Locale support

The WinMerge user interface is in English by default, but you can localize your installation to other languages for which translations have been contributed. Localizing WinMerge changes text strings that are displayed in the interface, including menus, dialogs, tooltips, and messages, to the language you choose.

Note that localization does not extend beyond the translation of strings. For example, it does not affect how numbers are divided or how words are alphabetized. (Those issues should be addressed in the conventional Windows manner by using the Regional settings in the Control Panel.)

Localizing your WinMerge installation involves these two basic steps:

  1. Configuring the localization: Make one or more language files available to WinMerge.

  2. Configuring the localization: Choose one of the configured language files.

1. Configuring the localization

Configuring a localization simply involves making its translation file available to WinMerge, either during or after the installation.

  • It's easiest to configure a language file during WinMerge installation. The instructions in Using the installer (recommended) describe how to use the Select Components page to install one or more translation files.

  • If you did not configure a language file when you installed WinMerge (or did not use the installer at all), there is no need to re-install WinMerge. You can get the latest translation files from the WinMerge site and configure it yourself:

    1. Create a folder named Languages under the WinMerge installation directory (where WinMerge.exe or WinMergeU.exe is located), if it does not already exist.
    2. Go to the WinMerge download site. Download one of the archived binary files (either Zip or 7z format) for the current WinMerge version, and save it to your file system.
    3. Open the downloaded archive, and locate the *.po files, where * is a language (for example, Swedish.po for the Swedish translation). Extract the language files you want to the Languages subfolder in your WinMerge installation directory.

    The language files are now available the next time you run WinMerge.

2. Changing the Winmerge interface language

If you have configured one or more translation files, as described in the preceding section, you can change the localization of WinMerge to any of them:

  1. Run WinMerge.
  2. Select Language from the View menu.
  3. Select your language and click OK.

The language of the WinMerge user interface is instantly updated.

3. Available WinMerge localizations

WinMerge localizations contributed to date include the following translations:

  • Bulgarian
  • Catalan
  • Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional)
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • French
  • Galician
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hungarian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Portuguese (Brazilian)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian

4. Reporting errors in translation

Please submit any errors you find in translations as bugs to our bug-list. It would be great if you also provide a corrected version of the translated text.

5. Submitting a new translation

If you would like to add your language to the list, read the Translations documentation in the WinMerge Web site to learn how. All the translations are incomplete, so your help improving them would be appreciated. Translating (or improving translation) does not require you to have all the compile tools or to know about WinMerge internals, just to follow the instructions in the preceding link. And if you have problems, ask for help from us in one of the WinMerge forums.