Translate’s Localization Guide Release 0.9.0 Translate Jun 26, 2020 Contents 1 Localisation Guide 1 2 Glossary 191 3 Language Information 195 i ii CHAPTER 1 Localisation Guide The general aim of this document is not to replace other well written works but to draw them together. So for instance the section on projects contains information that should help you get started and point you to the documents that are often hard to find. The section of translation should provide a general enough overview of common mistakes and pitfalls. We have found the localisation community very fragmented and hope that through this document we can bring people together and unify information that is out there but in many many different places. The one section that we feel is unique is the guide to developers – they make assumptions about localisation without fully understanding the implications, we complain but honestly there is not one place that can help give a developer and overview of what is needed from them, we hope that the developer section goes a long way to solving that issue. 1.1 Purpose The purpose of this document is to provide one reference for localisers. You will find lots of information on localising and packaging on the web but not a single resource that can guide you. Most of the information is also domain specific ie it addresses KDE, Mozilla, etc. We hope that this is more general. This document also goes beyond the technical aspects of localisation which seems to be the domain of other lo- calisation documents. The document aims to help other localisation teams by consolidating the information of the Translate.org.za project and other localisation initiatives. So in this document we have added sections on selecting what to translate, budgeting, timing and more. There are sections explaining how to use the Translate Toolkit and practical sections on common translation techni- cal errors as well as ideas on how to translate or configure certain things like accelerators key, whether to translate acronyms, etc. 1.1.1 Duplication We hope not to duplicate information and will point to other online resources if needed. But often we document in the process of creating our translation builds so there might be slight duplication. 1 Translate’s Localization Guide, Release 0.9.0 1.2 Contributing We welcome contributions – if you are a localiser then this is your document. Please think of this as a living document. If you are using part of it and find that it is out of date then please update it so that others don’t have to go through your pain. If you have a new section to contribute or some corrections then please create an account and make changes. If you feel it might be controversial then please email [email protected]. If you have some criticism we also welcome it but if you accompany it with the changes then you are more likely to be listened to (its easy to complain, a little harder to contribute meaningfully) We credit those who contribute whole sections and significant update. 1.3 Credits These are the people and groups who have made this document possible: 1.3.1 Contributors The Writers, section contributors: • Translate.org.za – The foundation which made this possible in the first place. • Dwayne Bailey – Capturing the experience of Translate.org.za to ensure that the pain for other localisers is considerably reduced. • Javier SOLA – Documenting the usage of the tools, instructions aimed at newbies and at Windows users and the guide for OpenOffice.org localisation Page contributors: • Novica Nakov The techies. • David Fraser – Creation of mikiwiki to change this from a text only to a simple HTML document. Plus migration to the current wiki and various Pootle documentation. Helpful input The people whose input has helped shape the document. • Tactical tech – Who seeded the idea of capturing this information. • South African Department of Communications – Whose funding of Translate.org.za made the writing and cap- turing of this information possible. 1.3.2 Users If you use and have found this document useful then please let us know. • Translate.org.za • Khmer OS 2 Chapter 1. Localisation Guide Translate’s Localization Guide, Release 0.9.0 1.4 Copyright The localisation guide is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. 1.5 Editing the Localisation Guide We would like you to contribute the knowledge you have to make this guide more comprehensive. The main aim of the guide is to reduce the pain experienced by most localisers in finding the correct information on specific project and in contributing for the first time. Please add your wisdom and help save others from experiencing your pain. 1.5.1 First things first Please familiarise yourself with the guide so that you are aware if any of the content you want to add is already present. We don’t want to duplicate information because if we do: • The information become dated and disagrees across the different sections • We’re trying to make a guide that is as general and only specific when needed and then only where needed 1.5.2 What goes where The wiki contains some distinct sections: • The guides to the Translate Toolkit • This guide – the localisers guide • A glossary of localisation terms Each of these make use of namespaces to distinguish sections from each other. Please make sure you are editing in the right place. The localiser guide is broken down into the following broad sections: • Running a localisation project in general • Information specific to the major localisation projects • Guides for translators that cut across all projects • Hints for developers so that they can help localisers Please place content in the relevant section. Please don’t duplicate content but rather link to the relevant section in the other parts of the guide. 1.5.3 Headings Generally each page has an H1 heading and all other headings are below that. Please make use of section headings for clarity (it also makes it possible for others to link to your sections). Also use high level headings starting from H1 in your document as this then creates the nice table of contents automatically. 1.4. Copyright 3 Translate’s Localization Guide, Release 0.9.0 1.5.4 Style We are not that particular about the style of writing (well we haven’t seen any awful stuff yet). But please do stay to the point and feel free to give personal examples and to use personal pronouns. Eg “we have found that”. The guide text is quite formal but if you need to, then add humour as needed. 1.5.5 Spelling and Grammar Firstly I can’t spell! We also realise that some contributors are not native English speakers so don’t worry too much about that – or ask someone on [email protected] to check you spelling and grammar. The main idea is that it be understandable. Ask yourself, “Would this help me learn something, start something or start contributing?” If the answer is “Yes.”, then your content is probably good enough. 1.5.6 Licensing This guide is under a creative commons license. Please be aware of that before adding your content and be aware that copy and paste might violate someone elses copyright – rather write from scratch or paraphrase the documents you want to copy. 1.5.7 Credit Everyone wants credit. Please add your name to the credits page. 1.5.8 Using Namespaces The guide makes extensive use of namespaces, e.g. translation/variables.html refers to the variables page in the translation section of this guide. 1.5.9 Adding another language or translating FIXME Please make use of namespaces to separate your translations from the main document. Use your languages iso639 code as the namespace. For Zulu this page would be referred to as zu:guide:editing 1.6 Localising the ANLoc manual The African Network for Localisation (ANLoc) developed a training manual for FOSS localisation. You can find it here: http://www.africanlocalisation.net/foss-localisation-manual If you are interested in localising this manual into your language, this page gives an outline of what is required. It is a big process, and takes a lot of time. Although the manual can obviously be improved, we are very proud of the it, and want to make sure that translated versions are of high quality. Therefore we follow a long process with lots of review, and only aim for fully translated versions of the manual. Although a single person can probably do this, it is highly recommended that you get people to help you. It is most strongly advised for reviewing terminology and for reviewing the final document. 4 Chapter 1. Localisation Guide Translate’s Localization Guide, Release 0.9.0 The manual is translated as a PO file, and converted to an ODF from which the PDF file is generated. The images are translated manually in a vector drawing program (Inkscape). Here is a rough outline of the process: • We can add the necessary files on our Pootle server here: http://pootle.locamotion.org/projects/foss_manual/ • You will need to develop a terminology file, preferably in collaboration with other people who do FOSS l10n • You can do translation on either Pootle or Virtaal, but need to upload to Pootle regularly for backup. I would recommend Virtaal for most of the translation. You will need to be familiar with both tools for the sake of the translation anyway. • Then the translation can start. It is a lot of work (over 25000 words).