The program will read in all the .po files and the first .pot file it encounters. Then, for each string in the .pot file it will attempt to find a translation for the string in each of the .po files.

strXL8 considers strings in .po files to be in one of 2 states: "translated" or "not translated". If a msgid/msgstr pair is commented out, it is considered "not translated", even if the msgstr string is not empty. If a msgid/msgstr pair is not commented out, it is considered "translated", even if the msgstr string is empty.

The user interface is relatively straight-forward. Nonetheless, here are a few random pointers:

• Highlighting a string, then clicking "Add String" will add a new string before the highlighted one. Initially, the msgid will be set to "String".
• Strings are edited in place. Click on a string, then click again on the translation (or the msgid) you wish to edit.
• The order of strings can be changed arbitrarily by dragging the strings up and down and dropping them into their new slot.

Since this is version 0.0.1, strXL8 still has many shortcomings:

• Plural forms are not yet supported.
• Special comments are not supported. Only comments at the top of the file are supported.
  Basically, files are assumed to be of the form:
  # Top
# comments

msgid "Something"
msgstr "Blah"

msgid "Som'n-else"
msgstr "halB"
...

• aspell is not yet supported, i.e., no red underlines under mispeled words.