Translation Manager

Introduction

You can use the Translation Manager to direct the translation of documents from one format to another. For example, the system software facility Macintosh Easy Open uses the Translation Manager to provide extensive data translation services, such as

• automatic translation of a document from one format to some other format if the application that created it is not available when the user attempts to open the document

• automatic translation of documents drop-launched onto an application

• enhanced file-opening dialog boxes and (when necessary) automatic translation of documents the user selects in those dialog boxes

• batch desktop translation of documents

• automatic translation of data pasted from the Clipboard

These services allow your application to open documents created by other applications (possibly running on other operating systems) and to import data from other applications with better fidelity than previously possible.

Macintosh Easy Open does not do any translating itself, and it does not have any knowledge of translation data models. Instead, it delegates these functions to translation extensions or to applications with built-in translation capability. Translation extensions and application translation capabilities operate as "black boxes" to Macintosh Easy Open. At system startup (or whenever new translation extensions become available), Macintosh Easy Open catalogs the translation capability of each translation extension and each application, and then invokes each as needed. Macintosh Easy Open can support multiple translation systems.