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  <TITLE>User Interface Translation Notes</TITLE>
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  <LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="FontForge.css">
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<BODY>
<DIV ID="in">
  <H1>
    User Interface Translation Notes
  </H1>
  <BLOCKQUOTE ID="lit">
    <TABLE ID="lit" ALIGN="RIGHT">
      <TR VALIGN="Bottom">
	<TD COLSPAN=2><SMALL><SMALL><B>CASCA:</B></SMALL> Ay, he spoke Greek.<BR>
	  <SMALL><B>CASSIUS:</B></SMALL> To what effect?<BR>
	  <SMALL><B>CASCA:</B></SMALL> Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er<BR>
	  look you i' the face again: but those that<BR>
	  understood him smiled at one another and<BR>
	  shook their heads; but, for mine own<BR>
	  part, it was Greek to me.</SMALL></TD>
	<TD><SMALL><SMALL><I>Julius Caesar</I>, I, ii<BR>
	  Shakespeare</SMALL></SMALL></TD>
      </TR>
      <TR>
	<TD COLSPAN=3>
	    <HR>
	</TD>
      </TR>
      <TR VALIGN="Bottom">
	<TD><SMALL><SMALL><B>CHAPLAIN:</B></SMALL>...legal matters and so forth<BR>
	  Are Greek to me; except of course<BR>
	  That I understand Greek.</SMALL></TD>
	<TD COLSPAN=2><SMALL><SMALL><I>The Lady's not for Burning</I>, II<BR>
	  Christopher Fry</SMALL></SMALL></TD>
      </TR>
    </TABLE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  FontForge uses a standard mechanism called gettext to provide translations
  of user interface strings into different language. Gettext is described profusely
  at the <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/">gettext site</A>,
  the following are some brief notes on what you need to know to translate
  FontForge's UI.
  <UL>
    <LI>
      <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Obtaining">Obtaining the strings</A>
    <LI>
      <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Modifying">Creating and Modifying a "po"
      file</A>
    <LI>
      <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Updating">Updating an already existing "po"
      file</A>
    <LI>
      <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Testing">Testing a "po" file</A>
    <LI>
      Examples,
      <A HREF="http://fontforge.cvs.sourceforge.net/fontforge/fontforge/po">browse
      the CVS tree</A>
    <LI>
      <A HREF="#More">Still more strings to translate!</A>
    <LI>
      <A HREF="#HotKeys">Different hot keys</A>
  </UL>
  <P>
  <BR CLEAR="ALL">
  <H2>
    <A NAME="Obtaining">Obtaining</A> the strings
  </H2>
  <P>
  In a gettext based package, the translatable strings live in a "pot" file.
  In FontForge's case it is called "FontForge.pot".
  <P>
  You can download the <A href="FontForge.pot.bz2">current version of this
  file from here;</A> it will be updated at least each time I make a release
  and possibly more frequently.
  <!--<P>
  Each source distribution I make contains the then current FontForge.pot file
  in the top level directory of the distribution. You may find a copy of the
  <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=103338&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;package_id=114328">current
  distribution on sourceforge</A>, it will be called something like
  fontforge_full-20060817.tar.bz2.-->
  <P>
  After you have downloaded one of these packages, either copy the tarball
  to where you are, or move to the directory containing the tarball (I can't
  provide explicit instructions here, because I don't know where your browser
  put the file) and type (do not type "$"):
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>bunzip2 FontForge.pot.bz2
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Then edit the file<CODE> FontForge.pot</CODE>.
  <H4>
    from the <A NAME="src-cvs">cvs</A> tree
  </H4>
  <P>
  This is a better solution because it gives you a current version of the pot
  file. Create a cvs directory as described in the
  <A HREF="source-build.html#src-cvs">section on building from source</A>.
  Having done that type
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>cd fontforge/fontforge
<FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>make -f Makefile.in FontForge.pot
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <BLOCKQUOTE ID="lit">
    <TABLE ID="lit" ALIGN="RIGHT">
      <TR>
	<TD><SMALL>The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow,<BR>
	  `If only you'd spoken before!<BR>
	  It's excessively awkward to mention it now,<BR>
	  With the Snark, so to speak, at the door!'</SMALL>
	  <P>
	  <SMALL> `We should all of us grieve, as you may well believe<BR>
	  If you never were met with again-<BR>
	  But surely, my man, when the voyage began<BR>
	  You might have suggested it then?'</SMALL>
	  <P>
	  <SMALL> `It's excessively awkward to mention it now<BR>
	  As I think I've already remarked.'<BR>
	  And the man they called "Hi!" replied with a sigh,<BR>
	  `I informed you the day we embarked.'</SMALL>
	  <P>
	  <SMALL> `You may charge me with murder- or want of sense-<BR>
	  (We are all of us weak at times):<BR>
	  But the slightest approach to a false pretense<BR>
	  Was never among my crimes!'</SMALL>
	  <P>
	  <SMALL> `I said it in Hebrew- I said it in Dutch-<BR>
	  I said it in German and Greek:<BR>
	  But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)<BR>
	  That English is what you speak!'</SMALL></TD>
      </TR>
      <TR>
	<TD><I><SMALL><SMALL>The Hunting of the Snark</SMALL></SMALL></I>,<SMALL>
	  <SMALL>Lewis Carroll</SMALL></SMALL></TD>
      </TR>
    </TABLE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <H2>
    Creating and <A NAME="Modifying">Modifying</A> a "po" file
  </H2>
  <P>
  You should now have a FontForge.pot file (if you don't see the
  <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Obtaining">above section</A> on how to get
  one).
  <P>
  The pot file is in the same format as the "po" file which you need to generate.
  Simply rename FontForge.pot to the language/locale that you are working on.
  In most cases you will probably want to rename it just to the language
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>mv FontForge.pot <FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>.po
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  But sometimes that will not be enough. For example, Traditional and simplified
  chinese are sufficiently different that a locale must also be specified:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>mv FontForge.pot <FONT COLOR="Red">zh_TW</FONT>.po
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Once you have created your po file it is time to start modifying it. I shall
  use French as an example in the following (because I almost speak French),
  obviously you will need to make changes appropriate for your language.
  <P>
  The po file begins with some lines like:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE># (American) English User Interface strings for FontForge.
# Copyright (C) 2000-2006 by George Williams
# This file is distributed under the same license as the FontForge package.
# George Williams, &lt;pfaedit@users.sourceforge.net&gt;, 2006.
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2006-08-19 07:32-0700\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME &lt;EMAIL@ADDRESS&gt;\n"
"Language-Team: LANGUAGE &lt;LL@li.org&gt;\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=INTEGER; plural=EXPRESSION;\n"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  You should change this to:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE># <FONT COLOR="Red">(French) French</FONT> User Interface strings for FontForge.
# Copyright (C) <FONT COLOR="Red">2004-2006 by Pierre Hanser &amp; Yannis Haralambous</FONT>
# This file is distributed under the same license as the FontForge package.
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: <FONT COLOR="Red">20060821</FONT>\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2006-08-19 07:32-0700\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: <FONT COLOR="Red">2006-08-20 14:46+0100</FONT>\n"
"Last-Translator: <FONT COLOR="Red">Pierre Hanser</FONT>\n"
"Language-Team: <FONT COLOR="Red">French</FONT> &lt;LL@li.org&gt;\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=<FONT COLOR="Red">UTF-8</FONT>\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=<FONT COLOR="Red">2</FONT>; plural=<FONT COLOR="Red">n&gt;1</FONT>;\n"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Most of these are pretty self-explanatory. Fill in your name and email address
  where appropriate, and the date on which you last worked on the file. The
  plurals line is a little more complex, and I'll describe it
  <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#plurals">later</A>.
  <P>
  Next there are thousands of string entries. They look something like this:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: ttfinstrs.c:2184 typofeatures.c:1450 ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1076
#: ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1332 ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1391 ../gdraw/gfiledlg.c:152
#: ../gdraw/gmatrixedit.c:711 ../gdraw/gsavefiledlg.c:280
msgid "_Cancel"
msgstr ""
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  You should change these to:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: ttfinstrs.c:2184 typofeatures.c:1450 ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1076
#: ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1332 ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1391 ../gdraw/gfiledlg.c:152
#: ../gdraw/gmatrixedit.c:711 ../gdraw/gsavefiledlg.c:280
msgid "_Cancel"
msgstr "<FONT COLOR="Red">_Annuler</FONT>"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  So the translation goes into the msgstr line. (The comment lines above indicate
  in what source files and on what lines the "_Cancel" string is used -- this
  information may be helpful if you want more information about context). If
  you don't want to translate a string just leave the msgstr as a null-string,
  and the English text will be used ("OK" seems to be left untranslated in
  many languages)
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: ttfinstrs.c:2184 typofeatures.c:1450 ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1076
#: ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1332 ../gdraw/gaskdlg.c:1391 ../gdraw/gfiledlg.c:152
#: ../gdraw/gmatrixedit.c:711 ../gdraw/gsavefiledlg.c:280
msgid "_OK"
msgstr ""
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Some strings contain mnemonics. The mnemonic is preceded by an underscore.
  <P>
  That seems fairly straight forward. But there are always complications. Sometimes
  an English word might be translated by different French words depending on
  context. For example in French the English word "New" might be translated
  as either "Nouveau" or "Nouvelle" depending on the gender of the thing being
  created. In Japanese the word for the latin language is different from the
  latin script. So to disambiguate some strings a little bit of context information
  may appear before the actual string to be translated:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>msgid "File|_New"
msgstr "<FONT COLOR="Red">_Nouveau</FONT>"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  or
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>msgid "Anchor|_New"
msgstr "<FONT COLOR="Red">_Nouvelle</FONT>"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  The context will be any text before an "|". It should not be translated.
  Indeed both it and the "|" should be completely omitted.
  <P>
  Finally we have the problem of <A NAME="plurals">plurals</A>. Suppose we
  have a string
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>msgid "%d Group"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  We need to inflect the word "Group" depending on the number of groups we've
  got -- and each language has different rules.
  <P>
  Remember, at the beginning of the file there was a line:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>"Plural-Forms: nplurals=<FONT COLOR="Red">2</FONT>; plural=<FONT COLOR="Red">n&gt;1</FONT>;\n"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  This says that this language has two plural forms, the singular form is used
  when there are 0 or 1 entries (n&lt;=1), and the plural form is used for
  n&gt;1 entries. That rule is correct for French. English looks like:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>"Plural-Forms: nplurals=<FONT COLOR="Red">2</FONT>; plural=<FONT COLOR="Red">n!=1</FONT>;\n"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  A language like classical Greek, which has a dual form, might look like
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>"Plural-Forms: nplurals=<FONT COLOR="Red">3</FONT>; plural=<FONT COLOR="Red">n&lt;=1?0:n==2?1:2</FONT>;\n"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  The expression is a c language expression. When there is a string that might
  be plural it has a slightly different form in the po file
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: groups.c:1558
msgid "%d Group"
msgid_plural "%d Groups"
msgstr[0] "<FONT COLOR="Red">%d Groupe</FONT>"
msgstr[1] "<FONT COLOR="Red">%d Groupes</FONT>"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Obviously, in a language with three forms there would be additional
  <CODE>msgstr[n] </CODE>entries.
  <H2>
    <A NAME="Updating">Updating</A> an already existing "po" file
  </H2>
  <P>
  After a few months, you will probably find that I've added some additional
  strings to FontForge, and you may want to update your original po file.
  <P>
  Once again you <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Obtaining">grab a current
  "pot" file</A> and you type:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>msgmerge <FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>.po FontForge.pot ><FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>-new.po
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  This will update your po file to contain any new strings for you to translate.
  It will also make guesses for these new strings. Some of these guesses are
  correct, some are very strange, so you will want to examine the guessed strings
  (they will be marked with the word "fuzzy" -- emacs has a mode that makes
  checking these easy).
  <H2>
    <A NAME="Testing">Testing</A> a "po" file
  </H2>
  <P>
  Once you have completed your po file you will want to test it.
  <OL>
    <LI>
      If you have a copy of the fontforge source distribution you can test it by
      <UL>
	<LI>
	  copying your new file into the fontforge/po directory:
	  <BLOCKQUOTE>
	    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>cp <FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>.po fontforge-20060819/fontforge/po
</PRE>
	  </BLOCKQUOTE>
	<LI>
	  Reconfiguring fontforge, and installing it
	  <BLOCKQUOTE>
	    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>cd fontforge-20060819
<FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>./configure
<FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>make
<FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>su
<FONT COLOR="Gray"># </FONT>make install
</PRE>
	  </BLOCKQUOTE>
      </UL>
    <LI>
      Or, if you want to do things manually:
      <UL>
	<LI>
	  First you need to compile it:
	  <BLOCKQUOTE>
	    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>msgfmt -o <FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>.mo <FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>.po
</PRE>
	  </BLOCKQUOTE>
	  <P>
	  and create an "mo" file.
	<LI>
	  This file you will want to rename and move to the appropriate directory.
	  If fontforge is installed in /usr/local/bin then you would say
	  <BLOCKQUOTE>
	    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>mv <FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>.mo /usr/local/share/locale/<FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>/LC_MESSAGES/FontForge.mo
</PRE>
	  </BLOCKQUOTE>
      </UL>
  </OL>
  <P>
  Then make sure your locale is set properly (and that your operating system
  has the support files it needs for that locale) and start fontforge. You
  should see your translation
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>LANG=<FONT COLOR="Red">fr_FR.UTF-8</FONT>; export LANG
<FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>fontforge -new
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  <IMG SRC="fontview.fr.png" WIDTH="423" HEIGHT="226"> 
    <HR>
  <H2>
    Still <A NAME="More">more</A> strings to translate!
  </H2>
  <P>
  FontForge has some strings that do not fit into the standard gettext mechanism.
  These are strings for which fontforge wants to know all translations at all
  times. For exampe the truetype 'name' table encourages designers to provide
  a translation for the stylistic variant of the font into as many languages
  as possible. So if you had a Bold font it would be nice if the 'name' table
  contained: An English entry, "Bold"; A French entry, "Gras"; A German entry,
  "Fett". To make this easier on the designer FontForge would like to have
  all translations of "Bold" built into it at all times, all translations of
  "Italic", "Condensed", and so forth.
  <P>
  <A HREF="fontstyles.html">There is a table of the stylistic names FontForge
  recognizes on the Font Info page.</A>
  <P>
  There is a second list of names for which FontForge would like multiple
  translations because these also appear in the 'name' table translated into
  as many languages as possible. These are the names of the mac's Feature/Setting
  strings, and they may be found on
  <A HREF="http://developer.apple.com/fonts/Registry/index.html">Apple's Font
  Feature registry</A>.
  <P>
  Finally I would like to make it as easy as possible to embed the
  <A HREF="http://scripts.sil.org/OFL">OFL</A> into a font created by FontForge,
  and I would like to encourage its translation (And that of its accompanying
  FAQ) into as many languages as possible.
  <P>
  SIL regards translation as important but adds the following caveats (in their
  <A HREF="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&amp;item_id=OFL-FAQ_web">FAQ</A>):
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <B>5.5 How about translating the license and the FAQ into other languages?</B>
    <P>
    SIL certainly recognises the need for people who are not familiar with English
    to be able to understand the OFL and this FAQ better in their own language.
    Making the license very clear and readable is a key goal of the OFL.
    <P>
    If you are an experienced translator, you are very welcome to help translating
    the OFL and its FAQ so that designers and users in your language community
    can understand the license better. But only the original English version
    of the license has legal value and has been approved by the community.
    Translations do not count as legal substitutes and should only serve as a
    way to explain the original license. SIL - as the author and steward of the
    license for the community at large - does not approve any translation of
    the OFL as legally valid because even small translations ambiguities could
    be abused and create problems.
    <P>
    We give permission to publish unofficial translations into other languages
    provided that they comply with the following guidelines:
    <P>
    - put the following disclaimer in both English and the target language stating
    clearly that the translation is unofficial:
    <BLOCKQUOTE>
      "This is an unofficial translation of the SIL Open Font License into $language.
      It was not published by SIL International, and does not legally state the
      distribution terms for fonts that use the OFL. A release under the OFL is
      only valid when using the original English text.
      <P>
      However, we recognize that this unofficial translation will help users and
      designers not familiar with English to understand the SIL OFL better and
      make it easier to use and release font families under this collaborative
      font design model. We encourage designers who consider releasing their creation
      under the OFL to read the FAQ in their own language if it is available.
      <P>
      Please go to http://scripts.sil.org/OFL for the official version of the license
      and the accompanying FAQ."
    </BLOCKQUOTE>
    <P>
    - keep your unofficial translation current and update it at our request if
    needed, for example if there is any ambiguity which could lead to confusion.
    <P>
    If you start such a unofficial translation effort of the OFL and its accompanying
    FAQ please let us know, thank you.
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  <A HREF="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&amp;item_id=OFL_web">The
  text of the current version of the OFL</A>. If anyone is interested in
  translation both the OFL and its FAQ
  <A HREF="mailto:fontforge-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">please let me know</A>
  (via mailing list) and I will provide Web space for both. I had intended
  to include these translations in the font's 'name' table, but have been asked
  not to because of the possible legal ramifications.
  <P>
  At the moment (Feb 2007) OFL version 1.1 has just been released. I have collected
  the <A HREF="OFL-Unofficial.html">following unofficial translations</A>.
  <P>
    <HR>
  <H2>
    Changing the assignment of <A NAME="HotKeys">Hot Keys</A>
  </H2>
  <P>
  FontForge has a <A HREF="HotKeys.html">default assignment of hot key </A>(menu
  shortcuts, whatever term you wish to use). This assignment can be difficult
  to use on non-English keyboards. Even users with English keyboards might
  find reasons to disagree with it. So FontForge allows you to redefine the
  hot keys. This is done using a gettext mechanism, but in a different pot
  file from the normal set of translation strings (which means it uses a different
  gettext "text domain").
  <P>
  The hot key pot file is called: <TT>FontForge-MenuShortCuts.pot</TT>
  <P>
  (This can also be obtained <A HREF="FontForge-MenuShortCuts.pot.bz2">from
  the website</A>, or generated from the cvs tree)
  <P>
  On the Mac, FontForge allows for two different key bindings. X11 can be
  configured to pass the command key on to FontForge, or X11 may use the command
  key in its own menubar. If FontForge doesn't get the command key then it
  will do normal processing using normal keybindings. Otherwise FontForge will
  first look for a file called Mac-FontForge-MenuShortCuts.po if this is found
  (and if it rebinds the string "Flag0x10+" (which should become "Cmd+" --
  or whatever is appropriate in your language)) then it will be used. Otherwise
  it falls back to normal processing.
  <P>
  This file consists of a sequence of entries that look like:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: bitmapview.c:1720 charview.c:7833 charview.c:9079 fontview.c:6521
msgid "New|Ctl+N"
msgstr ""

#: bitmapview.c:1721 charview.c:7834 charview.c:9080 fontview.c:6525
msgid "Open|Ctl+O"
msgstr ""

#: bitmapview.c:1723 charview.c:7836 charview.c:9082 fontview.c:6527
msgid "Close|Ctl+Shft+Q"
msgstr ""

#: bitmapview.c:1729 charview.c:7842
msgid "Export...|No Shortcut"
msgstr ""

#: fontview.c:7798
msgid "Help|F1"
msgstr ""
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Each entry (msgid) is formatted as follows
  <UL>
    <LI>
      First is the command name as it appears in the (English) menu.
    <LI>
      Then there is the special character "|" which separates the command name
      from the hot key specification.
    <LI>
      Then a list of key modifiers separated by "+"
    <LI>
      And finally the key itself
  </UL>
  <P>
  So in the first example above <CODE>New|Ctl+N</CODE> means that this is the
  hot key for the New command, and that the default definition of that hot
  key is Control N.
  <P>
  Modifier lists can be more complex <CODE>Close|Ctl+Shft+Q</CODE> means that
  the hot key for the Close command is Control Shift Q.
  <P>
  Not all commands have hot keys in the default assignment, but since some
  users might want to assign keys to them they still have entries. Thus
  <CODE>Export...|No Shortcut</CODE> means that the Export command has no shortcut
  (no hot key) in English.
  <P>
  It is also possible to use keys with no modifiers. Generally you will not
  want to do that for a normal, alphabetic key, but for special keys, like
  the function keys, it is perfectly acceptable. <CODE>Help|F1</CODE> means
  that the Help command is bound to the first function key. 
    <HR>
  <P>
  So that's what the msgid field means. The above information describes the
  default key bindings. You want to know how to change them. The format is
  almost the same (the only exception is that you will not include the command
  name nor the "|" separator), but you need to change the msgstr field.
  <P>
  Suppose that you wanted to remove the shortcut for the open command, and
  add one to the Export command: You might create a po file which looks like:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: #: bitmapview.c:1721 charview.c:7834 charview.c:9080 fontview.c:6525
msgid "Open|Ctl+O"
msgstr "No Shortcut"

#: bitmapview.c:1729 charview.c:7842
msgid "Export...|No Shortcut"
msgstr "Alt+Cntl+Shft+E"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  NOTE: <FONT COLOR="Red"><STRONG>Omitting a string will not remove the
  shortcut</STRONG></FONT>. Instead FontForge will use the default shortcut.
  If you want to remove a shortcut you must add an explicit assignment to
  "<CODE>No Shortcut</CODE>".
  <P>
  FontForge recognizes the following standard modifiers: <CODE>Alt+, Ctl+,
  Shft+, CapsLock+, Opt+</CODE> (the last corresponds to the Option key on
  the mac keyboard, <CODE>Cmd+</CODE> for the mac Command key
  <FONT COLOR="Red"><STRONG>Note: </STRONG></FONT>This can only be used by
  an X program if the X11 application does not appropriate it -- this can be
  configured in the X11 Preferences).
  <P>
  Some keyboards have additional modifier keys, X maps them to a flag bit in
  the keyboard state mask of the XKeyEvent. If you want to use these modifiers
  you need to know what that bit is. FontForge will also recognize:<BR>
  <CODE>Flag0x01+, Flag0x02+, Flag0x04+, Flag0x08+,<BR>
  Flag0x10+, Flag0x20+, Flag0x40+, Flag0x80+</CODE>
  <P>
  The hot key itself should be entered in UTF-8. 
    <HR>
  <P>
  There are a few other strings in this file.
  <P>
  When FF displays a shortcut in the menu it will use a similar syntax.<BR>
  That may not be appropriate for non-English terminals. On a French system
  it might be better to show the Shift modifier as <I>Majuscule</I>. At the
  bottom of this file are several entries which are not used to set shortcuts
  but are used in displaying the shortcuts in the menu, thus
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>#: ../gdraw/gmenu.c:120
msgid "Shft+"
msgstr "Maj+"
msgid "Flag0x80+"
msgstr "AltGr+"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  (These changes only affect what FontForge <EM>displays</EM> in the menu.
  If you try to specify a keybinding as <CODE>msgstr "Ctl+Maj+E" </CODE>it
  will <FONT COLOR="Red"><STRONG>NOT</STRONG></FONT> work)
  <P>
  Even though not obvious from this file, it is also possible to add names
  for special keys. So you could add:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE>msgid "Escape"
msgstr "&Eacute;chappe"
msgid "Delete"
msgstr "Efface"
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  The English names accepted for special keys are those defined under XK_MISCELLANY
  in keysymdef.h of the X11 header files -- without the initial XK_ 
    <HR>
  <P>
  You can obtain a <CODE>FontForge-MenuShortCuts.pot </CODE>file in pretty
  much the same way you <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Obtaining">obtain
  a <CODE>FontForge.pot</CODE> file</A> -- download the source and then type:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>cd fontforge/fontforge
<FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>make -f Makefile.in FontForge-MenuShortCuts.pot
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Again you will want to <A HREF="uitranslationnotes.html#Modifying">rename
  this file before working on it</A>:
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>mv FontForge-MenuShortCuts.pot fr-MenuShortCuts.po
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
  Then edit the file to insert your short cuts.
  <P>
  If you want to install your new short cuts:
  <UL>
    <LI>
      First you need to compile it:
      <BLOCKQUOTE>
	<PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>msgfmt -o <FONT COLOR="Red">fr-MenuShortCuts</FONT>.mo <FONT COLOR="Red">fr-MenuShortCuts</FONT>.po
</PRE>
      </BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P>
      and create an "mo" file.
    <LI>
      This file you will want to rename and move to the appropriate directory.
      If fontforge is installed in /usr/local/bin then you would say
      <BLOCKQUOTE>
	<PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>mv <FONT COLOR="Red">fr-MenuShortCuts</FONT>.mo /usr/local/share/locale/<FONT COLOR="Red">fr</FONT>/LC_MESSAGES/FontForge-MenuShortCuts.mo
</PRE>
      </BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P>
      The above example assumes you have FontForge installed in
      <CODE>/usr/local</CODE>. If you installed it elsewhere (<CODE>/usr </CODE>for
      instance) simply replace <CODE>/usr/local/share</CODE> with
      <CODE>/usr/share</CODE>, or whatever is appropriate.
  </UL>
  <P>
  Currently there are no examples of these files, and there is nothing in the
  Makefile to install them.
  <P>
  Creating a Mac file is similar. There is one example of this in the cvs tree
  under <CODE>po/mackeys/en.po</CODE>. It should be the same as the default
  key bindings except that the Control key has been replaced everywhere with
  the Command key. You can install it
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <PRE><FONT COLOR="Gray">$ </FONT>mv <FONT COLOR="Red">en</FONT>.mo /usr/local/share/locale/<FONT COLOR="Red">en</FONT>/LC_MESSAGES/Mac-FontForge-MenuShortCuts.mo
</PRE>
  </BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>
</DIV>
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