Help:Prepare a page for translation
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A page needs some preparation before it is released for translation. Generally it is a good idea to only release pages that do not experience too many changes.
Only administrators can prepare a page for translation, as it is a very sensitive process.
Please read fully through this page before you start marking a page for translation.
- Add translate tags
<translate>…</translate>around the text to be translated. - Add the language bar with
<languages />at the beginning of the page. - Mark the page for translation. Mark it again, every time significant changes have been made to the source code.
Contents
Preparing a page for translation
Translate tags and translation units
Generally, translate tags are wrapped around the content to be translated:
<translate>
…content...
</translate>
View the page in edit mode and wrap translate tags around the content, i.e. add the beginning tag at the very front and the end tag at the very end. The wiki will split the text into small units that are easier to translate at once than the entire page.
However, the text might not be split into units the most convenient way, so it's best to split the text oneself.
Manually setting translate tags
Setting the translate tags right is crucial for later translators to get an idea of the context, what is actually translated. Hence, as much context as necessary and as little as possible is provided.
- Wrap translate tags around all text that needs translation.
- Choose small units (paragraphs, headers, lists), that belong together in content.
- Wrap paragraphs after a line break (a single empty line) to break up long content into smaller chunks.
- Wrap an entire list and not its single lines (only split up very long lists).
- Leave out untranslatable content like styling code in tables, code tags (except heading code), template parameters etc., as long as they do not need a language specific equivalent (as it might be the case for weblinks etc.)
- Translate tags cannot be nested into each other.
- Take great care in setting the translate tags right. The wiki will warn you if there are any missing tags and the page cannot be saved.
Headings
- Wrap every heading on its own and include the heading indicators (equal signs:
==Heading 2==. - Wrap translate tags around the headings on new lines. If the translate tags are on the same line, the headings section won't be editable in the source code:
Do NOT:
<translate>==Subheading 2==</translate>
Use instead:
<translate>
==Subheading 2==
</translate>
To see how text can be split into units, view this page in edit mode and watch out for the translate tags.
Marking the page for translation
Once the translate tags are set and the page is saved, a link appears at the top: "Mark this page for translation". When clicked, one is presented with an overview page ("PageTranslation") with the units of the text. Save the page at the bottom with "Mark this version for translation". Now the page is ready for translation and will show up in the translation interface.
Translation markers
Back in the code (edit mode) on the page one can see that the wiki added certain translation markers for the translation units:
<!--T:1-->
These translation markers should never be touched manually (deleted, moved around etc.), as this will irritate the system.
If you need to rearrange sections of the text, do so from translate tag to translate tag and move the markers with them.
Adding the language bar
To have the languages bar show up on the page, the tag <languages /> must be added at the beginning (or the bottom, but the beginning is preferred) of the page. Once the text (or parts of it) is translated into at least one other language, the bar will show up where it was included.
You do not need to add this on lyrics pages, as this is catered for with the Infobox Lyrics template (it is included there and will show up automatically.)
Changes to a page after translation
If the text on a page is edited, the translation markers should always stay intact. If a paragraph is moved or deleted, the translate tags and translation markers should be moved or deleted with it. Do not move translation markers alone, this way the wiki won't recognize the right units anymore. Changes to the text within the translation tags (units) can be easily done. Newly added text needs new translation tags (but no translation markers!), to be included into translation.
Once changes to a page are made, the text "Translate this page" on the original (English) version will expand to "Translate this page; This page has changes since it was last marked for translation.". This page needs then new marking for translation like in the step above: Follow the link and mark the page anew. Now affected translation units will show up as "Outdated" and translators will have a chance to update the translation.
Example: A sentence is added to a paragraph. Once the page is marked again for translation, the paragraph will show up as "Outdated" in the translation interface. Translators can then check the paragraph and add the missing sentence to the paragraph in the translation.
Adding documentation
"Documentation" is help text, context, that will help translators understand the meaning of the translatable chunk. Once added, it will be viewable for translators in every language. Hence, the documentation will be the same in ALL languages. There is no way to include documentation for only one single language, e.g. a hint for only French translators. (If this is the case, one could still include a hint, like: French: This word means….)
Information in documentation can include:
- Hints to international words, untranslatable words, common translations etc.
- Explanation of abbreviations
- Links to glossaries and pages for further information.
- The Spanish original text for text translated into English (like in the lyrics pages to avoid 3-step translation).
- ...
How to add documentation
Choose the language "Message documentation" under the language dropdown. This way, the changes will show the placeholder "language" "qqq" instead of any target language (like "de" for German).
Now "add documentation", type your text and hit "save documentation". (Do not use "save translation"!)
Special case: Preparing a lyrics page for translation
All lyrics pages should have the Spanish and English lyrics text on the original page. Only release pages that have the English translation included already. The translation is done as usual from the English text, but the Spanish text shall be included into the documentation, so translators always have the original text at hand. This way, a two-way translation Spanish → English → 3rd language shall be minimized. (Of course, in this case a translator would have to have knowledge in both languages to make use of this help feature).
For this example we use the page Charlemos.
Tag the page
- Go into the edit mode of the lyrics page.
- Add translate tags around the following text: (Do not wrap around the template parameters, instead around the values AFTER the equal sign "=".)
- the English title (i.e. "Let's talk" – and not "English title":
|English title= <translate>Let's Talk</translate>) - the summary (if there is one)
- the source translation value (
|Source translation = <translate>….</translate>) - the English lyrics text. Add the tags in the English lyrics text not in the whole, instead in portions, so it will be easier to translate. Naturally, the Spanish original text is chunked into paragraphs due to the verse structure, anyway, so use these as chunks.
- around the whole Weblinks part, if there are any weblinks.
- around anything in the free text, if it needs translation.
- the English title (i.e. "Let's talk" – and not "English title":
- You do not need to add the
<languages />bar in the page, as this is catered for via the included Infobox Lyrics template. - Save the page.
Mark the page
If everything worked well, you should see a link at the top of the page saying "Mark this page for translation". Click the link. You will be directed to "PageTranslation".
Control the translate packages. Save the page at the bottom with "Mark this version for translation".
Now you just released the page for translation.
Add documentation
It is a good idea to add documentation to the translation units for some extra information for translators. In this case, we want to include the Spanish lyrics text in the documentation, so translators have the English and Spanish version as parallel sources at hand while translating.
Documentation is always shown, independently from the target language (you will see it, whether you translate into German or Chinese).
- Move over to the translation page.
- Choose the language "Message documentation" in the language dropdown as source language. Like this, the documentation changes won't show up under a special language (like the preset "English"), instead have the language "qqq" as a substitute.
- Add the original Spanish text in the correct portions to the documentation of the translation units: Click on "Add documentation" and copy the corresponding Spanish text (to the English parts) into the documentation field. Add line breaks (hit enter) between lines for better reading. Save documentation with "Save documentation".
Do NOT save the translation (without adding content it should not be possible), only "save documentation". Only move to next, with a mouse click or "Skip to next".
