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A major aspect of localizing an interface involves translating the text used by the software in its title bars, menus and other controls, messages, and some registry entries. To make localization easier, store interface text as resources in your application's resource file rather than including it in the source code of the application. Remember to also translate menu commands your application stores for its file types in the system registry.

Translation is a challenging task. Each foreign language has its own syntax and grammar. Following are some general guidelines to keep in mind for translation:

• Do not assume that a word always appears at the same location in a sentence, that word order is always the same, that sentences or words always have the same length, or that nouns, adjectives, and verbs always keep the same form.
• Avoid using vague words that can have several meanings in different contexts.
• Avoid colloquialisms, jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations.
• Use good grammar. Translation is a difficult enough task without a translator having to deal with poor grammar.
• Avoid dynamic, or run-time, concatenation of different strings to form new strings — for example, composing messages by combining frequently used strings. An exception is the construction of filenames and names of paths.
• Avoid hard coding filenames in a binary file. Filenames may need to be translated.
• Avoid including text in images and icons. Doing so requires that these also be translated.

Translation of interface text from English to other languages often increases the length of text by 30 percent or more. In some extreme cases, the character count can increase by more than 100 percent; for example, the word "move" becomes "verschieben" in German. Accordingly, if the amount of the space for displaying text is strictly limited, as in a status bar, restrict the length of the English interface text to approximately one half of the available space. In contexts that allow more flexibility, such as dialog boxes and property sheets, allow 30 percent for text expansion in the interface design. Message text in message boxes, however, should allow for text expansion of about 100 percent. Avoid having your software rely on the position of text in a control or window because translation may require movement of the text.

Expansion due to translation affects other aspects of your product. A localized version is likely to affect file sizes, potentially changing the layout of your installation disks and setup software.

Translation is not always a one-to-one correspondence. A single word in English can have multiple translations in another language. Adjectives and articles sometimes change spelling according to the gender of the nouns they modify. Therefore, be careful when reusing a string in multiple places. Similarly, several English words may have only a single meaning in another language. This is particularly important when creating keywords for the Help index for your software.