to the Tools tab and select Add-ins.
  2. On the Parser tab, select the PO File Parser.
  3. Select Setup.
  4. In the PO Parser Options dialog, select Automatically compile MO file during target file generation.

  5. Choose the path to the msgmt utility. Browse for msgfmt.exe and select Open.

    The msgfmt executable also checks the PO file for errors and reports them to the Messages output window.