Measuring International Functionality

The PT application is localized in German, Japanese, and U.S. English for two arenas, a hardware store and a training center. The following table shows the extent of the localization for each locale and arena.

In order to ensure the international functionality of the PT application, the LitWare designers review the following criteria for each localized version:

• The translations meet native standards in grammar, spelling, hyphenation, and terminology.
• Dialog boxes, menus, and controls are properly sized. Text is not truncated or inappropriately wrapped.
• Shortcut keys work correctly. Shortcut keys are unique and they are available on international keyboards.
• Direction of the text conforms to regional conventions: left-to-right and horizontal..
• Tab order is correct.
• Supports all character sets: Latin script for Germany and the United States; kanji and other scripts for Japan.
• Supports all formats of date, time, and numeric information. The application supports currency information to the extent of changing the currency symbol and its placement. The application does not support calculating the value of currency.
• Sorts lists of data according to users' regional conventions.

A more widely localized PT application would have additional issues to address. For example, if the application is extended to include Middle Eastern locales, it needs to accommodate bidirectional text.