Translating Vortex

Vortex supports translations submitted by our community. This page will give you some brief instructions to get started in translating Vortex. Existing translations can be found on Nexus Mods.

Install Vortex Translation Helper

The easiest way to get started on a new translation is to add the Translation Helper extension for Vortex. Ensure you are in "Advanced Mode" otherwise you will not see the option to add an extension.

With the extension installed, navigate to Settings -> Interface. You will see a new drop-down menu with all known languages

Making your changes

Once your language has been created, navigate to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\locales (or C:\ProgramData\vortex\locales if you have Vortex in Shared Mode) and open the folder for your new language. The folder name will use the ISO 639-1 language code.

You should find common.json and potentially a number of other files related to dashlets. These JSON files will contain your translated strings.

Open the JSON files in your preferred text editor (we recommend Visual Studio Code or Notepad++). You should see the file formatted a lot like the example below:

issue-tracker.json

{
  "Your issues": "Your issues",
  "Refresh Issues": "Refresh Issues",
  "Open": "Open",
  "Bug": "Bug",
  "{{ count }} comments": "{{ count }} comments",
  "{{ count }} comments_plural": "{{ count }} comments",
  "Closed": "Closed"
}

To edit your translations, change the text on the right side of the colon (:). Once you would like to see the changes in Vortex, click save. Most text areas will update inside Vortex automatically (though in some cases you may need to restart the app).

NOTE: Save your changes before navigating in Vortex, otherwise the Vortex application may overwrite your changes back to defaults.

Translated strings also support placeholder text. This is formatted as Vortex tried to access \"{{filePath}}\" but it doesn't exist. where {{filePath}} would be subsitited for the file path used in that message.

Another example would be for numerical entries where Vortex allows different text to be displayed for singular and plural items.

"{{ count }} conflicting file": "One conflicting file",
"{{ count }} conflicting file_plural": "{{ count }} conflicting files"

Sharing your translation

Once you've completed your translation, you can share it with other users on Nexus Mods.

Add a new translation

When packing up your translation we recommend zipping the following files and folders into an archive:

• Locales
  • CY (or your ISO language code)
    • common.json
    • issue-tracker.json
    • (All other JSON files)

Ensure you instruct users to extract your files to their C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Vortex (or C:\ProgramData\vortex if they have Vortex in Shared Mode) and restart the app before trying to switch language.

Troubleshooting

I'm having an error with the Translation Extension. How can I report it?

Please add feedback through Vortex. How to send in your Vortex log file

I've found a string that I can't translate.

Please add feedback through Vortex, we'll look to make it translatable in a future version (if valid). How to send in your Vortex log file

I have questions about translating Vortex

Please post on this topic for translation queries.