Submitting new translations

There's a set of rules you must strictly follow to succesfully submit a translation. These rules are subject to change without notice and are not open for debate.

Unofficial translations

Unofficial translation submission:

Do not submit a translation for a language that already has an up-to-date translation.
Any translation must be based on the English Default.isl translation file, therefore you should be able to read and understand English fairly well.
Please always try submitting a translation based on the most recent Default.isl (currently: version 5.1.11+).
When translating the text, do not add to or change the meaning of messages to suit your personal taste. For example, do not append "Try again one more time." to the end of an error message if it didn't say that already. All messages in your translation must be as close to the original English messages as possible.
Do not add your own custom messages to the [CustomMessages] section. Only translate the existing ones.
Add the English language name, your name and your e-mail adress at the top of the translation file (as a comment).
Make sure the version number at the top of the translation file is up to date.
Make sure you use the correct LanguageID setting. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms776260.aspx for a list of valid language IDs. If no language ID currently exists for your language, use zero.
Please use Windows-style line breaks (CR/LF) and not Unix-style line breaks (LF only).
Test your translation. It should not cause any errors or warnings when compiled by the Inno Setup compiler.
Click this link to open the submission form, and fill in the fields.
Check that you attached the correct translation file.
Click the Submit button to send the message.

If you do not strictly follow all of the above rules, your translation will be rejected.

Note: if your translation is accepted but a new version of Inno Setup is released with a changed Default.isl and you did not update your translation within 3 weeks time since that release (currently: 2007-03-22) but someone has submitted an updated translation, your original translation will be replaced without notice.

Also note: if your translation is accepted but not a first version it will be marked "Alternative version". Such a translation will only stay listed if the maintainer of the first version does not update his/her translation as described in the previous note.

To discuss your translation file or anything else related to translations, use the jrsoftware.innosetup.translations newsgroup. Do not use e-mail!

Official translations

As an official translator you will be required to quickly update translations once a change is announced to the istrans mailing list. If you'll be unable to do so for some time (for example, because of a vacation of several weeks), you are also required to post this to the jrsoftware.innosetup.translations newsgroup or arrange for a temporary replacement maintainer, otherwise your translation might lose official status without notice. Do not submit your translation as an official translation if you disagree with any of this.

Official translation submission:

First get your translation accepted as an unofficial translation, as explained above.
Wait until your translation becomes the main translation and not marked "Alternative version". If you don't want to wait you could try and contact the maintainer of the main version and see if he/she is ok with you taking over as the maintainer.
Post a message on the jrsoftware.innosetup.translations newsgroup requesting official status for your translation.
After your translation (more specifically: the [LangOptions] section) has been found technically correct, your translation will be added to the Candidate Official Translations table, inviting people to rate your translation.
If you want to, you may now cross-post a message to jrsoftware.innosetup and jrsoftware.innosetup.translations yourself, asking people to rate your translation.

Once a number of people have rated the translation as being of high quality, your translation will gain official status and be included into the Inno Setup installer. You'll also be invited to join the istrans mailing list.

Martijn Laan, New Lord of the Translations