The Dialog Editor

In the dialog editor, dialogs are displayed just as they appear in the program when it is running. If the translation has resulted in changes in the string length, it may be necessary to adjust graphic elements or even the size of the dialog itself.

Selection and Display of Control Elements

You can use the mouse to select and move control elements. To move several elements simultaneously, hold down the CTRL key while clicking on each element, or drag a selection area over the desired elements.

You can also enter coordinates directly. Just click on the position displayed in the status bar of the dialog editor and enter a new value. Then use the ENTER key to apply this new value.

If you are changing several control elements simultaneously (e.g., adjusting the size of buttons or defining the lower border of list fields), the element in the "group" that you mark last will be used as the reference. While the other control elements are framed in selection rectangles, this "reference element" can be recognized by a filled sizing handles.

You can specify whether the strings for control elements are always to be displayed in black or in different colors according to their editing status. For further information on this option, please refer to Changing view options.

Additional functions required to adjust dialogs are available via the dialog editor toolbar and in the Layout menu described below.

Aligning Control Elements

or CTRL+LEFT aligns the selected control elements flush left.

or CTRL+RIGHT aligns the selected control elements flush right.

or CTRL+PAGE UP aligns the selected control elements flush with the top.

or CTRL+PAGE DOWN aligns the selected control elements flush with the bottom.

These functions can also be called up from the Align command. The commands for horizontal and vertical alignment are only available via the Layout menu. All layout changes are always based on the most recently marked reference element.

Beyond this, you can also use the Flip command to flip all control elements around the dialog's vertical axis so that the elements are no longer aligned from left to right, but from right to left. This command is useful for translations into Arabic or Hebrew. Optionally a small dialog field will appear to determine how the controls should be switched around.

Changing Spacing Between Control Elements

or ALT+RIGHT aligns the selected control elements horizontally with equal spacing.

or ALT+DOWN aligns the selected control elements vertically with equal spacing.

These options are also available via the Space Evenly command.

Changing the Size of Control Elements

To change the size of a control element, use the mouse to move one of the eight sizing handles. The following commands are available to change the size of several control elements simultaneously:

The selected control elements are resized to the same width as the reference element.

The selected control elements are resized to the same height as the reference element.

The selected control elements are resized to the same height and width as the reference element.

These options are also available via the Make same size command.

In addition, you can also use the Size to Content command or SHIFT+F7 to automatically adjust resources whose string length has changed during translation to the right size.

You can also enter coordinates directly. Just click on the size values displayed in the status bar of the dialog editor and enter new values. Then use the ENTER key to apply this new value.

Showing and hiding control elements

Complex dialogs with control elements placed on top of one another are difficult to localize. To simplify the localization the control elements can be grouped and shown while the text is being worked on.

The grouping usually takes place in the source file. While the translation file is being updated the existing groups of source files are always transferred to the translation file. If no groups are defined, the translator can define his or her own groups while working on the dialogs. Furthermore it is possible to alter or delete groups taken from the source file. These are just temporary settings, however, which are discarded when the string list is closed.

For further information, refer to Grouping control elements.

Centering Control Elements

To center one or more control elements in a dialog:

  1. Click on the Layout tab on the ribbon.
  2. Click Center in Dialog and select Vertical or Horizontal from the drop-down menu.

Resetting Positions

To reset the position of one or more control elements to their original location in the dialog, select > Layout tab > Reset Position and Dialog or Selected Control Elements from the drop-down menu.

Navigation

Displays all resources as a string list.

The previous resource is displayed.

The next resource is displayed.

Toggles between the source and target resource.

Coordiantes and Sizes

The first pair of numbers are the coordinates of a control. The second pair of numbers are the size of a control. Coordinates and sizes can be displayed in dialog units (DLU) or pixels (Pix.).

You can also enter coordinates directly. Simply click on the value you want to change, and enter a new value. Then use the ENTER key to apply this new value.

Dialog units are used in Windows resources to define coordinates and sizes of controls and dialogs. Dialog units are independent from the dialog font used. When using pixels the same control can have different coordinates and sizes when the dialog is changed.

Double click on the unit field to toggle between dialog units and pixels. You can also select the unit from the context menu by clicking the right mouse button on the unit field.

You can define the default unit in the view options. For more detailed information, please refer to Changing view options.

Check Function C

Check All Translations command in the Review tab: All the strings in the current translation list are checked for errors. At the end of the check, any recognized errors are displayed in the output window Check . Use F4 or SHIFT+F4 to move among the individual errors.

Check Current Resource command in the Review tab: All the strings in the current resource are checked for errors. At the end of the check, any recognized errors are displayed in the output window. Use F4 or SHIFT+F4 to move among the individual errors .

Using Gridlines

You can call up gridlines to assist you in the precise placement of control elements. If the grid is on, the edges of control elements are anchored to the grid during resizing or moving. You can use the ALT key to briefly turn this effect off.

To open the dialog to define the gridline spacing, select the Layout tab on the ribbon, then click Grid.

Specifying Font Style

In the dialog editor, you can use the Font command on the Home tab to define the font in which entries in the target file dialogs will appear. You can apply the font either to only the current selection, or globally to all dialogs.

Force Editing

To edit a dialog when the information for the AutoScale Data is incomplete, you need to use the Force Edit option.

In the Dialog Editor toolbar, select Force Edit to resize and move the controls and the buttons in the dialog.