Help:Extension:Translate/Translation best practices/pt

There are always more translations needed than translators available. While the work of volunteer translators is greatly valued by the Wikimedia movement, many if not most have no formal translator training. Becoming a good translator needs lots of practice, and we'd really like to help them to improve the quality of their work. Translating on Wikimedia sites can have a strong social aspect, and translators are encouraged to group together to take an ask, don't guess attitude. We also encourage translation administrators to be responsive to questions and to welcome new translators.

Multilingual Wikimedians can become good translators in specific contexts even without formal training, but approaching professional standards usually requires many years of experience. It's possible to speed up this process if translators are provided direct and constructive feedback through a review process. Even experienced translators can learn, and it's always good to have someone else check over their work, even if only for surface errors.

The long journey starts from the basics. Translators should be able to copy-edit in their own language, and have a conscious awareness of grammar; and they should have a reasonable understanding of the language they are translating from.

For languages with few speakers, who themselves are just starting to use computers and the internet, even the way to spell words or the vocabulary itself might still be under discussion. Regardless, translators should be prepared to create something new – there are bound to be words and concepts that have not been translated into their language before.

Começar
Antes de começar, verifique se consegue digitar e ler no seu idioma. Isto pode envolver a instalação de tipos de letra adicionais e mapas de teclas para o seu computador.

Orient yourself. You might find many reasons to translate, whether you just do it for fun, hone your skills and accumulate credit or just want to give something back to the causes you support. You should understand and adopt the core principles of translation, like translating the meaning, not word by word, but still trying to be as close as possible to the original text.

Try to join pre-existing translation communities and ask others to review your work. You will encounter non-linguistic mark-up like variables and wiki text when translating. The gist in that is to recognize what parts should be left untranslated and what is the special meaning of them.

Documentação de mensagem
O texto de origem simples não é suficiente para efetuar boas traduções. Isto é mais relevante em textos mais curtos, mas aplica-se a todos os textos. Com a extensão 'Traduzir', e com cada mensagem, há um lugar para proporcionar contexto e mais informação para os tradutores; tal documentação de mensagem é um texto wiki e pode conter qualquer coisa, desde hiperligações a imagens. Pode demorará uns minutos para escrever uma boa documentação para uma mensagem, mas essa documentação poupará a cada um dos potencialmente centenas de tradutores, um minuto ou mais e criará traduções de alta qualidade, e assim, definitivamente vale a pena.

It is possible to configure an Ask question button to show up in the translation editor. This provides a low barrier and very direct way for translators to make sure they are making a good translation, instead of making a best guess translation. Of course you should make sure that someone will be on the target support page to answer the questions and update the message documentation, otherwise translators will only be discouraged.

Consistência
The translation administrators can make glossaries and link them from the group description or use them in the translation documentation descriptions. When multiple translators work together, it is crucial that they first of all recognize the terminology, and secondly that they use the same translations. When making glossaries, it is a good idea to write a short definition for each term instead of just providing translations. The definition helps translators to understand and apply them better in their translations, and is also a good exercise to improve consistency in source texts.

Leitura adicional

 * Foss localisation manual – http://www.africanlocalisation.net/foss-localisation-manual
 * A good introduction for translators, although the chapters about other localisation tools are not relevant here.


 * FOSS localisation – FOSS Localization
 * Less of a translator-oriented book, this discusses localisation in a bigger picture. It contains some information about localisation efforts in Asia.


 * Sourceforge localisation guide – http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/guide/start
 * Not very good, but may be useful sometimes.


 * Translating WordPress – http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress
 * Specifically for WordPress, but with some general advice


 * Writing for translation – http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/writing-for-translation-pbTF3110675/
 * A booklet from the Translation Centre for bodies of the European Union (CdT), especially for longer texts but always valid