1. Overview

TimeCore's interface, in terms of the fonts, text and messages displayed, can be easily adjusted using simple template files. These files allow you to substitute the default words and phrases with your own terminology - this could be as simple as changing one or two words to fit in with your working environment or a complete translation of the interface (as shown).

2 . Creating a New TimeCore Translation

1. First check the TimeCore download page to ensure that there is not already an existing translation. Please ensure you are using the latest version of TimeCore Pro by first downloading and installing the English edition.
   
   
2. Once TimeCore Pro is up and running, select the Administration option from the View menu. This will open the TimeCore administration page. From the list of options displayed in the left-hand pane, select the Interface Template option under User Preferences. This will open the page for managing the template files TimeCore uses to set interface text...
   
   
   
   Figure 1 - Template File Administration Page
   
   
   
3. If not already selected, set the value of Template File to _Default.
   
   
4. Click the New button (the blue cross) and when prompted, enter a name for the template. This will create a new template file in the iTemplates sub-folder of the current DAT folder with the name you specified and an "INI" extension (for example, DEUTSCH.INI).
   
   

   You can access the iTemplates folder in explorer by clicking on the DAT path displayed in the status-bar.

   
   
   TimeCore will automatically attempt to open the template using the editor (usually NotePad) registered with INI files.
   
   

   If TimeCore fails to open the template file then there is no application associated with the INI extension. To fix, access the iTemplates folder (see above) and double-click on the INI file you have just created. Windows will ask you to identify the application to associate with INI. Select Notepad (or your preferred text editor).

   
   
5. Update the INI file by substituting the default text for your own. If you save any changes to this INI file then when you close the editor you should see these reflected in the interface automatically (if the changes you have made affect the current view). For more details on updating the INI file please see the Template File Format section.

2.1 Submitting a New Translation

If you would like make your translation available to other TimeCore users please consider sending us your template file. We will review your work and if accepted will issue you with a free TimeCore Pro personal license and will add your translation to the official TimeCore distribution. In addition, we hope you will help us to keep the translation up-to-date as new versions are released in which case we will re-imburse you based on the number of words translated.

Simply attach the INI file (located in your local iTemplates folder) to an email and send it to translation@back2front.co.uk.

3. Template File Format

A TimeCore Interface Template is a standard text file that can be read by any suitable editor (such as Notepad) and uses the common INI format, the structure of which is described in this section.

File Header


The first few lines each start with a semi-colon which represent a comment and is ignored by TimeCore. Feel free to add your own notes or comments.

[labels] Section


Here you will find common words or small phrases that are used throughout TimeCore, listed in alphabetical order. To substitute the default English word simply type your own text after the equality sign (=).

Component Sections


The remaining sections are used for translating sentences which are generally displayed in dialogues to the User at various times. Each section represents a component installed with TimeCore and contains a list of messages that component can display. The mechanism is the same as that used in the [Labels] section but instead of using the actual word, a numeric ID is used with the English phrase as a comment above. Simply enter the new phrase after the equals sign to replace the default. In the example above, the phrases in the [B2f1000] section have not been completed so these phrases will appear in TimeCore as shown in English, whereas in the following section, Spanish translations have been supplied and so will replace the equivalent English phrases if this template file is selected.

[fonts] Section


Please Ignore This Section! It appears at the bottom of the template file and is updated using the "Character Set" option on the administration page (see Figure One) and should not be modified outside of TimeCore.

3.1 Special Characters

There are a number of special tokens characters that TimeCore replaces at runtime. These tokens consist of the percent symbol followed by a letter. You should add these to your substitution text unchanged but in a position that makes sense in the translated phrase (see the example for 148 above).

The following tokens and their expansions are listed below...