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Launchpad Help > Translations

Overview

Using Launchpad, you can translate free software projects and distribution packages into your own language. All you need are your Launchpad account and a web browser. There's no special software and in most cases you don't need to join a team to get started.

Tip: if you haven't already, tell Launchpad which languages you want to work with. Once you've done that, Launchpad will only show you the languages you're interested in.

Starting to translate

You can translate both the free software projects themselves, known as upstream projects, (such as Limewire) and Linux distribution packages using Launchpad.

When you're deciding what to translate, think about the following:

• Can you work on the upstream project, rather than the distribution package?
• Do you know and understand the software well enough to know the context of the strings you need to translate?
• Are you familiar with the project or distro's translation standards?

To learn about the processes and standards that a project applies to its translations, you should get in touch with the translation team that manages its localisation into your language. Most projects work with a translation group - an umbrella organisation of many teams - who look after translation quality control. Each translation group assigns teams to look after particular languages.

Note: You don't need to join that team in order to make translations: they exist to review translations.

You can find out which translation team to speak to by:

1. checking which translation group is associated with the project - visit the project's translations overview page, e.g. https://translations.launchpad.net/silva

2. visiting that translation group's overview page and reading its teams list.

When to translate distribution packages

Ubuntu and other operating systems (distributions) use Launchpad to translate the software that they provide to their users. These distributions take work from upstream projects and modify it, usually in subtle ways, to make it suitable for their system and users.

You should translate a distribution's package of a project once once you understand the rules, standards, and complexities of translating that particular package and you know why the distribution translation needs to differ from the upstream one.

You may find the Ubuntu community's guide to translating Ubuntu helpful.

Next steps

If you're a project owner, see our guide to using Launchpad to translate your project. If you're an experienced translator and want to help in the review of translations, see our guide to translation groups.