Localizing your app – a community language resource

24 January 2017

Localizing your app – a community language resource

The term “localize your app” simply means to present the UI/text in your users’ local language, but where do you begin? Online translation sites and dictionaries can supply basic words, but sometimes the true meaning is lost in a language-specific subtlety, or the dictionary fails to understand which term you really need.

Fortunately, a group of Corona developers recognized this dilemma and, several years ago, started a Google spreadsheet to help with app localization. It provides you with commom translations for many words/terms used in apps, organized into categories. For example, if you need to localize your “Play” button into Spanish, the answer is “Jugar.” How about Russian? Simply scan across the row and find “Запустить.”

Once you find the translated text you need, free plugins like GBC Language Cabinet can help you manage how to pick and display the correct text within your app.

This spreadsheet is a great example of “crowd-sourcing” and there is still work to be done — some languages are not yet complete, so we encourage you to help populate columns for languages which you’re fluent in.