Using Transifex

Steps for translators, proofreaders and reviewers

Translator

OCDS only

Before beginning, ask the Coordinator to ensure that the Transifex glossary is up-to-date. If the glossary is not yet available in your language, ask the Coordinator to arrange it.

  1. Go to the list of resources (OCDS, OC4IDS)

  2. Change the language, if appropriate

  3. Sort by “Untranslated (Descending)”

  4. For all resources with untranslated strings:

    1. Click on the resource

    2. Click “Untranslated”

    3. Read the English text and author the translated text

      Warning

      Follow the Translation style guide. In particular, do not translate:

      • words in backticks, like `title` (often used for schema fields)

      • words in single quotes, like ‘open’ (often used for codelist codes)

      • relative URLs, like [translate this](#but-not-this)

      And do not change:

      • Markdown formatting

      • Punctuation

      • Whitespace

      Absolute URLs (that is, starting with https://) can be translated: for example, if the website offers content in multiple languages.

    4. Click “Save Translation” (or press TAB)

  5. Repeat from Step 4

  6. Notify the Proofreader when strings have been translated

It helps to see where the strings appear in context in the documentation (OCDS, OC4IDS). Understanding Transifex describes the link between GitHub files (OCDS, OC4IDS), Transifex resources, and documentation pages. For Transifex resources related to Markdown files, you can:

  1. Take the name of a resource, like history--changelog or reference--changelog

  2. Remove --index if present

  3. Replace -- with /

  4. Put it in a pattern below, substituting {version} for the version of the standard you are translating:

    OCDS

    https://standard.open-contracting.org/staging/{version}/en/{name}/, like https://standard.open-contracting.org/staging/1.2-dev/en/history/changelog/

    OC4IDS

    https://standard.open-contracting.org/staging/infrastructure/{version}/en/{name}/, like https://standard.open-contracting.org/staging/infrastructure/0.9-dev/en/reference/changelog/

See Translation tasks below for Transifex tips.

Proofreader

  1. Go to the list of resources (OCDS, OC4IDS)

  2. Change the language, if appropriate

  3. Click “All resources”

  4. Click “Unreviewed”

  5. Look at the translated text to check its quality (e.g. spelling, grammar, punctuation)

  6. If there’s a quality issue, update the translated text

  7. Notify the Reviewer when strings have been proofread

Reviewer

  1. Go to the list of resources (OCDS, OC4IDS)

  2. Change the language, if appropriate

  3. Sort by “Unreviewed (Descending)”

  4. For all resources with unreviewed strings:

    1. Click on the resource

    2. Click “Unreviewed”

    3. Read the English and translated texts, and confirm the translation is correct

    4. If there’s a translation issue, update the translated text

    5. If there is a Transifex warning (like “Glossary translation for term ‘release’ missing from translation”), update the translated text

    6. Click “Review”

  5. Notify the Coordinator when strings have been reviewed

Translation tasks

Translating can be tedious. In general, having more people translating and fewer people reviewing is an efficient way to translate. Beyond that, using shortcuts will make work faster. To see a list of shortcuts, type ? from the translation interface. We cover a few common shortcuts here.

Save current translation and select next string (TAB)

You’ll use this a lot!

Machine translate (CTRL + h)

Use this carefully, as the strings to translate are specialized. Machine translation works best for short strings that typically require fewer corrections.

Use the highest voted suggestion (CTRL + u)

Transifex will try to match new source strings with previously translated strings in order to suggest translations. If there is a high percentage match, you may be able to use the suggestion with minimal or no changes.

Copy the source string (CTRL + g)

There are some strings, in particular very technical terms and names, that aren’t translated and for which you can copy the source string.

Check previous translations

Click the History tab when viewing a string to see its previous translations, when they were edited and by whom. This may inform your current translation, or indicate whom to ask about previous translations.

View translations with warnings

  1. From the list of resources (OCDS, OC4IDS), click “All resources”

  2. Focus on the search box (Option + s or ALT + s)

  3. Select “check” from the list of filters

  4. Select “warning” from the list of values

View translations with issues

  1. From the list of resources (OCDS, OC4IDS), click “All resources”

  2. Focus on the search box (Option + s or ALT + s)

  3. Select “issue” from the list of filters

  4. Select “open” from the list of values

Non-translation tasks

Control access permissions

Read Transifex’s documentation on inviting collaborators and understanding user roles. For more documentation, see Getting Started as a Localization Manager.

Approving a team join request assigns the role of “Translator” to the collaborator. Manually assign the role of “Reviewer” if appropriate.

Count untranslated words

The dashboard of a translation project reports the number of strings to translate, but translators must know the number of words to translate in order to estimate the time and cost. To get the number of words:

  1. Open the translation project

  2. Scroll to the list of languages and click “Translate” for a language

  3. Click “All resources” at the bottom of the screen

  4. Click “# untranslated” at the top of the screen

  5. Check the box at the right of the search bar

  6. See the number of words at the right of the screen