E.1. Gettext files editors

E.1. Gettext files editors
Prev	Appendix E. Gettext files editors and tools	Next

Translators are highly encouraged to use dedicated GNU gettext message catalogs files (PO files) editing tools. Even though PO files are plain text files which may be modified with any text editor, the use of dedicated tools will save translators a lot of time.

This document does not intend to be a reference document about these tools. Most tools have been packaged for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and thus installing them on a Debian system is as easy as running apt install <package>.

Short list of PO editing tools:

Lokalize (Debian package lokalize): very complete and powerful. Needs installing the Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries.

The Lokalize editor (formerly KBabel) is undoubtfully the most complete gettext message catalogs editor and its use is recommended by the Debian Installer i18n coordinators. Its support for non-Latin languages is very complete, including correct Right-To-Left (RTL) and BiDi support for Arabic/Hebrew and other RTL languages as well as support for combined languages such as languages using the Devanagari script.
Gtranslator (Debian package gtranslator): PO-file editor for the GNOME Desktop.

Gtranslator is roughly the equivalent of Lokalize for users of the Gnome environment. Of course, it can be used outside the Gnome environment with the same drawback as Lokalize.

However, it is not well suited for Debian Installer translations as it does not properly support Plural Forms. So translators working on files which include plural forms (base-config are among those files) should absolutely avoid using Gtranslator.
Poedit (Debian package poedit): quite complete tool but no correct handling of non Latin languages on Debian. Uses the WxWindows toolkit.
Emacs po-mode (Debian package gettext-el): editing mode for the Emacs/XEmacs editor. Emacs wizards will probably appreciate using the same editing environment for gettext message catalog files.

The Emacs po-mode is however limited when it comes to "advanced" features such as auto-learning, message compendiums use and other very useful features for translators.