Message Guidelines

Message guidelines should be developed and used to create a consistent format and style for text. Use clear and simple English so that all users, including those whose command of English is minimal, can understand every message. The book Common Desktop Environment: Internationalization Programmer's Guide ends with a number of guidelines for producing clear, concise, translatable messages. Messages should explain the problem and suggest how to perform the action successfully. Comments to the translators should also be included that explain concepts, variables, and so forth. The book includes several lists of suggestions for the format style of the message catalogs and the style of the messages themselves.

Before sending out the message catalogs to be translated, it is useful to have the message catalogs translated from English into international English, that is, into a simplified English that can be easily translated into other languages. This speeds up the translation process, reduces the translator queries, and saves costs.