
|
Dr. Tom's Independent Software Reviews
presents:
Short Reviews
|
Introduction:
Multilizer Oy (Inc.), formerly known as Innoview Data Technologies, was
founded in 1992 in Espoo, Finland. The company focuses on globalization
software since 1996. The breakthrough of Multilizer came with its use
as a Delphi localization environment at Intel Corp, Xerox, Lucent and
IBM. Offering the most divers multi-platform environment, Multilizer grew
big supporting not only desktop and web applications but also the internationalization
of mobil and PDA technologies. Today Multilizer has sales offices in Finland
and the USA and retailers in 20 countries. It was repeatedly honored as
the Delphi Informant Magazine Readers' "Best Globalization Tool of the
Year".

Fig. 1: The Source Sheet of the Project
Wizard is Used to Enter Type and Location (Directory) of Source Files.
Please click on the image for a slide show of some of the many supported
source types!
top
Features:
Multilizer specializes in globalization technology products.
The workspace provides access to all of the many supported platforms and
file types through the source sheet of the project wizard (Fig. 1). Platform
support includes: Windows 32-bit applications developed in Borland's C++-Builder
or Delphi as well as Microsoft's Visual C++ and Visual Basic.
Both binary (EXE, DLL, OCX) and, if applicable, Resource files (RC) are
supported. In addition, 16-bit Windows applications developed in Delphi
1 and Visual Basic can be localized if the programming environment and
the source codes are available. Windows CE application can be processed
both as C++ as well as Visual Basic versions. Traditionally
more known are Multilizer's powerful Java globalization abilities offering
full support of Borland's J-Builder, Microsoft's Visual J++
as well as resource, Java files/beans and Micro Edition property files.
Other wireless and mobil platforms include Palm, Symbian and WAP. Multilizer's
multi-platform edition also offers support for .NET, XML and xHTML file
types as well as a massive database and forms processing ability including
dBase, Paradox, BDE, My SQL and Oracle.

Fig. 2: The Database Sheet is Used
to Select and Specify the Database, Tables and Fields. A Popup Menu Allows
to Select Fields for the Localization.
Please click on the image for a closer look!
top
Besides classical binary (e.g. EXE, DLL or OCX) and
resource localization (e.g. RC, Java Properties, resX), Multilizer also
offers component localization (available for Delphi, C++-Builder,
Visual Basic, and Java) and binary localization with a run-time language
switch (available for Delphi/C++-Builder 5 or higher). Component
localization integrates Multilizer components into the application, thereby
enabling multilingual applications. A single multilingual application
supports multiple languages and the user can switch the language on the
fly.
Table 1: Possible (Yes) and Recommended
(Yes) Localization Techniques for Different Platforms
Source: Multilizer 5.1 - Developer’s Guide
Application type
|
Binary |
Resource
|
Source |
Component
|
.NET |
- |
Yes
|
- |
- |
C++Builder |
Yes |
- |
- |
Yes |
Delphi |
Yes |
- |
- |
Yes |
Java |
- |
Yes |
- |
Yes |
J2ME |
- |
Yes |
- |
- |
Palm |
Yes
|
- |
- |
- |
Symbian |
- |
Yes |
- |
- |
Visual Basic |
Yes |
- |
Yes
|
Yes |
Visual C++ |
Yes
|
Yes |
- |
- |
Visual J++ |
- |
Yes
|
- |
Yes |
Multilizer also features a TMX 1.0 compatible Translation
Memory which can be created or extended by importing existing TMX files,
Microsoft Glossaries, Borland Translation Repositories, Text Files, localized
binary or resource file pairs and other Multilizer Project Files as well
as several natively or via ADO/ODBC and BDE supported Database formats.
top

Fig. 3: The Multilizer Workspace consists
of the Toolbar (top), the Hierarchical Project View (left side), the Translation
Grid (center) and the Status Bar (bottom).
Please click on the image for a closer look!
Editions & Prices:
Usage & Evaluation:
Within the group of specialized Software localizers,
MULTILIZER is leading in the number of supported platforms and OS. The
tool was obviously designed by programmers and engineers for programmers
and engineers as it comes with a quite spartanic GUI. This interface does
not only disappoint by esthetic and ergonomic measures. It also lacks
any WYSIWYG interface which would show you whether and how your translation
fits into menu bars and dialog boxes. The application is very powerful
- especially if combined with the supported programming and development
environments. This, however, requires in most cases that you will need
the 3rd party tool for component translation.
Multilizer's grid based editor allows the translation of multilingual
projects. It still suffers from Insufficient project management and QA
as there is no version control and no project history is maintained. Some
improvements were made in the validation of translations: for example,
it does check for ampersands (&) and underlined characters (accelerators).
In addition, Multilizer now assigns flags to new or deleted strings and
allows to filter a projects according to those strings, resource type
(dialog, menus, etc.) or by target (EXE-file, VB Project,
etc.). There are still no spell-checking mechanisms. Multilizer also added
some statistics functions but it still lacks effective project management
options. Multilizer plans to implement further project management features
as optional plug-ins created either by Multilizer (this is under work)
or third-parties.
Multilizer's editor correctly and conveniently recognizes,
masks and protects all or just selected tags. This provides a better overview
of the file content and protects vital information within the tags. I
faced some crashes when trying to translate malformed xHTML. Multilizer
does not offer support of HTML and pseudo-xHTML. xHTML is only supported
if it complies with W3C standards and is valid XML. A recent patch (Multilizer
5.1.40) prevents these crashes. As no specific alignment tools are implemented,
localization of larger corpora is not recommended.
The product's documentation provided as Windows Help,
PDF and a printed manual is well written, clear and concise. It includes
helpful examples and tutorials which give you a good jump-start into the
localization of all supported file types. The only drawback was the lack
of an index which made the navigation unnecessarily difficult. In the
same way, the company's web site is not well enough organized and lacks
a full-text search search which is really a shame as this buries a lot
of useful information. The printed manual did not contain the newest additions
to Multilizer. This is understandable as this tools goes through a very
fast development with almost hourly additions. Multilizer also offers
an impressive support system including free evaluation version support
for 30 days, newsgroups, an upgrade center and FAQ's. Its licensing scheme
is serials based and the most user-friendly in this second comprehensive
test.
top
System Requirements:
Multilizer runs under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
ME, NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and XP.
Company Information:
Multilizer Oy; Sinikalliontie 12, FIN-02630, Espoo Finland; Phone: +358-9-251-5100,
Fax: +358-9-2515-1200; E-mail: sales@multilizer.com;
URL: http://www.multilizer.com.
Multilizer USA, Multilizer, PMB # 019, 303 Almaden Blvd., Suite 600, San
Jose, CA 95110; Phone: +1-408-998- 7879, Fax: +1-408-918-3001;
E-mail: us-sales@multilizer.com;
URL: http://www.multilizer.com.
Alternatives:
- Specialized Software Localization Tools:
- Translation Memory or Computer Aided Translation (CAT)
Applications:
top |