SDL Passolo

SDL Passolo

Developer(s)	SDL
Stable release	SDL Passolo 2016 / April 2016
Operating system	Windows
Type	Software Localization
License	Commercial
Website	http://www.sdl.com/solution/language/software-localization/passolo/

SDL Passolo is a specialised visual software localization tool developed to enable the translation of user interfaces.

The company PASS Engineering GmbH was founded as a medical analysis system provider in Bonn, Germany, in 1990 and it proved crucial to provide localized medical software. Due to the lack of appropriate tools for doing this, they began to develop their own localization tool which they called Passolo. After first being used internally within their own company, Passolo became available as an independent localization tool in 1998. In June, 2007, SDL acquired PASS Engineering. In 2012 the original development team was released and development and support were transferred to Cluj, Romania.

SDL Passolo is a software localization tool, developed by SDL, that is customisable to the users' needs; requiring no programming experience. It allows users to concentrate on the translation by accelerating the many technical aspects of software localization, and it is possible to work in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode. Should the length of a text string change as a result of the translation (i.e. become longer or shorter), any necessary layout modifications to dialogs and forms can be made directly within the application.

The application offers the tools required to localize all the elements contained in the software, including strings, menus, dialogs, bitmaps, and icons, without requiring access to the source text files or the development environment used for developing the software, as well as providing automatic test functions, interfaces to the major translation memories, and the option of working with all the major Windows formats as well as text files and tagged formats such as XML and HTML.

SDL Passolo allows the user to:

The Translator Edition is a free editor that can be downloaded from the company website. It allows translators to edit the bundles created with the Team or Collaboration Edition. It offers all functions except parse source files or generate target files.