Translate Website@School Program

1. Introduction

2. Requirements

3. Log in on the translators website

4. To the Translate Tool
    4.1 Translate Tool overview
    4.2 Translate a language
        4.2.1 What about those ~'s (tildes)
        4.2.2 Tips for translators
    4.3 Update a language

5. Thank you!

1. Introduction

The Translate Tool is a special, very easy to use device to translate the Website@School program in a new language or to update an existing translation.

This chapter is written in such a way that persons who have never seen Website@School can start translating words like 'OK' and 'Save' and sentences like 'You entered a wrong password' in your language.
We assume you are unfamiliar with translating with a web browser like Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari, so please carefully read this chapter.

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2. Requirements

Translating is not difficult, but you need some things. What you need to successfully and easily translate the Website@School program?

When all the above conditions are met, you are ready for the real stuff. Here we go!

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3. Log in on the translators website

Proceed as follows:

This is the login 'dialogue' (dialogue is terrible computer jargon, used to describe a sort of communication or 'dialog' between a computer and its user).
Anyhow, enter your login name and password in the fields. Below is an example. The password is invisible, you only see ******** asterisks.

[ Translators site, log in with username and password ]
translate_translate_tool_log_in_name_passw.png

After entering a valid user name and password, press the [Enter] key on your keyboard, or click the [OK] button.
If you have entered the correct login name and password, you enter the Website@School Welcome dialogue:

[ Welcome, greyed out icons ]
translate_translate_tool_startcenter.png

Most icons in the upper left corner are greyed out, meaning you have no access to them. If you want full access to a Website@School site, please read the Basic procedures for beginners and look for the 'Sandbox'.

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4. To the Translate Tool

lease click on the [ tools ] Tools Manager icon to open the Tools dialogue:
[ Tools, summary, greyed out tools in Menu ]
translate_translate_tool_all_tools.png

You are in the Tools manager overview. In the Menu inaccessible tools are greyed out.

In the Menu click on the Translate Tool link to open the Translate Tool dialogue, which is described in the next paragraph.

4.1 Translate Tool Overview

In the Menu, you have just clicked the Translate Tool link and have thus entered the Translate Tool itself:
[ Translate Tool, list of languages ]
translate_translate_tool_open.png

The list of languages is visible, but is now much longer. Thank you all!
We already have entered the language you are going to translate. Please look for the name of the language you are going to translate.The name of the language is in your laanguage.

NOTE:
Please, do NOT touch the other translations!!

Click on the name of the language you are going to translate, as example for this manual: Français (French).

4.2 Translate a language

You have just selected a language, for example Français. Now you see something like:
[ Translation for LanguageName (language code) - Part. Page top ]
translate_translate_tool_translate_language_new_user.png

In the Menu the different parts of Website@School program that need to be translated can be selected. The selected part is underlined: General. That's the translation to start with. By clicking the other blue links in the Menu, you can translate the other parts of the Website@School program.

On the right side of the Menu, the Translation for Language-'language code'-'Part' can be seen. Below, as example, French:

Do not be frightened by the text below. It is difficult indeed and we can explain it via mail, telephone or Skype. Just start translating and forget the '~' (tilde) stuff for the moment. Your translation is more important! We will come back on the ~ (tilde) stuff later.

Pleas do read about things NOT to touch, specially texts and signs in {RED}.

Below is a copy of the text you see in the picture below. We split it in two parts for the NOTICE below:

Translation for Español (es) - General

Here you can modify the translations. Please note that codes like <strong> and {VALUE} should be left as-is (untranslated); these codes are necessary for the proper working of the program and should be copied verbatim.

NOTE:
Stuff like <strong> and {VALUE} are part of the program code and must not be translated. The best way of working is to not even touch things like {HOTKEY}, {SITENAME}, {ALERTS},.
SUMMARY: stay out of stuff in RED!

Now we give some examples to illustrate translating.
[ Translation for LanguageName (language code) - Part, entry fields. Page top ]
translate_translatee_tool_translate_language_top.png

Let's take, as example, sentence number 2:

[ Numbered sentence (English) with translaton in entry field (Spanish) ]
translate_sentence2_en+es.png

The first line is in English. That's the basic language, the mother language of Website@School.
The second line, the parent language, is the line to be translated. It is now Spanish because that was the language the translator of French preferred to replace with French words. Spanish was selected for him when we created his account. It cannot be changed any more.

Another example. It could be that the picture above is also fine for a translator who understands Spanish and a bit of English. She can now replace the language in Chinese, by replacing the Spanish text:

[ Numbered sentence (English) with translation in entry field (Chinese) ]
translate_sentence2_en+zh.png

You also see text and signs in RED or something like {MIN_LENGTH}, {MIN_DIGIT} and similar stuff. Please, please, when translating leave those parts untouched. It is computer code! Here is an example:

[ Numbered sentence (English) with translaton in entry field (French), texts in red ]
translate_translate_tool_translate_language_red_text.png

NOTE:
Please save often (at least every quarter of an hour or even more). This is done by scrolling down (or with Page Down on the keyboard) to the bottom of the page and clicking the [Save] button. Remember, your work is only on your computer and has to be send to the server somewhere in the Netherlands. It would be a small disaster if you have translated for a couple of hours and the connection was lost during translating. All your precious work gone! Please save often!

Saving takes time. After a while you see:
[ message= succes ]
translate_translate_tool_translate_language_saved.png

NOTE:
Please wait for the confirmation message in the yellow bar.

After saving your text, you can continue translating until that part is done. Below is the end part of a translation:

[ Translation for LanguageName (language code) - Part. Page bottom ]
translate_translate_tool_translate_language_bottom.png

Explanation:

4.2.1 What about those ~'s (tildes)

Now please read what is on top of the page where you started. Here is that difficult text again:

Translation for Français (fr) - General

Here you can modify the translations. Please note that codes like <strong> and {VALUE} should be left as-is (untranslated); these codes are necessary for the proper working of the program and should be copied verbatim.

Also note the '~' (tilde) is used as a shorthand notation to define hotkeys in dialogs. For example, a field labeled ~File could be selected by pressing the keycombination [Alt-F] or [Cmnd-F]. The German translation could be ~Datei, with hotkey [Alt-D] or [Cmnd-D].
It is important that a hotkey is unique within a dialog, i.e. if you, the translator, have used the letter D already in that dialog, your German translation might become Dat~ei, yielding hotkey [Alt-E] or [Cmnd-E].
In short: it is up to you, the translator, to choose a good set of hotkeys by carefully placing the tildes.

What is a 'hotkey'?
A hotkey is a key or a combination of keys on a computer keyboard that, when pressed at one time, performs a task [...] more quickly than by using a mouse or other input device. Source: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/hot-key.
In Website@School hotkeys are used for blind webmasters. They cannot use a mouse to put the cursor in the right field to enter data. A key combination can put the cursor in the right field. For example, when using the Firefox browser and adding a new user, the combination [Shift+Alt+N] puts the cursor in the 'Name' field. When the blind user arrives at the password confirmation field, she 'sees' (by listening to a screen reader or using a braille reader) 'Confirm password'and notices the bold and underlined character 'w'. In Firefox the combination [Shift+Alt+W] puts the cursor in the 'Confirm password' field. On an Apple PC a blind webmaster would have used the [Cmd+W] key combination. And that's because, when translating, you put the tilde before the 'w'. You can put the tilde wherever you like, but not twice on the same place on one web page. As example English and Slovak in the General part:

English: 6. ~Save, 7. ~Done
Slovak: 6. ~Uložiť, 7. Ukončiť
As you can see in 7, the 'U' cannot be used for a shortcut key because the 'U' is already used in '~Uložiť', which is on the same page. That's why Nikoleta has put the tilde on the 'k': U~končiť.

Maybe, after having translated a bit, i.e. have some working experience, the text is not that difficult to understand. If not, please mail, phone or Skype us so we can help you.

We thank you on behalf of every pupil, parent, teacher and school in your country. You do a wonderful job for them.

4.2.2 Tips for translators

When translating, you find many computer terms which could be unfamiliar to you. Maybe we can be of help with these links:
  1. http://translate.websiteatschool.eu/xlate.php. These are the old translations of our previous Content Management Sytem. Available languages:
    BG (Bulgarian), BR (Brazilian), CZ (Czech), DA (Danish), DE (German), EN (English), ES (Spanish), FI (Finnish), FR (French), GB (Chinese), HU (Hungarian), IT (Italian), JP (Japanese), NL (Dutch), NO (Norwegian), PL (Polish), SE (Swedish), TR (Turkish).
  2. http:translate.websiteatschool.eu/waxlate.php. These are all available translations of Website@School. Because languages are under construction, the list is not public. Please write us a mail and we send you a copy

How to use them? Enter 2 familiar languages, for example EN and SE (available in our old program, but not yet in the new, so use the first link) and you find many terms. Use the 'Find' or 'Search' option in your browser for a specific word. For example: password:

 6. logged_password_forget
EN: Forgot password?
SE: Glömt lösenordet?

You can also look on the Internet (Google is your friend) for computer terms dictionaries. Or ask help from another teacher or a neighbour. Everyone, like you, wants to help education.

NEW USERS:
Dear NEW USERS, here ends the manual part for new translators. When you have questions, please mail, phone or Skype Dirk Schouten.

Logging out

In the upper right corner of the screen you find:
[ Log out ]
translate_translate_tool_logout.png
Log out by clicking on the link. Thereafter you are returned to the log in screen.

4.3 Update a language

Updating a language is necessary every time a new version of Website@School sees the light of day. A new version may contain new modules, themses, features etc. And it may contain correstions of errors in an translation.

To help you finding what needs your attention, we have web pages that tell you how:

XXX Copies of the webtexts here in stead of links.

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5. Thank you!

Your translation is ready. It took quite some time, but you did it for all pupils in your country. You enabled them to cooperate and learn IT. Thank you!
Author: Dirk Schouten <dirk (at) websiteatschool (dot) eu>
Last updated: 2014-12-09, version 1.11