Content translation

The content translation tool is aimed to improve multilingual contribution. It is a Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tool aimed to make translation of Wikipedia articles easier and better. It complements the existing Translate extension.

Translating content present in one language version of Wikipedia to another Wikipedia is a process that involves different steps and tools. Creating a new Wikipedia page based on an existing one from a different language normally requires the use of automatic translation services, dictionaries, reformatting text, tweaking links and references, and a lot of tab switching. This is a process that can be streamlined a lot so that translators spend their time creating high-quality content that reads naturally in their language.

Most Wikipedia users edit only one language edition. However, just over 15% of users also edit multiple language editions. These multilingual users were found to be more prolific than their monolingual counterparts, making about 2.3 times as many edits on average.

Try the tool
Access Content Translation on our beta servers (you may need to create an account since Wikimedia authentication is not integrated with beta servers).

Content translation is available in our testing servers for you to try it and tell us about your experience: Pick an article and translate it. Don't be afraid of publishing the result since it will only be published in our test servers, but feel free to copy it to a real Wikipedia if you are happy with the result (and add it to the list!).

What if my language is not supported?
Currently only a few language pairs have automatic translation support (we'll support more over time). While Machine Translation speeds the translation process a lot, the tool can be useful for other languages too. You can adjust the URL parameters to select a specific article and set of languages. In the example below, article Australia is translated from English (en) to Burmese (my) :

http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:ContentTranslation?page=Australia&from=en&to=my

Purpose of the tool
The tool ContentTranslation will allow you to create an initial version of a Wikipedia page based on an existing version from a different language. So the main scenario we are addressing can be expressed as: A user creates a new page for language X based on the page for language Y, where languages X and Y can be any pair of different languages.

The tool is targeted to users that know two or more languages, and provides value for different kinds of users. For new users, the tool will provide a new way of contributing that is easier than creating a new page from scratch. or experienced editors, the tool will simplify the process of translating content.

The goals for the tool are the following:
 * Save time. Help translators to create content quickly, without unnecessary copy&paste to external tools.
 * Provide assistance. Prevent errors, and make the user confident of their translations.
 * Encourage quality of translations. The tool should communicate properly the purpose of translations in Wikimedia context and help the user to avoid bad quality translations.
 * Don’t force the user. Since different translators follow different editing patterns, the aids provided should not intrude into the editing process.
 * Focus on content. Translation is more focused on content than text styling. Technical elements such as wikitext should be dealt in a way that do not make the translation harder.

More details about the analytics considered are available.

Development
The extension is being developed as Content Translation extension

Design ideas
During the design stage many ideas have been explored. We also conducted several tests with users who suggested ideas that we collected and added when creating the prototype. The main components envisioned to be part of the UX designs are the Translation Center, Translation View and the Entry points leading to them. The Translation Center would serve as a dashboard for users to track translations done by them. The Translation View would consist of the editing area along with translation tools that will be available for use. For the initial round of development, the Translation View has been given priority.



Translation Center
The Translation Center will provide the users a comprehensive view of their content translation activities and track progress. Users will be able to view article suggestions and initiate translations for new articles also from here. View prototype (Try to press New translation and search for "Mies van der rohe")
 * Initiate translations
 * List of translations and suggestions

Translation View
The Translation View will contain an editing area and translation tools like Translation Memory and Machine Translation suggestions, dictionaries, and glossaries. The editor will include smart features like link adaption using Wikidata that will help users get the language appropriate links for inclusion in the new articles.

View prototype The key features of the Translation View are: More design details for Translation View
 * Three-column layout.
 * Automatic translation as template.
 * Warn automatic translation abusers.
 * Adaptation of links and references.
 * Information about words and suggestions for alternatives.

Additional entry points
The entry points will indicate to the users that translations can be initiated for specific pages for languages that may be appropriate for the user (based on factors like geographic location) These entry points are: More design details for entry points
 * New translation from page (view prototype)
 * New translation from contributions (view prototype)
 * New translation from Wikidata (view prototype)

The UX design ideas have been significantly improved and additional details added since development of the front-end has been initiated.

Translation Tools
Several translation tools are being considered for inclusion in the Content Translation tool. The primary objective is to aid the user with Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools that can significantly decrease their effort while creating articles from existing content. The tools in consideration are Machine Translation (MT) engines, Translation Memory (TM) systems, bilingual dictionaries, glossaries, language proofing tools such as spellcheckers. The usefulness of these tools may vary according to the degree of support for individual languages and user's familiarity and proficiency with the source and target languages.

Development and research notes about each of these tools can be found in this page

Workflow and Technical Architecture
Main page about the technical architecture and workflow



Development Plan
The development milestones and upcoming plans can be found in /Roadmap/

Future plans
Some aspects are not part of the scope for the first iterations of the tool, but we have them in mind for the future. The include:
 * Real-time collaboration on a shared translation.
 * Add content to an existing translation.

How to participate

 * Try the tool
 * You can volunteer for our testing sessions. It may take some time for us to contact you since we select participants based on the languages that we are planning to enable next. In any case, we are interested in testing with as many users as possible and we'll appreciate your participation.
 * Provide feedback at the talk page.