Part III: Localizability

Part II, "Globalization," was entirely dedicated to creating a fully globalized software solution, which includes designing and implementing source code so that it can accommodate any local market (locale), script, or language. You might decide to leave your user interface in its native language, but to enable its functionality for multilingual usage. If this is the case, Part II offers valuable guidance. In contrast, Part III,"Localizability," is dedicated to creating localizable software—in other words, designing software code and resources such that resources can be localized for any locale and language without breaking functionality and without requiring changes to code. Therefore, if you are not planning to localize your software, which in today's global economy is most unlikely, you can safely skip this stage all together. Both globalization and localizability are concerned with providing unified and equal support for all locales, scripts, and languages.

Localizability can be divided into software localizability and content localizability. Chapter 7, "Software Localizability Guidelines," addresses the first of these components, by offering recommendations on working with resource repositories, as well as showing you what to avoid from a coding standpoint. You will see reasons why you should not hard-code localizable resources, tips on how to handle strings, ways to minimize resizing and repositioning of the user interface, and guidelines regarding icons and images.

Chapter 8, "Mirroring," discusses a specific technology for handling right-to-left languages—such as Arabic and Hebrew. Within the context of Win32 applications, you will see ways to enable mirroring in code. For Web pages, you will see methods and code you can use for rendering right-to-left layout of text, of dynamic elements such as tables and cells, and of static elements such as directional images. Finally, for the .NET Framework, you will learn techniques for mirroring Web Forms, Microsoft Windows Forms, and message boxes. Chapter 9, "Content Localizability Guidelines," examines practices for making printed and online documentation, Help files, and marketing material simple, precise, and culture-aware. The chapter also demonstrates how to enable content recycling to decrease localization costs and how to design your Help system so that it has global functionality.