Main Window

The main window of Rainbow is composed of several tabbed areas:

You can activate each area by clicking on the corresponding tab, or selecting it from the View menu. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, and Ctrl+3 for the three input lists, Ctrl+4 for the Options tab, Ctrl+5 for the Output tab, and Ctrl+6 for the Project tab.

Input List Tabs

The three input list tabs have the same following features:

Root

The root of the list is displayed just above the tab area. It shows the current root for the files of the given list.

  • Each list can have a different root.
  • The root can be an empty string.
  • Press F2 or click on the browse button next to the root to change the root value.

You can display the list of input files with or without the root. Use the Switch Path Display Mode command from the View menu, or press F3 to switch between the two types of display.

Input Files

To add a file to the input list you can use the Add command from the Input menu, press Insert, or drag the file from Windows Explorer or the Desktop and drop it into the input list.

These commands allow you to add several files at once if you want, but sometimes you need to select a specific list of files from various folders, for example all the HTML documents in a directory structure. To do this you can use the Add Multiple command from the Input menu, or press Shift+Insert. This will open the Add Files dialog box where you can define your selection.

You can also copy and paste files using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Copy/Paste between input lists are supported and include all the information for each input file (path, format, settings, encodings, etc.).

Color Bar

To help you identify which input list is active, a color bar is displayed at the bottom of the screen: Blue for Input List 1, Red for Input List 2, and Green for Input List 3.

When one of the input list is selected you can also see in the status bar the total number of files listed in that input list, as well as the index of the file currently selected.

Options Tab

The Options tab is where you define the common language and encoding parameters.

Input

Language -- Enter the code for the input language. The value must be a valid BCP-47 value. You can also use the list box to select automatically the code. The "input" language is usually the source language.

Encoding -- Select the encoding to use by default for the given input language.

Auto-selection from the language -- Set this option to select automatically the default input encoding from the current input language.

Output

Language -- Enter the code for the output language. The value must be a valid BCP-47 value. You can also use the list box to select automatically the code. The "output" language is usually the target language.

Encoding -- Select the encoding to use by default for the given output language.

Auto-selection from the language -- Set this option to select automatically the default output encoding from the current output language.

Notes on Languages

The language lists include both language-only entries (e.g. "English") and language/region entries (e.g. "English (Canada)"). There is usually one region that is prefixed by a '*' sign. This region correspond to the default region for the given language. For example, in Windows "English" and "English (*United States)" have the same Windows LangID and are—from the Windows resource viewpoint—identical.

You can enter at any time a language code that is not part of the pre-defined list, in this case the list will be set automatically to "<Not a pre-defined language code>". Generally, user-defined language codes should be prefixed by "x-", but Rainbow does not enforce any specific notation.

You can add, remove and modify the language entries any way you want by editing the Languages.xml definition file located in Okapi Shared folder (by default: C:\Program Files\Okapi\Shared).

Notes on Encodings

You can enter at any time an encoding name that is not part of the pre-defined list, in this case the list will be set automatically to "<Not a pre-defined encoding name>".

When you chose to enter an encoding name yourself, or select an encoding different from the one selected automatically from the current language, the option Auto-selection from the language is automatically unselected.

The default input and output encodings specified in this tab can be overridden for each input file. To do this, change the settings defined in the File Properties dialog box.

Note also that the input encoding specified here is only a default encoding. It is used if the file format that you are processing has no means to specify its own encoding. For example, a filter for XML will never use this input encoding information because XML always provides a way for the filter to know the encoding of each document. The output encoding selected here may also be overridden by the filter if necessary.

You can add, remove and modify the encoding entries any way you want by editing the Encodings.xml definition file located in Okapi Shared folder (by default: C:\Program Files\Okapi\Shared).

Output Tab

The Output tab allows you to specify the common parameters for the location and the names of your output files.

Note that not all utilities use these common parameters, even if they generate output files. See the help for each utility to know whether or not the output options must be set to use the utility.

The output options pertain to the paths of the input files of the list specified in the Base the output paths on option (the base input list). Note that the color of the Output tab icon is the same as the current base input list.

An example of the output result is displayed at the bottom of the screen. It uses for input the first path specified in the first input files list, and is updated as you make changes to the output options.

Folder

Use the following output folder -- Set this option to have the output path use the folder specified in the output folder edit box. If the base input list has a root, the folder specified here will replace that root. If the base input list has no root defined, the folder specified here will replace the entire directory of the original path. For example:

     Input root = C:\Projects\Griffin123\Help
Input full path = C:\Projects\Griffin123\Help\Search\index.htm
  Output folder = C:\Localization\Griffin123\Help\Prep
 Resulting path = C:\Localization\Griffin123\Help\Prep\Search\index.htm
     Input root = <none>
Input full path = C:\Projects\Griffin123\Help\Search\index.htm
  Output folder = C:\Localization\Griffin123\Help\Prep
 Resulting path = C:\Localization\Griffin123\Help\Prep\index.htm

Extension

Use the following extension -- Set this option to modify the extension of the input file. Enter the extension you want in the edit box below. The specified extension can be empty, just a period, or anything else (as long as the characters are valid filename characters).

Replace -- Select this option to replace the existing extension by the one specified. For example:

Output extension = .out
         Replace = selected
      Input file = index.htm
          Result = index.out

Append -- Select this option to add the specified extension to the existing one. For example:

Output extension = .out
          Append = selected
      Input file = index.htm
          Result = index.htm.out

Prepend -- Select this option to add the specified extension at the front of the existing one. For example:

Output extension = .out
         Prepend = selected
      Input file = index.htm
          Result = index.out.htm

Miscellaneous

Make backup file -- Select this option to create a .BAK any existing output file. Note that this option works only if the utility uses the output filename provided by Rainbow (as some utilities create their own output structure and files). If a .BAK file of the same name exists already, it will be automatically overridden by the new .BAK file.

Base the output paths on -- Specify the input list from which the output paths should be derived.

Replacement

Replace this text -- Set this option to execute a search and replace on the output path. Enter the text to search for.

By this text -- Enter the text to use to replace the text searched for.

All occurrences of the searched text in the path are replaced (not just the first or the last one). Example for replacement:

        Input file = C:\Griffin123\index_en-US.htm
 Replace this text = checked
Text to search for = _en-US
  Replacement text = _fr-CA
            Result = C:\Griffin123\index_fr-CA.htm

Prefix

Add the following prefix -- Set this option to prepend a prefix to the filename. Example:

              Input file = C:\Griffin123\index.htm
Add the following prefix = checked
           Output prefix = OUT_
                  Result = C:\Griffin123\OUT_index.htm

Suffix

Add the following suffix -- Set this option to append a suffix to the filename. Example:

              Input file = C:\Griffin123\index.htm
Add the following suffix = checked
           Output suffix = _OUT
                  Result = C:\Griffin123\index_OUT.htm

All the output options can be set at the same time. The output path will result in the combination of the changes.

Project Tab

Project parameters folder: This setting indicates in which folder the filter parameters files are stored for the current project. There are two choices:

  • Same as the folder where the project is saved -- Select this option to have the parameters files saved in the same folder as the project file.
  • User-defined location -- Select this option to have the parameters files saved in a folder you choose. Enter the full location of the folder in the edit field below the option.