Help:Extension:Translate/Translation example

Welcome, glorious translator. We a have lot of work to do, so let's get over the basics very quickly so that you can start as soon as possible. After this tutorial you'll know how to use your personal TranslateTech language translation toolset. The effect will be permanent, so if you don't want to learn how to use it, please stop reading now.

We hope that wherever you come from, the translation administrators have already setup something to translate. This tutorial uses the Fréttinga page that is created in the tutorial for translation administrator. The things we cover here do not depend on that particular page, and the topics we cover apply to everything you can translate with this tool.

Maybe you already got a link from someone asking you to translate something. If not, you can check [[Special:LanguageStats]] in your wiki for something to translate. If you just want to see how it works in general, you can still read along and watch the screenshots to get some impression of it.

Usually you cannot make translations without asking for permissions. Some wikis however have enabled translation to all users. You will quickly notice if you lack the rights to translate. If this is the case, contact the translation administrator of your wiki. Let's start with getting to the translation view.


 * 1a. Go to the Fréttinga page
 * 2a. Click the "Translate this page" link (if it does not show up you don't have permission to translate)

Or you can try:


 * 1b. Go to [[Special:LanguageStats]]
 * 2b. Click the name of any message group that has untranslated messages


 * 3. Choose a language other than the language of the source text (which usually is English)

Translation editor
This view and variations of it are the basic things you will be looking at. The long list of messages still to translate may occasionally depress you, but fortunately we don't actually need to watch that list so often. You should see at least some untranslated messages here. Let's do our first translation. Click the link of the left column to get a popup. You will see the source text you need to translate and a textarea where you can write your translation. If you clicked the first message listed for page Fréttinga, it should say "Fréttinga" as the content. Since it is a name you don't usually need to change it, except if your language uses different writing system, in which case you might need to transliterate it. [useless details here?] Then just click save and you are done!


 * 4. Click the message name on the left column.
 * 5. In the popup dialog, write the translation of the source text in the place reserved for it.
 * 6. Click save.

Depending on the configuration of the wiki, you also see other things in the popup besides the source text. There might be suggestions from translation memories or machine translation systems. There can be section for tips that provide crucial information that you need to use to make a correct translation. So if there are tips, read them carefully. If there aren't tips and you feel like you need them, ask someone in the wiki to add them, or add them yourself if you can. These tips help you to translate better and faster. Don't feel ashamed to ask for clarifications – it's highly likely that the other tens or hundreds translators are wasting their time thinking of the same issues. Enough of that, I'll let you make your own mind on that.

One more thing about the aids: if you benefit from seeing the message translated into other languages as additional tip, please go to [[Special:Preferences]] -> Editing -> Translation options and add them to assistant languages for yourself.

Usually there is no need to add a summary if you are making a new translation, unless you want to clarify some decisions you made in terminology or formatting. When changing existing translations it's polite to mention Fixed a spelling error or Use term X consistently and so on, to help other translators understand and improve cooperation (use the target language). Feel free to make a few more translations and try out the other buttons. The small downwards-pointing arrows next to suggestions and source text immediately paste the text in the text area.