ResxEditor reloaded - version 1.2 released

They were a couple of long standing issues with ResxEditor. Most of them were actually reported as comments on the blog post of the initial ResxEditor release. All of those issues are now fixed. Bug fixes and new features are detailed on the ResxEditor page.

Special thanks to Nick Pasko for carrying most of the work and finding a solution to get rid of the previous cell saving behavior that was driving translators nuts.

Resx2Word, when simplistic is not enough

RESX files are great (and simple) containers of textual resources for your .Net/Asp.Net applications. It's especially useful if you're planning to translate your application into multiple languages (PeopleWords has been translated into 13 languages all textual content being put into RESX files). Yet, using Microsoft Visual Studio as a RESX file editor is quite an overkill solution for translators (whoses programming often equate zero since it's not their job anyway). In a previous post, I was discussing ResxEditor, a simplistic and stand-alone RESX file editor.

Où que tu sois je te retrouverai, car si tu ne viens pas à Lagardère, Lagardère ira à toi! (If you do not come to RESX, RESX will come to you)

Yet, I am still not entirely satisfied by ResxEditor. Indeed, during the translation of process of PeopleWords, half of the translators (smart and educated btw) were surprised by the sheer existence of other text editors beyond MS Word. I imagine that this kind of thing can happen if you have been working your entire life with MS Word.

As a result, those translators, no matter how many times you tell them not to use Word, they can't resist the urge and the RESX file gets opened and translated through Word ... and then funny things happen. For example, I have now several translations of the Microsoft RESX instructions Microsoft ResX Schema, Version 2.0, The primary goals of this format is to allow a simple XML format that is mostly human readable. ..., the large XML comment created by VS by default at the beginning of each RESX file. This XML comment is going to one of the most translated piece of MS literature (I do not think that the VS engineers were expecting this when they wrote those RESX instructions).

In order to escape the curse of the RESX instructions translation, I have just released Resx2Word, a RESX to MS Word converter (and vice-versa). Naturally, it's not possible to translate generic MS Word document to RESX, only MS Word document generated by Resx2Word can be converted back into RESX by Word2Resx. Any feedback?

A translator-friendly RESX file editor

A newer version of ResxEditor is now available, see my lastest blog post on this matter.

In a previous post, I was giving some details on the RESX format from a translator-friendly viewpoint. Actually, after proof-testing the XML concept with a few translators, I came up with the conclusion

The most brilliant Uzbek-Azeri translators do not speak XML. Do not seek any explanation, it's just a fact.

XML has a logic which is totally alien to the average translator. The answer to the question Why can't I freely insert < and > characters? simply does not match the average translator skills. Therefore, I have decided to come up with a more simple and elegant solution.

I have published a simple Resx Editor utility that comes as a stand-alone exe file. This application is free (yet not open-source, although I am considering the option) and will remain free.

Available features

The ResxEditor is a simple quasi-wysiwyg editor; at least the raw XML is kept hidden from the translator view. The features are limited to the bare minimum Open, Save and Save As, plus a text size adjustment option.

Features not available (also they should)

I have not included a Print feature (yet). Whether it is a must-have feature will depend on the feedback that I get. Actually, one of my objective is to keep this editor as simple and small as possible.

If there are features that you would really want to see in Resx Editor (or bugs that you really would not), feel free to post a comment.