Binary Translation | Notepad++ User Manual

Notepad++ supports multi-language functionality by means of a translated xml file (based on the official english.xml translation).

Creating or Editing a translation

Maybe Notepad++ doesn’t currently have the language you would like to use. Or maybe, Notepad++ has been updated recently but the translation file is one or more versions behind, so some of the text isn’t in your selected language. Maybe the official Notepad++ translation for a language doesn’t match your particular usage of that language. Or sometimes, you just want to have some fun rewording things for your own amusement.

The process of teaching Notepad++ a new language is virtually identical to editing an existing language, and both processes are described here:

Download the master copy of english.xml and save it into the %APPDATA%\Notepad++\localization\ or Notepad++_Install_Dir\localization\ directory (see Configuration Files Location). Create the localization\ directory first, if it doesn’t already exist.
- This will be used as the source for a new translation, and a reference when you are editing an existing language.
This step depends on whether you are editing an existing language translation, or creating a new translation from scratch:
1. For an existing translation: Download the most recent copy of the existing language translation from the localization portion of the code repository and save it into the same folder as localization\english.xml.
  - Note: If you are wanting to change the English text for your own use, please edit localization\english_customizable.xml instead of localization\english.xml, since english.xml is meant to exist as an “absolute reference” with the official names of each of the text entries.
2. For a new translation for a language that Notepad++ doesn’t already have: Copy localization\english.xml to localization\<yourlanguagename>.xml
Edit localization\<yourlanguagename>.xml
1. Make sure the initial <?xml ... ?> tag indicates encoding="utf-8".
2. Update the <Native-Langue...> tag near the top of the file:
  - Make sure the name="___" attribute matches your language’s native name. This is the name that will show up in the Preference dialog’s Localization pulldown
  - Make sure the filename="___.xml" matches your language name
  - Make sure version="8.1.1" matches the most-recent Notepad++ version number. It should already match, if you downloaded the most recent english.xml as described above.
3. Edit the name="..." attributes as appropriate for the language you are editing.
  - Note: Do not change any of the id="###" or subMenuId="xxx" attributes, as those are used to map the text in the name="..." attribute to the right piece of text in Notepad++. If you change those, the localization file will not work properly.
  - You may use XML character entities for characters. (Note: unlike HTML, XML only has 5 predefined named entities; all other characters require numeric or hexadecimal entities.)
  - If the encoding was properly set (above), you may insert Unicode characters directly.
  - When possible, keep the translated text about the same length (in characters) as the original English; this will help make sure the translation will fit in menus and dialog boxes which were designed to fit the official English text.
To see the changes take effect, save the file, then go to Settings > Preferences > General > Localization and select <yourlanguagename> from the pulldown menu: this will copy localization\<yourlanguagename>.xml to nativeLang.xml and will immediately update the Notepad++ application to use the text from your saved XML file.
- Note: If you do not see the right language in the pulldown, you need to make sure you put the XML file(s) in the right directory, as explained above.
- You may actually do the process of saving the file then selecting Localization = <yourlanguagename> throughout your development of the translation, to be able to see the changes you make as you go.

If you have updated an existing translation to match the most recent version of Notepad++, or if you have created a translation for a new language that isn’t currently available in Notepad++, you may want to request that it get added to the Notepad++ codebase, so that it will be distributed with the next version of the application. To do so, create your own fork of the codebase and make a Pull Request to ask that your translation be added to the main repository; if you do not know how to make Pull Requests, see the GitHub documentation; or you may create an issue asking for the tranlsation to be updated, and attach your XML file to the issue. Before making any Pull Request, please read and understand and follow the Rules for Contributing to Notepad++’s codebase.

Creating or Editing a translation

Share your translation

Available translations