Internationalization - Preferences vs Properties

Question

I keep in my property files the translation on any languages, e.g
locale_en_US.properties
locale_ru_RU.properties
and so on, and it's work OK.
But I read about Preferences API : http://www.onjava.com/lpt/a/1272
"Without the Preferences API, many applications have taken advantage of Java Property files for storing simple data like that accounted for by the Preferences API. In comparison to using Property files, the Preferences API provides a more robust mechanism for organizing the data without introducing complexity. For example, Property files do not provide any easy way to group data hierarchically. This flexibility is built into the Preferences model. Property files are dependent on a file system, which may not exist on every platform with a Java VM, for example a cellular telephone. There is nothing about the Preferences API that depends on a file system. For platforms without a file system, an implementation of java.util.prefs.PreferencesFactory could be developed that stores the data using whatever mechanisms are appropriate for that platform."
OK, and what now? Transfer my translations from property files to another store by Preferences API because it's better?

Answer 1

I didn't see the word "better" in that description of Preferences. Where did you get that from?
Preferences and Properties are different things. Preferences are commonly used to allow an individual user to customize an application. They are commonly used for things that can be changed by the user. That has nothing to do with internationalization.
Of course you could write some code that initially copied your externalized data into a set of Preferences entries, and write a subclass of ResourceBundle that looked in the Preferences, and so on. But I wouldn't do that.