Southern African Translation Project

The responsibility for translating OpenOffice.org into the various South African languages has been shouldered by Translate.org.za a project run by the Zuza Software Foundation.

Zulu, Northern Sotho and Afrikaans versions for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Windows are available for download from the Translate.org.za download site.

Translate.org.za have also developed multi-lingual versions for GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows, which package the current three translations and English together into a single installable file. This multi-lingual version also provides a language chooser, which allows for easy switching between the languages.

Translation Feedback

The South African language translations of OpenOffice.org require ongoing testing by native language speakers to ensure quality and completeness. If you speak of any of these languages, we encourage you to download these versions of OpenOffice.org and submit your views and comments to the Translate.org.za team.

Dictionaries

Afrikaans Dictionary

The Afrikaans dictionary was compiled and packaged by Translate.org.za based on pre-existing work by numerous other people. A great deal of effort went into contacting all the previous authors of the Afrikaans word lists and persuading them place their work under Open Source licences.

In order to install the Afrikaans dictionary download the OpenOffice.org Dictionary Installer and the Afrikaans Language Pack from the Internet Solutions Mirror or use the automated dictionary installer included in OpenOffice.org from version 1.1.2.

Open the Dictionary Installer (DicOOo.sxw) and allow macros to be run.
Click on "English" and then the "Start DicOOo" button.
Put a tick next to the "Off-line language pack installation" and then select the language pack you downloaded (pack-af-ZA-1.9.zip).
Click "Next >>" and you should see the Afrikaans (South Africa) dictionary listed, make sure that it is selected by clicking on it.
Click "Next >>" again. you will probably get an Internet connection error, if so just click "OK".
Unfortunately, we do not have hyphenation dictionaries so just click "Next >>" again.
The same applies to the "Thesaurus dictionaries" page, so just click "Next >>" again.
Almost there, you need to click "Next >>" again to proceed with the installation.
The installation should now be complete, just click "Finish" and the dialogue will dissapear.

For safety sake, please restart OpenOffice.org before using the Afrikaans dictionary.

If you do have any problems with the installation, please contact one of the support consultants (paid support) listed on this website under Consultants or Translate.org.za at [email protected].