Multilingual Websites

Remy BlaettlerChief of the System, Supertext AGremy@supertext.ch | remy.supertext.com | @swissghostrider

Common mistakes and general knowledge

About me

Remy Blaettler“Chief of the System”

Engineer Spent some time to study and work in the US Now back with my own translation agency Supertext

Strings with placeholders

You had 10 visitors on Jan 27, 2012.

“You had “ + number + “ visitors on “ + date + “.”

Translated:Am 27. Jan 2012 hatten sie 10 Besucher.

What the translator gets:“You had”“visitors on”

Strings with placeholders

Format StringsFormat(“You had {1} visitors on {2}.”, number, date)

Translation:“Am {2} hatten sie {1} Besucher.”

Strings with placeholders

Plural formsYou had 1 visitors on Jan 27, 2012.

Add multiple versions:

1. You had no visitors on Jan 27, 2012.

2. You had one visitor on Jan 27, 2012.

3. You had 27 visitors on Jan 27, 2012.

Strings with placeholders

Plural formsExample in Polish with plik = file: 1 plik 2,3,4 pliki 5-21 pliko'w 22-24 pliki 25-31 pliko'w

ngettext() can solve this in PHP, Java and .NET

Resource files

Always put strings into a separate file

PHP.po files

Microsoft.NET.resx files

iPhone.strings files

Flags for language selection

Best place for the language selection

Ok BestFair

Poor

Fair Good

Language selection

Use a Globe or a Map icon

Country and/or Language Selection1. Country/Region2. Language3. Country/Region (Language)

Language selection

Always in native language

Politically correct

No need to step on someone's toes China does not recognize Taiwan as a country Status of Kosovo is in dispute

Use Country / Region for country selection

Rest of the world?

Or “Other countries”

Avoid an implicit rating of countries

Translation tools

Translation MemoryStores every translated string Duplicates and similar sentences for free

TerminologyCorporate language in a dictionary Which words are ok? What should be translated how

Translation tools

One tool for all file formatsText from InDesign, PHP files and CMS are translated in the same tool. Cross Media Corporate Language Translator doesn’t need special knowledge

Translation tools

Trados / Passolo De facto market leader Expensive (EUR 500 – 4000) Desktop app / old technology Most supported file types Strong Translation Memory fuzzy matching Complex Terminology support

Kinda like Word, nobody likes it, everybody uses it.

Translation tools

Across and StarKinda in the same league as Trados (with the same issues)

MemoQGets great reviews, but not widely used

MemSourceNew kid on the block,

Translation tools

XTM / Wordbee Cloud based Monthly fee per user (~ EUR 30) Management and workflow tools Parallel translation possible

Most common file types

Translation tools

Get Localization / Crowdin / Transifex Cloud based Mainly for software localization Weak Translation Memory and Terminology Free or monthly fee Limited file types

File formats

XLIFFXML Localisation Interchange File Format

TMXTranslation Memory Exchange

TBXTerm Base Exchange

SEO

Google translateWill get you punished!

Linkswww.supertext.deBetter for SEO

www.supertext.com/deBetter for local content

UTF-8

Your website?

Let’s look at some websites

We need YOU!

Web Developer in Zürich

jQuery / HTML

ASP.NET

MySQL

Links

Plural Formshttp://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/l10n/pluralformshttp://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/gettext/manual/html_node/Plural-forms.html