Windows 8.1 Store apps: Localize the information that describes your app to users

You can make your app more attractive to international audiences by localizing its display name, description, and other identifying features, which are described in the package manifest file.

Localizing fields that are defined in the Manifest

In the Manifest Designer, you can insert a token into the text box of each field that you want to localize. To localize a field, you set its value to ms-resource:TokenName, where TokenName identifies a resource in a file that’s located in a language-appropriate folder, as the following example shows:

<Properties>
<Property>
<DisplayName>ms-resource:calculator</DisplayName>
<Description>ms-resource:numbers</Description>
<Logo>tile.png</Logo>
</Property>
</Properties>

To create the resource file, open Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the project name, choose Add, choose New Item, and then click Resources File.

Localizing fields for apps that use XAML

For apps that use XAML, you localize these fields in resources.resw files by using the Resource Editor. To create the United States English version of the manifest fields, you would add an en-us\resources.resw file that contains, for example:

To add the Japanese version, you would add a ja\resources.resw file that contains, for example:

For more information about how to localize string resources, see Quickstart: Using string resources (Store apps using C#/VB/C++ and XAML) and How to load string resources (Store apps using C#/VB/C++ and XAML).

Localizing fields for apps that use JavaScript

For apps that use JavaScript, you localize these fields by using JSON syntax to add strings to the resources.resjson file. To create the United States English version of the manifest fields, you would add a \strings\en-us\resources.resjson file that contains, for example:

{
"calculator": "A calculator",
"numbers": "Adds numbers and displays the sum."
}

To add the Japanese version, you would add a \strings\ja\resources.resjson file that contains, for example:

{
"calculator": "Dentaku",
"numbers": "Sūji o tasu to, kekka ga miemasu"
}

For more information about how to localize string resources, see Quickstart: Using string resources (Store apps using JavaScript and HTML) and How to load string resources (Store apps using JavaScript and HTML).

See Also

Packaging Universal Windows apps for Windows 10
Multilingual App Toolkit for Visual Studio