Localize multi platform projects - Consolidate string-files

Question

In our multi-platform projects, we have multiple localization files with different notation and file format (iOS .string, Android .xml, etc.). Now we want to localize them in many languages, but in the different files, there are many equal strings. so anybody knows of a good way to consolidate these strings-files to one big localization file, hand this to the translation agency and then splut them back up into the different files?

Anybody knows a good approach?

Answer 1

I've worked on an iOS/Android project with 20 translations, and we used an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the translatable strings. The *.strings files for XCode and the *.xml files for Eclipse are then automagically generated using my custom VBA macro.

I've put an example Excel spreadsheet with VBA macro here: http://members.home.nl/bas.de.reuver/files/multilanguage.zip

You can convert your existing .strings or .xml files to spreadsheet format (key value pairs, tab separated) with the tool below. Then you can send the spreadsheet to your translators, they fill in a column of translated values, send it back and you can simply generate your new translation files.

http://members.home.nl/bas.de.reuver/files/stringsconvert.html

EDIT in 2021
The homepage is offline now, but I've added the Excel/spreadsheet example on github: https://github.com/BdR76/Manage-translations