Translating:Work

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Eager to start translating? Good! First go to Special:Translate, where you will see a long list of things called message groups. There are two main types of groups. Most of the groups are so called normal groups, which contain all translatable messages of the chosen product. In addition to these there are meta groups, which can contain subsets of messages from other groups or supersets of multiple groups.

Subsets help you to concentrate your work on the most important messages, or to check all messages of a certain type. Supersets are groups of other message groups to reach some higher target. For example, translation of all extensions used in the Wikimedia foundation projects may be needed before a project in a new language edition can be started.

After choosing the edit link from the appropriate group, you will be shown a list of untranslated messages in that group, if any. Make sure you select the correct language from the selection above. It defaults to your user interface language set in the preferences. This is one of the reasons why you should set your interface language to your primary target translation language.

There are a few other tasks that facilitate work flow, like review. There are tasks for reviewing all messages and only messages changed since the last export. If you really need to work off-line, it is also possible to export the translations in po files. It should not be the primary means of translating, because it cancels most of the collaborative benefits: only one person can work on them at a time. There is more information about off-line translation here.

Special note to the languages which are not written in the Latin script. The task to show optional messages contains mostly proper names that should not be translated, but can be transliterated. It is often useful to check if there is anything to change even if your language uses Latin script. Warning of caution: these values should only be changed if needed and you know the possible effects of them!

After the form you see a list of messages (if any) for the current task. On the left column you have the message name which brings you to the edit view (permission to translate is required). On the right column is the current translation, together with the source text in review modes.

If your browser supports tabs, it is suggested that you open new messages in new tabs. This way you don't lose your position in the list and the possibility to navigate between messages in other ways is currently not working very well.

Edit view

The edit view tries to give you as much information as possible to help you to make the translation. From top to bottom there can be the following fields: translation in other languages, information about the message, the definition of the message, warnings and then the edit area.

Translation in other languages are there to give you ideas, but you should always follow the source text in case of differences. If you don't see these translations, they may not exist or no language may be configured for this, in which case you should ask in Support.

The next field is always there and provides more detailed information about the message to aid correct translation. It is special in a way, that you can edit that information too. Actually you should do that if you know something that is not there which could help other translators. More information for difficult messages can also be requested in Support.

The source text is the text you need to translate. Translate it and do not add more or less things to the translation. Try to think of the meaning of the message and express the meaning in your own language, instead of translating word by word. If you feel you have a nice idea on how to make the text better, report it in Support so that all languages can benefit.

If the syntactic checks find something suspicious in the message, warnings will be shown between the definition and the edit field. You should fix these warnings. Don't forget common sense: the checks don't catch everything and they may produce false positives.

When you have carefully studied this information, you can add the translation (or review it) in the text area and save it. New translation or review will be added to the history of that message for everyone to see. Be aware that the preview may not look the same as the translation in its real context and should not be taken as such.

Beyond messages

The localisation process doesn't stop at translating the interface messages. Often there are other things, from date formats to text direction, to be localised. Most of these things are not automated and are handled in Support on a case by case basis. See also the project specific help pages. Some textual items that need special handling can be translated using Special:AdvancedTranslate. Remember to read the documentation carefully about the format and limitations.