Question

Im making an app for a client who has asked if I can make a Chinese version for him, or add a translate button within the app to make everything Chinese. Is there a way to do this within Xcode, or some way to take the phones language and translate the app?

Answer 1

The best way to do that is making your app Localizable.
To do that:

1. Create a file named Localizable.strings (the name and the type are important);
2. Select the created file and press the “Make localized…” button on the right pane (File Inspector);
3. Select English and click “Localize”;
4. Go to your Project Info tab;
5. There is a new item on this page named “Localizations”, click the “+” icon and select Chinese;
6. Select the items you want to localize. Here I suggest let only the created file Localizable.strings and click Finish;
7. You will see a indicator in your Localizable.strings that let you expand. Do it;

8. You will see two files: one for English and another for Chinese. You have to put your text in both with a identifier. Here’s an example:

   //English
   “start” = “Start:”;
   “end” = “End:”;
   “new” = “New”;

   //Chinese
   “start” = “TextInChinese:”;
   “end” = “TextInChinese:”;
   “new” = “TextInChinese”;

9. In order to access these information in your code, you have to use the following code:

_variable.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:NSLocalizedString(@”start”, @”Some Coment you want to use”)];

That will do the job you want.