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.com 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?

Reader Comments (4)

Ou-yo-yu what a nice site! October 16, 2009 | halloween san francisco

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. October 21, 2009 | jack parler

Bonjour / hi Woud be nice to have source so we can improve / change it Bonjour - entièrement d’accord avec votre approche et votre outil - il manque juste les sources pour pouvoir faire de petites améliorations (ex: mettre un time stamp en commentaire lors de la réintégration des resx) Mrique November 10, 2009 | mrique

oups / sorry - j’avais pas vu le repository source forge et les articles annonçant la mise à dispo des sources ! en tout cas, bravo pour votre startup, le projet - et les équipes - est tout à fait emballant Au delà de la vente de produit SAAS spécialisés, faites vous du “pluggin sur mesure” pour la prévision sur des activité spécifiques ? November 11, 2009 | mrique