Every segment has a Maximum Size property. This is used to define width and height limitations for a segment. You can use the Validate Expert to detect segments that exceed these limits. This is an especially useful property for localizing embedded-systems. You can set the Maximum Size limitation using the Translator Toolbar or define it within an XLIFF document.

Use the <maxwidth>, <maxheight> and <font> attributes of the trans-unit element to set/rest these value at a segment level within your XLIFF document.

Define a Pixel Limitation

Below is an example of how to define a pixel size limitation for a segment.

<trans-unit font="arial;12;normal" maxwidth="100" maxheight=”20” size-unit=”pixel”>

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As this is a pixel limitation, it's important to define a font. This font will be used to determine if the translation fits into the maxwidth and maxheight values. In the example above, an 12 point, Normal, Arial Font has been defined.

The translator toolbar will also use this font to display the segment too. This ensures that your translators can work with each segment in the appropriate font and see for themselves if it will fit in the allowable area.

Define a Character Length Limitation

Below is an example of how to define a character length limitation for a segment.

<trans-unit maxwidth="20" maxheight=”1” size-unit=”char”>

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Developer Notes

Note #1: If there is no height specified, Alchemy assumes one row (i.e. one row for character-based limit, or the pixel height of the font for a font-based limitation)

Note #2: If there is no size-unit specified, Alchemy assumes the default is pixels.  But in this case, a font needs to be defined.  If no font is defined, the first pre-defined font from Tools-Options-Fonts is used.