Help:Content translation/Translating/Initial machine translation

A paragraph can be added to the translation in different ways. When available, machine translation is used by default as an initial translation.

Options for the initial translation
The "initial translation" options in the tools column allow you to adjust which initial content to use as a starting point for each paragraph. The options available are the following:


 * Use a machine translation service. This allows you to start with an automatically translated version f the original paragraph. The number and name of these options will vary. Options such as "Use Apertium" or "Use Yandex" will be available depending on the supported languages for these services (more on this on the next section).
 * Copy original content. The original paragraph will be copied over into the translation. Although content will remain in the original language, some elements are adapted to the target wiki. for example, links will point to the corresponding article in the target language, and templates will be converted into the equivalent ones. Translators still have to rewrite the content completely, but the adapted elements may be easier to reuse.
 * Start with an empty paragraph. Starting with an empty paragraph can be useful in cases where the alternative content requires more work than just typing it.

You can quickly switch between the different approaches independently on each paragraph, since each one may work best on different kinds of content. Switching between the different approaches preserves the changes you made on the paragraph. In this way, you can try a different approach even if you started editing the original one without the fear to lose your changes if you finally decide to go back to the original approach. Two additional options are relevant in this context:


 * The reset translation option is available when you made modifications on the initial content provided. It allows to restore the initial content by discarding the changes you made.
 * The mark as default option is available when you select an approach for a paragraph that is not the default. It allows to set the default approach for the next paragraphs that are added to the translation. This can be very convenient if you found that a particular translation service works generally better than the default one.