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This file describes the support for multiple languages for TexPoint version 3.0 and higher. Users can select different languages for the menu items, tooltips, and messages. Users can also extend the language support with additional translations and even additional languages. You can get a free TexPoint license is you agree to contribute translations. Send email to if you are interested.
English is the default built-in language. You can change the language from the Configure/Preferences menu, where you have the option to select among several languages that were included in the TexPoint installation. You must Reload TexPoint (or restart Powerpoint) for the language changes to take effect. You can change the language only during the 30-day trial perion, or after you have purchased a license.
Check out our language file distribution for new language files. You can download these files into the "languages" directory of your TexPoint installation and you are ready to use them.
The name of a language file must start with the numeric decimal Locale ID for the language followed by a DOT folowed by the English name of the language (e.g., 1036.french would be a valid name for the French language). There is a special language file named 0.template whose purpose is explained later. If you have a correct name but you do not see it in the TexPoint language selection box, then it means that your version of Windows/Office does not have support for that language.
Language files must be edited with a Unicode-aware editor and saved in UTF16 format (little endian is preferred, but big endian will also work). Examples of good editors are Notepad (Save As ..., select Unicode), or emacs (check out Options/Mule). Turn off automatic line wrap (e.g., emacs auto-fill-mode). Wordpad can only read Unicode files in little endian format and you must use (Save As ..., select Unicode). If you use one of these editors to open an existing language file you should be fine when you edit and save it. If you edit on non-Windows platforms try to use the Windows line ending convention (CRLF), so that the files are also editable with WordPad and Notepad.
The active lines in a language file have the following format:
English text=translated text
Lines that do not contain the = character are ignored and can be used as comments. Spaces in both the English and translated texts are significant.
When the English text corresponds to a menu item, the & symbol is used before the letter that should act as keyboard shortcut. If the translated text is missing then it is taken to be identical to the English text. In both the English and translated texts the following escapes are recognized:
You must use these escapes in your strings.
The file 0.template contains all the strings that can be translated. Copy that file to one with the proper name and start adding translations after the = sign. Please send us your contributions. We can give you a free TexPoint license if you agree to maintain a language file.
We also distribute the merge_lang script (in the languages directory) to assist in the creation or editing of language files. This script can merge a language file with the template, warning when you are defining strings that do not exist in the template (perhaps a typo) and filling in the missing keys. Read the comments at the start of that script for details.