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# Profiling through message marking

If you can quickly determine where a string in the user interface originates from then you can determine what strings and packages are more important to translate.

To achieve this you need to be able to visually identify the strings origin. This is achieved by using podebug from the Translate Toolkit.

## Advantages

It is simple to use and can also be used for correcting errors in the translations. By simply running an application or computer environment in the same way as your target audience you can quickly determine what parts of the system are being called and therefore what aspects you will want to translate.

## Using the podebug method

podebug is simple to use and will take a directory of translated PO files and create a directory of tagged PO files:

    podebug -f "[%cb] " -i af -o af-debug

Once the debug PO files are created then the normal build process is followed for that project.

## Existing profiling builds

The following are builds that have already been profiled. Simply download, install and run the program as normal, making notes of the source files identified in the various screens.

- OpenOffice.org