Magento Translation updates (ver. 0.6.14100)
The last Magento Preview version 0.6.14100 has a number of new features added since the version 0.6.12840 released in October when the translation process was started. It also means that there were new texts added.
Here are the two archived sets of files:
The first one (en_US.zip) contains the updated en_US locale csv files. You can use those files as a reference in case you are starting a new translation. The directory structure and csv files must stay as is (in terms of structure and naming), you just have to rename en_US folders (in two places there) into your locale’s code name. Please check the International Forums first as there can already be the translation to your language available.
The second one (updates.zip) might have a value for those who already have their translations done. The files in it contain just the lines that have to be translated and added to corresponding csv files.
And I have a bit of fun to share with you today:
We are working hard on fixing the translations issues found at the moment and our QA’s are running a series of tests to make sure that every single piece of text goes through the translation functions. So here is a screenshot of how might Magento pages look like if there were just the only letter “X” in the alphabet 
1jsperri posted Thu, December 13, 2007
Michael:
This is not completely translation related, but are you considering to have a “language free” template ?
For instance the graphical “Checkout” button on the frontend may not make sense to non English speaking people, and it would be better to have the graphic button replaced by a text button + translation.
2Michael posted Thu, December 13, 2007
Hi jsperri,
We are aware of graphical buttons translation issues.
The following wiki page answers why do we have that graphical button in the shopping cart - http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/how-to/creating-css-buttons-vs-image-buttons - it’s just an example to show how to work with graphical buttons.
Almost all other buttons in default design package are simple text buttons.
And even if you created a design package with graphical buttons only - there’s a simple way to get them translated. You just have to make the image paths to go through the translation subsystem, like
<img src="<?=$this->getSkinUrl(’images/btn_proceed_to_checkout-in-’.$this->__(’__MY_GRAPHICAL_BUTTONS_LANGUAGE_’).’.gif’)?>"/>3SeL posted Fri, December 14, 2007
Hi Michael,
There was a discussion about a problem with duplicate keys. Did you read it ?
Do you plan to correct the code as proposed in the discussion or to remove duplicate keys ?
4Michael posted Sun, December 16, 2007
Hi SeL,
The solution posted might work under certain conditions (if both duplicates have the same translation) but it is not the thing that has to be fixed. The drawback of that approach is that in case you have the original key translated differently in different modules you will never know which translation variant will be used, because it depends on the order Magento modules are loaded in, that should be the same on your Magento installation but can be changed when upgrading, or installing new modules.
Here in this group a few articles will follow on the details of translations implementation, on how-to make your own design package/theme that can be properly translated into other languages, and what kind of fixes Magento team puts our efforts on regarding the translations.
Thank you.