Trying to open, view, or edit certain file extensions in Windows is not always the easiest process. Windows supports many extensions by default, including all MS Office formats. However, additional steps may be required to open other file types, such as POT .PO and .MO.
POT, .PO and .MO files are common in PHP, WordPress, and other programs that require multilingual translation. If you find a POT, .PO, or .MO file, here’s how you can view and edit it.
Notepad can usually open anything, but when using an application to open one of the mentioned file types, the text is displayed unformatted, encrypted, etc.
Open POT files with Poedit
Instead of using Notepad, download a special text editor called Poedit. Go to the downloads page and download the version that matches your operating system. Please note that the software is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The software is also open source, so it’s free.
After a successful download, proceed with installing the software on your computer like any other program.
After successfully installing the software, you can view and edit the POT, .PO, and .MO files. Just double-click the file to instantly launch it in Poedit.
Since POT, .PO, and .MO files are standard translation and language files, Poedit software will automatically output the original string along with the translation. Pay attention to how the above document looks the way it should, not messy or messy.
To edit a string, simply click once to select the string + translation. From there the program will load the original string with the translation into the edit field.
Using the edit box, you can edit and delete lines and translations just like any text document such as Notepad or Word.
If the goal is to copy the original string into the translation field, you can also right-click any string and select “Copy original into the translation field,†which removes the existing translation and replaces it with the string value.
That’s all. Now you can easily and quickly edit POT, .PO and .MO language files. I first tried to open the files with Notepad and Dreamweaver, but neither program was able to preserve the text formatting.
Poedit is a free open source alternative that works great. Poedit may not be the program you use every day, but if you need to edit or view these types of files, you will have the appropriate program to handle them. If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Enjoy!
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