File: gettext.info,  Node: No unusual markup,  Prev: No custom format directives,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.7 No unusual markup
-----------------------

   Unusual markup or control characters should not be used in
translatable strings.  Translators will likely not understand the
particular meaning of the markup or control characters.

   For example, if you have a convention that ‘|’ delimits the left-hand
and right-hand part of some GUI elements, translators will often not
understand it without specific comments.  It might be better to have the
translator translate the left-hand and right-hand part separately.

   Another example is the ‘argp’ convention to use a single ‘\v’
(vertical tab) control character to delimit two sections inside a
string.  This is flawed.  Some translators may convert it to a simple
newline, some to blank lines.  With some PO file editors it may not be
easy to even enter a vertical tab control character.  So, you cannot be
sure that the translation will contain a ‘\v’ character, at the
corresponding position.  The solution is, again, to let the translator
translate two separate strings and combine at run-time the two
translated strings with the ‘\v’ required by the convention.

   HTML markup, however, is common enough that it's probably ok to use
in translatable strings.  But please bear in mind that the GNU gettext
tools don't verify that the translations are well-formed HTML.