Also make sure where using lists (numbered,bullettted, or definition lists) to isolate EACH list item in a SEPARATE translation unit.

Translators should NEVER have to translate a long block for the full list, including the leading asterisks (*) or hash signs (#), or alternated semi-colons and colons (; and :) for definition lists, or just colons (:) for indented blocks. These symbols at start of wiki lines are part of MARKUP and should NEVER be within the "<translate></translate>" tags. So : you MUST close any open translate tag which is opened before this block, and if needed reopen it after that block, and encapsulate each item of the list).

Yes this requires a bit more work (not hard to do) to prepare the page but it's much simpler for translators, and you can more easily add new items or updae a single item without requring translators to restart the translation of the full block. Additionally, those large blocks don't work well with the translation memory and it's much more difficult for transltors to see what needs to be changed in the translation if a large translation unit has been changed in the source.

If you have long paragraphs of text with several sentences (one of them at least being terminated by a full stop and logically separable), you can still break that paragraph into several translation units by inserting "</translate> <translate>" in the middle of the paragraph, just after the full stop separator. This translation break will still not break the rendering as a single paragraph.

So in summary, keep each translation unit short !!! And verify it just after marking a page for transaltion : immediately start to translate it to a single language of your choice to see the result in the translation interface. All translation units should never be more than a couple of lines.

This is valid for translating any page on all wikis (not just these weekly or monthly tech news !)

Thanks.

2014-11-15 21:41 GMT+01:00 Amir E. Aharoni amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il:

Thanks a lot for preparing this, Erica.

A few tips for the next issues, that would make the translators' work easier:

• Make the paragraphs as short as possible.
• Use lists (numbered or bulleted) wherever relevant.
• Announce the first version at last a week before distribution;

preferably earlier.

• Freeze the text at least two days before distribution, and announce the

freezing on this mailing list (if you did announce it - sorry, I must have missed it).

Again, thanks to all the people involved!

-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com ‪“We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

2014-11-15 1:46 GMT+02:00 Erica Litrenta elitrenta@wikimedia.org:

...

Hi all. I feel like saying "Thank you" really isn't enough, sometimes. The current issue of the newsletter was just delivered in 20 languages (+ English). You are amazing. I'd also like to thank everybody who's supporting me as I'm learning how to handle this (you know who you are). My apologies if any edits made after my previous announcement invalidated your work, I'll be more careful in the future. Enjoy your weekend,

Elitre (WMF)

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Engagement_(Product)

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 10:13 PM, Erica Litrenta <elitrenta@wikimedia.org

...

wrote:

...

Hi all, a new issue of the VisualEditor newsletter is now open to translations!

Current issue:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Newsletter/2014/November

Direct translation link:https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Translate&group=pag...

This will be delivered to the people who already signed up in the past months (please sign up! [1]) in addition to a list of relevant pages which includes at a minimum all the Wikipedias where VisualEditor is already the default editor [2]. I plan to send it toward the end of the workweek.

Thank you for your invaluable help!

Best, Elitre (WMF)

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Engagement_(Product)

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Newsletter [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Rollouts

---

Translators-l mailing list Translators-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l

---

Translators-l mailing list Translators-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l