Discussions » Groups » BeWelcomeTranslators

Intro on translations

BeWelcome is useable in many languages. It is translated by the members themselves from all around the world. Every BeWelcome member is encouraged to join the team. All it takes is:

• You should be fluent in English understanding it at an expert or native level (that's our reference language. For now...)
• You should be able to write with proficient skills in your native language or be an expert in the language you want to tranlate to.

Warning: wiki pages like this one cannot be translated, the current wiki system doesnt' allow translations but we hope to have one in the future that will do it

Application to team

In order to be a translations volunteer you should:

1. Accept the Volunteer code of conduct
2. Be able to read/understand in an expert level English as this is the main language of the site
3. Be able to write/translate to another language (your mother tongue or other language you are expert) that you will aply to translate. (you will need a computer keyboard capable of writing in the language to translate to, this is specially important for languages that don't have a latin alphabet.)
4. join the group and post in the hello I'm new! thread.
5. use a web-browser that is capable of spell-cheking, like firefox, and set it up for the language under translation. languages for firefox
6. if the language you want to translate is not shown in the currently availables languages we will have to add it. For this we need that you tell us the translation for the phrase "Welcome to signup page" in that language and then we can add it. You must commit to do a minimum amount of translation of the new language.
7. Once you get your rights you can also join the general volunteers group

How it works

First, you can only translate when you're logged in. To log it, go to the www.bewelcome.org page, enter your username and password and click on the "login" button. If you don't have a bewelcome account you must create one and join the team as explained above

As a translator, use the site in your language of speciality. To switch from the default "English" to your language, go to the bottom of any page of the site. There is a list of languages. If your language is not listed there, it means that the admins have not created it successfully. You can post on this group about it.

When you are a BeWelcome translator, after you log in to your account, there will be three new links at the bottom of all pages: "browse", "translate" and "edit". If you don't see those links it means that the admins have not given you the correct access rights. You can post about it on this group.

So, what do those buttons do?

Browse

This one shows you the site just how it would look if you were NOT a translator.

Translate

This one makes little purple tag appear near anything that needs to be translated. Typically, if a new feature was recently programmed, it will be only in english and those little purple tags will be everywhere.

Also, if something is already translated, but someone edits the english version, then the phrase will get a little pink tag.

Edit

This one makes a little tag appear near EVERY phrase on the page. It makes it really crowded! That's in case you see a phrase on the website that is already translated, but you would like to put a better translation instead. Then you click on edit and a little green tag should appear near that word, along with all the other words of the page.

Ok, I clicked the tag. What then?

Well, clicking a tag should pop up a new tab or window in your web browser. The new tab, or window, will have the following fields:

• Code: That tells you the unique name of that phrase in our database. It's usually a very unattractive title like "groups_welcomeMessage". It's unattractive for a reason: Don't touch it
• Description: That's a description of the word (no! really?), what this word is supposed to mean.
• English source: That tells you the english version of the word.
• Translation: That's where you write the translation for that word. The field looks big (if you're translating a short phrase, as it is in 90% of the cases). But sometimes (10% of the cases as you've probably already calculated), we need to translate a long phrase. When we translate the Terms of Use or the Frequently Asked Questions or something fleshy like that.
• Languages: That's the language you're using. If you are a translator for more than one language, be careful with this one. Don't post turkish words to the japanese version

Use the "submit" button to complete a translation. The "find" button is only when you're looking for a phrase.

Is there a way to find the stuff that still has to be translated?

There is a way to see all the translatable content: Volunteer tab -> AdminWord -> All in yourlanguage* (on the right of the page, in the "Action" column). It can be used when you want to translate a part of the websiste that is only accessible to unlogged visitors (ctrl + f to find the text you want to edit or translate). It is meant to be used only this way because there might be words that are not used any more. To find new words to translate simply browse the website. Go one by one to the items on the header menu.

Newsletters

Newsletters need translation but are not visible in the interface.

You need the code name that is usually anounced in the translators group forum (please subscribe to the following forum thread to keep updated of the translating tasks that need to be done http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s2330 )

These are the steps:

• go to http://www.bewelcome.org/bw/admin/adminwords.php and search for the code

• leave empty the language field so you can see all versions

• take the english one and edit it to translate it, before saving change the language code to your version, for example: "esp" to spanish, "it" for italian, you can see the code in the links at the bottom that let you change the language

• dont' forget to translate the subject too (same procedure)

Where to start

Well, the first place to check if everything is translated is:

The start page from where you can access the tour too.

The signup page

Those two pages are never visited by logged in members and receive less translator update than the rest of the site. On another hand, they are the first thing our users see. So, top priority.

''' Please subscribe to the following forum thread to keep updated of the translating tasks that need to be done http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s2330 '''

Glossary

Also check the Glossary to your particular language so you can get produce a coherent translation with what has already been done so far by the other translators for your language. If there is not yet a Glossary to your language feel free to create one (Edit this page and add a link at the appropriate place.

Portuguese Glossary

Info for team coordinator

How to enable a new language?

• go to the "AdminWord" page
• find the code "WelcomeToSignup"
• In the language field, type in the ISO 639-1 short code for the language. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
• Fill out the translation field in the respective language (you probably need to ask the translator or google)
• submit

Now you should see the new language in the footer.