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UI Phrases

Mike's Notes

I'm looking for a list in English of standard phrases or terms commonly used in the User Interface (UI).

eg;

  • Clear
  • Close
  • Copy
  • Create
  • Cut
  • Delete
  • Edit
  • Exit
  • Export
  • Font Size
  • Forgot Password
  • Help
  • Home
  • Import
  • New
  • Open
  • Page Setup
  • Password
  • Paste
  • Print
  • Reset Password
  • Save
  • Save As
  • Select All
  • Settings
  • Undo
  • User Name
  • View

This would serve as the basis for creating an online translation database that supports multiple languages and writing systems, again using the words commonly used. It seems pointless to recreate the wheel.

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Last Updated

22/09/2025

UI Phrases

By: Mike Peters
On a Sandy Beach: 21/09/2025

Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

I have been experimenting with importing the Microsoft Term Collection. It is a freely downloadable zip file containing a collection of files, one per language, in an XML format ".tbx". There seem to be about 100 languages. Each file record contains a source term in US English, and a translated term in the target language, eg French, German, Ukrainian.

Success

I was able to extract the terms that Microsoft uses. There are about 37,399 unique English terms. Some of them are useful, most are not, while others are missing. 

Language Tools

To extract the language translations, the main challenge is converting the XML files into a tab-delimited format in the correct Unicode.

I'm trying a range of tools to see what works.

There is a list of TBX tools here

https://www.tbxinfo.net/tbx-support/

I renamed each file extension to .xml and used the free Glossary Converter to batch import and generate Excel format .xlsx files, which could be imported into the translation database.

It has worked so far for these language files.

  • Afrikans
  • French
  • Hebrew
  • German
  • Maori
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Ukranian

TermBase eXchange (TBX)

"TermBase eXchange (TBX) is an open XML-based standard that allows you to represent structured, concept-oriented terminological data in a database, which is known as termbase." - Wordbee

.tbx File Format

"TermBase eXchange (TBX) is an international standard (ISO 30042:2019) for the representation of structured concept-oriented terminological data, copublished by ISO and the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA). Originally released in 2002 by LISA's OSCAR special interest group, TBX was adopted by ISO TC 37 in 2008. In 2019 ISO 30042:2008 was withdrawn and revised by ISO 30042:2019. It is currently available as an ISO standard and as an open, industry standard, available at no charge.

TBX defines an XML format for the exchange of terminology data, and is "an industry standard for terminology exchange"." - Wikipedia

Translation Website

To accommodate the translation needs of Ajabbi, a static translation website using a subdomain is now being created. It will be batch-rendered from a database containing a list of terms in each language and writing system (script), with a page for each term and its usage.

As the database is updated, the website will grow. It will begin with English-UK spelling and Māori, both of which use the Latin script, and gradually expand to cover any languages and dialects requested by users.

Translation Website URLs

Many languages have a local dialect (localisation) and sometimes use more than one script. There needs to be a robust pattern language for the automated naming of URLs. Some examples to think about, using a naming pattern of 3-digit language code plus a 2-digit country code plus a 4-digit script code. If there is no variation then use the 3-digit langage code only, etc.

  • xxx.ajabbi.com/mri/.../....html
  • xxx.ajabbi.com/eng-uk/term/password.html
  • xxx.ajabbi.com/heb-hebr/.../....html
  • xxx.ajabbi.com/heb-latn/.../....html

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