Unclear lenght restrictions on translations

[Simos Xenitellis]

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 1:37 PM, Redmar <redmar at ubuntu-nl.org> wrote:
> Hello translators,
>
> A number of programs don't work well with translations that are larger
> than the English original, leading to truncated translations in the
> interface.
>
> I've filed bugs for the following programs, but the fixes probably won't
> land for Precise. I would therefore advice all of you to check if the
> same bugs occur for your language, and if possible change the
> translations to work around them.
>
>
> Gnome control center, length restriction of 13 characters for a single
> word: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+3.0/+bug/819994
>
> Ubuntu one control panel, 17 characters total for the connect/disconnect
> button. 18 characters single word restriction for the description field
> above the button:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-control-panel/+bug/946626
>
> Unity help overlay (hold down super/windows key), 22 character
> restriction for the key combination column, and 42 character restriction
> for the description:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/975018
>
> If you know of more programs that have this problem, please reply here
> so we can all try to fix the translations.
>

Dialog boxes/wizards with several tabs take a maximum window size so
that it fits all tabs.
For example, if a dialog box has five tabs, and tab No 4 is laid out
with a single line textbox,
and when translated this text box becomes too wide, then the whole
dialog box becomes wide enough to accommodate tab No4 and the
single-line textbox.

This is a common case with Evolution dialog boxes (Preferences, Add
new account).

Simos