If you are interested in helping us localize/translate Alice into another language,the following instructions show you how you can participate. Also, please check out our Localization FAQ for more specific help.
We use Zanata, a web-based system for translators, content creators, and developers to manage localization projects. The Alice Project software engineers are responsible for maintaining the localization. This means the Alice software engineers will push the strings to be translated into the Zanata database for use by participating translators. Once the strings have been translated, the Alice software engineers will pull the translated strings into Alice 3. The translation will not immediately appear in Alice 3... but will be incorporated in the next release of the software.
If you wish to participate as a translator, your responsibility will be to view and translate the Alice 3 strings and to save your translations. Your translation will be checked by reviewers, who will give final approval for translations before any translations are pulled into Alice 3.
To participate as a translator, please following these steps:
Step 2 - Create/sign in to your Zanata account
- To Create a Zanata account
- Click on the Sign up button in the upper-right corner
- You will be asked to create an account on Zanata using by creating a password specific to Zanata. Zanata no longer supports the use of your Google account information for login. Sign up for a new account
- Complete the
Name, Username, and Email fields. Ensure your email address is entered correctly.
- Click
Save. This sends a validation email to the address you entered in the previous step.
- Open the validation email and click the validation link.
- You are always able to set or change your password and add OpenID accounts to your Zanata account.
Note: If you wish to create a Zanata-specific login and password, and / or for more information, see the following link: : Creating your account for Zanata
- You will be asked to log in to your account on Zanata using your login.
- Make sure that you are signed in to the Alice Project
Note: If you are not in the Alice Project section of Zanata, see this link for more information.
Step 3 - Preparing for Translation
Before translating, you must join the language team for the language that you wish to translate.
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To join a language team
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Click Languages in the menu at the top.
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Find your language in the list.
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Click locale code of your language.
- Click
Request To Join Team on the right.
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Check the 'Translator" or "Reviewer" check-box, depending on your role with the team
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Enter useful information in the 'Additional information' box.
Note: A message will be sent to the coordinator or coordinators for the language team. The additional information you provide helps the coordinators identify you and establish that you are a capable translator for the language. Links to examples of your work are particularly useful.
Step 4 - Open the Translation Editor
There are several paths to open the translation editor. Some paths will open the editor document list, where you can select a document name to open it in the editor. Other paths will take you straight to a particular document or string in the editor.
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From a version page: Click the language name for your language. This will open the document list.
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From the locale documents page: Click Translate on the right to see the document list, or click a 'Translate' icon next to a document to open a specific document in the editor.
Note: the locale documents page is similar to the editor documents page. The locale documents page has a house icon next to the project name:
When the editor is open, you can begin entering translations.
Step 5 - Translating
The core part of the editor is the table of source strings and translations in the center. Other features are displayed around the editor table: at the top is search and filtering, on the right are alerts, chat and options (including validation options), and at the bottom are translation memory and glossary.
The basic workflow is to enter a translation in a translation text box, save the translation, then move to the next row and repeat until the document is translated.
Source strings show the original text for which a translation is needed. The text itself is displayed within a text box, and cannot be changed. In addition to the source text, some other useful information is shown.
- Line numbers are shown to the left of the source and translation text boxes. Long lines will be displayed over several lines in the text box, but will only have a single line number.
- Whitespace characters are shown in source and translation text to allow accurate translation. Spaces are displayed with a faint grey underline, newlines are shown with a faint grey pilcrow character (¶) and tabs are shown with a faint grey right-arrow-to-bar character (⇥).
- To the left of the string number is a bookmark icon. Clicking the bookmark icon updates the URL so that you can create a link directly to this particular string.
- There are a few conventions that you should follow when translating:
- Be sure to include all punctuation marks when indicated
- For original text that contains characters within < ... > tags, it is important to copy those specific parts exactly into the translation and do not attempt to translate them. Changing them or leaving them out will break the string.
- For original text containing symbols like \u2423, \n and \t, it is important to copy those specific parts exactly into the translation and do not attempt to translate them. Changing them or leaving them out will break the string.
- Source strings show the original text for which a translation is needed. The text itself is displayed within a text box, and cannot be changed. In addition to the source text, some other useful information is shown.
- Line numbers are shown to the left of the source and translation text boxes. Long lines will be displayed over several lines in the text box, but will only have a single line number.
- Whitespace characters are shown in source and translation text to allow accurate translation. Spaces are displayed with a faint grey underline, newlines are shown with a faint grey pilcrow character (¶) and tabs are shown with a faint grey right-arrow-to-bar character (⇥).
- To the right of each source string is a text box showing the current translation (if one exists). To enter a translation, click this text box and start typing. You can also copy the source text to the text box as a starting point by clicking the 'Copy Source' arrow between the source and translation text boxes.
- As you type, validations will run on the text you have entered. If any validations fail, warnings will be displayed below the text box. Warnings are cleared when the text no longer fails the validation.
- When you have entered an accurate translation, you can save the translation using the "Save as Translated" icon to the right of the text box, or by pressing Ctrl+Enter. If you are not satisfied with a translation you have entered, you can save it in draft form using the "Save as Fuzzy" flag icon or clear it by pressing the cancel icon.
- Draft or "fuzzy" translations have a yellow bar on either side, to distinguish them from non-draft translations which have a green bar.
- If another translator is editing the same translation, their name is shown in the top right of the translation text box. If the other user saves their translation while you are entering a translation, you will be shown a dialog with their translation and your unsaved translation. To keep their translation and discard your version, just close the dialog. To keep editing your translation, click
Copy to Editor and continue working. It is advised not to edit a translation at the same time as another translator in order to avoid such conflicts and duplicated effort.
Note: for more details regarding the Translation process, editor, or workflow in the Zanata Help pages, see the following link: Translating
Make sure that you save after adding a translation!
For Translation Review
Translations will be reviewed before they are considered ready to use.
Review can only be performed by reviewers.
The review process is about reading translations in the 'translated' state and determining whether they are technically correct translations of sufficient quality. These instructions show how to use the user interface for accepting or rejecting translations, but does not aim to teach how to decide whether a translation should be accepted.
Translations are considered ready for review when they have 'translated' state, which is shown as green bars on either side of the translation string.
If only some of the translations are in 'translated' state, such as if the document is only partially translated or has already been through an initial review, it may be helpful to filter the view so that only 'translated' strings are shown. This is done by checking Translated state in the Complete category near the top of the editor.
Note: When showing only Translated strings, any strings that you accept or reject will stop being shown when you move to the next page of the document. If this does not suit your workflow, you can can also show Rejected and Approved strings to make sure reviewed strings remain visible.
- Accept and Reject buttons
If you have review permission for a document, you will see an extra pair of buttons next to each editor cell to accept or reject the translation. You will have review permission if you are a reviewer for the language, or if you are a maintainer for the project. Maintainers may wish to review strings to make sure they are correctly formatted for the environment, particularly for software translations.
If you decide a translation is acceptable and does not need any change, it can be approved simply by pressing the Accept translation button next to the editor window. This will change the state to Approved.
Approved state is is shown as blue bars on either side of the translation string.
If a translation is not yet acceptable, it can be rejected so that translators know that it needs to be changed.
To reject a translation click the Reject translation button next to the editor window. This will open a dialog where you can enter the reason for the rejection.
You must enter a reason for rejecting the translation - the Confirm rejection will not work until a reason has been entered. This is to make sure that translators can make the right changes so that the translation is acceptable, rather than trying to guess why it was rejected.
Rejected state is shown as orange bars on either side of the translation string. You will also notice an indicator on the top right of the text area showing that there is a comment. Clicking the comment indicator will open the history view where the comment is shown.
You can also open the history view by clicking the History button on the right.
When a translation is rejected, the reason for the rejection is shown as a comment in history view, with the Rejected state shown above it.
There is also a space where additional comments can be added. This may be useful for discussing a rejected translation, but keep in mind that at the time of writing, reviewers do not yet receive any notification when there is a new comment on a rejected translation.
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