Launchpad Help > Translations > Translators and Translation Teams in Launchpad

Overview

• In Launchpad Translations (Rosetta) there is one translators group called Launchpad Translators translation group.

• This unique translators group is comprised of serveral Launchpad translations teams, each team assigned for doing translations in a specific language. The have names like "Launchpad Swedish Translators". Members of such translations teams have permissions for translation into the language appointed for their team.

• There is one "Launchpad Translators" team gathering all persons involved in translating or managing translations using Launchpad Translators.

• On the following page you can check the translation guide for your language.

• The development or this group is discussed in this blueprint

Goal and Purpose

Launchpad Translators group

Launchpad Translators group is a set of teams and individual supervisors working on translating software hosted in Launchpad. We want to build the Launchpad Translators Group as a confederation of translation teams each team working at translating project hosted by Launchpad in it's language.

Project maintainers should be able to trust Launchpad Translators Group and appoint it to manage translations for their projects in all languages.

Launchpad translation teams

Launchpad translations teams are groups of translators doing translations in a specific language for projects hosted in Launchpad.

There is one Launchpad translation team assigned for each language.

All members of Launchpad translation teams should be experts in translating software and be aware about the work of other teams from Launchpad or other translations project working outside of Launchpad.

Launchpad translation teams are not the only translation groups in the free software ecosystem. We are aware of other translation groups or projects like the Gnome Translation Project, The Translation Project (GNU), OpenOffice.org or Mozilla localization teams and we promote the collaboration with these projects.

Working with Launchpad translators

Project maintainers

Below is a list of steps you might follow in order to start using Launchpad Translations (Rosetta) and have your project translated in many languages.

• Before procedding to the next steps, please take a moment and see how to use Launchpad Translations to make translation available for your project. You can find this information at Launchpad Translations help pages

• Chose a translation permissions policy and appoint Launchpad Translators Group for doing the translation. Follow this link to find more info about Choosing permissions policy.

• The direct link to your project permissions policy is: https://translations.launchpad.net/<YOUR-PROJECT-NAME>/+changetranslators.

• Use the Launchpad Translators team announcement list for announcing things that affect all languages (ex. new release, major string changes, string freeze... etc) or each team for things affecting only one language - LINK TO LIST
• If there are any translations errors or bug in your project please assign them to the Launchpad Translators team. We will look into the problem and assign them to the proper team or person.- LINK TO TEAM
• In case in your project's Answers section people ask about specific translations or localization matters, you can assign those questions to the Launchpad Translators teams. We will try to analyze it and have a knowledgable person take care or it. - LINK TO TEAM

Translators

Below is a list of steps you might follow in order to start using Launchpad Translations (Rosetta) for translating your favorite project of distribution in your language.

• Before doing any translation work please take a moment and learn how to use Launchpad for translating projects/operating systems. For more information check the Launchpad Translations help pages

• Consult the list of translations teams and check the team assigned for your language. If there is no team assigned for your language please follow the required step to create a new one. You can find more information about creating a new team at the end of this page.

• Follow the procedure for joining the team for your language. Before joining a team you might be asked to do some translation in order to check your translation skills.
• Follow the rules of your team, communicate and keep in touch with the team.

• Follow the translation guide for your language. You can find it in the list of translation guides

• When translating downstream always check with the upstream project and commit your changes.

Managing a team

Below you will find general information about managing a team and running a translation team:

• Create a webpage / wiki where people could find general information about your team, such as:
  • short and long term team goal
  • new membership acceptance conditions
  • translation guide
  • common terminology (ex a link to a glossary, terminology list, dictionary)
  • how to get in contact with the team (team contact or team members)

• Add your translation guide for your language to the list of translation guides

• Make sure the team act as a team.
  • Keep the team members up to date with the latest actions
  • keep in contact with team members and try to collect feadback and status
  • guide new members and help them get allong with the team and translation work
  • try to recruit new members into your translation team.
• From time to time take a look at what other people are doing. In many cases you are not the only team/person translationg software in your language.
• As the coordinator for your team, you act as the primary contact person for the team and are responsible for organizing the other translators in your team. This includes attempting to prevent multiple translators simultaneously attempting translations of the same file.
• Coordinators need to be subscribed to the Launchpad Translators team mailing list LINK-HERE. This is highly recommended for all Launchpad translators, but required for coordinators.

Quality assurance

Below is a list of ways you can improve the translations quality.

• When you have translated a string, read it again and see if there are any error or the translations sound right in your language. If the translated string does not make sense for you, definelty it is wrong and you should redo/rephrase it.
• If it feasible always as another team member to review your translations.

• Translations consistency is an important aspect of translation quality. You can check the translation of a word / phrase in multiple free software project using the http://open-tran.eu/ Open Tran website

• Terminology dictionary
• Before allowing new members in your team make sure they have previously done good translations and are aware of the team translation guide

Common/best practice

Below you will find a set of common practices for running a team

• Don't forget about other translators or translations groups. In many cases you or your are not the only one doing translation in the free software ecosystem. Always keep in touch with that other teams are doing and make sure the translation teams for your language are translating free software using the same "language". Try to create or join a communication channel channel common to all translation teams for your language and use it for talking about important aspect that affect all translations.
• Define a procedure for accepting new team members.

  • The acceptance level may vary according to the percentage of already finished translations. For languages with few translators and translations already done team acceptance could be lower than in the case of a language with many translators, translations made and the presence of GTP, OpenOffice , etc upstream translation projects.

  • Before accepting a member you may ask him/her to provide some translation. If the translations are great you may accept the new member. Otherwise giving feedback about why the translation are not good is a great help. Try to use a forum, mailinglist or IRC channel for giving feedback to potential new members.
• Create a webpage/wikipage for the translations guide. This guide should contain:
  • First rule: "If a translation does not make sense for you / your grandmother, definitely it is wrong!".
  • Second rule: "Make your translation useful and adapt to the context. Don't follow always the original text". Like for example "Tile children" may sound funny in many languages so try "Arrange windows as tile". The original text is not always the correct one.

  • a common terminology or a link to a common terminology dictionary or glossary. Don't forget about open-tran.eu . You can also install the glossary used by Romanian teams (here is the code)

  • information about what should be translated and what not
  • specific rules for translating into your language
  • a list of frequent errors.
  • explaining the plurar form for your language and how to use them
  • how you should translate menu accelerators / shortcuts
  • inform the translators about other translation project and how we should cooperate and work together
• Make sure you have a good communication channel for all members of the team or subteam. Try to reach all communication types: mailinglist, forum, IRC channel.

Creating a team

Launchpad Translators Group will appoint one team for each language. To add more teams for a specific language you will need to add them as a subteam of the initial team.

Creating a new Launchpad team for a language and asking to be assigned for that language is only required if already there is no team appointed for that language.

To check the current status you can consult the Launchpad Translators Group in Rosetta.

If there is already a team appointed for a language you can still create your own translation team but in order to translate software in your language you will need to become a subteam of the already appointed team for your language. To do so please ask one of the Launchpad team administrators assigned for you language.

If the Launchpad team assigned for your language is no longer active, please let us know by filling an answer in Launchpad Translations (Rosetta).

Steps to follow for creating a team and appointing to a language.

• Join the launchpad translators discussions/announcements list - ADD LINK TO THIS LIST
• Create a wiki page or a web page explaining how translators should work in your team.
  • You can follow the hints from our best practices section and adapt them to your language/team

  • Add your translation guide for your language to the list of translation guides

• If you translation karma is over 5000 go to the final step
• If you are already a coordinator of a translation team, let us know about this, and go to step X

• If there is already a GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, etc. upstream project from your language point us some translation you have made for those projects then go to the final step

• If there is no upstream project already set for your language please consider following the required steps in creating one for your language. There is no problem if in the same time you are the coordinator for multiple translation projects.

• Final step - create a lp-l10n-CC team and ask Launchpad Translators Leaders to appoint a your language to this team. We use iso-639 two letters code and if not available we fallback to three letters code.