Skip to content
MyDSHMy DSH Field Notes
中文
Independently maintained; not affiliated with DeepSeek. No association with mydsh.dev or other MyDSH sites.

All categories/Translation and localisation

Localisation and release · Level Advanced · Localisation Formats Localisation

Formats: do not make users convert

Dates and amounts that look wrong locally.

Prompt

Localisation is more than words: date formats, currency, faces in images, legal requirements. Without them the text reads foreign.

Task: Dates and amounts that look wrong locally.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - target markets
   - current formats
   - time zone handling
   - currency conversion
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- formats per market
- store UTC, display local
- whether to convert and the rate source
- rounding and separator differences

[Process]
1. List every localisable element: text, formats, images, law
2. One rule set per market
3. Check for hard-coded strings
4. Design a verification
5. Say what should stay untranslated

[Output]
Element list, market rules, gap check, verification.

[Do not]
- Never translate only the UI strings
- Do not ignore plurals and gender
- One format never fits all markets
- Never force-translate a brand name

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

  • target markets
  • current formats
  • time zone handling
  • currency conversion

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

  • formats per market
  • store UTC, display local
  • whether to convert and the rate source
  • rounding and separator differences