March 23, 2015 at 10:15Crowdin: local pain medication
Localization without pain is dreamed by anyone who knows what localization is. Especially the one who wants to translate their product into dozens of languages at once dreams of it. And the one who has solid terms in the texts. And even stronger is the one who constantly updates with new lines that need to be translated, translated, translated with the same constancy ... Shot from Leonid Gaidai's film “The Captive of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures”
We cope with these and other difficulties thanks to Alconost a single tool that solves a dozen problems at once. Doctors would call such a thing a panacea. And we, localizers, call it the cloud platform Crowdin
. It was Crowdin who allowed us to do localization of applications, sites and games in more than 40 languages for dozens of different clients at the same time.
So, we identified six main localization difficulties that Crowdin eliminates:
1. Very. Many. Different. Formats. You have to work with a huge number of various files in various formats: .xml, .strings, .resx, .properties, .po, .yml, .json, .ini, .xliff, .csv, .xlsx and so on . If you upload them to Crowdin, he will “recycle” them and provide translators with only text without keys and code - nothing more that they could get confused or inadvertently ruin (which are some errors with encoding or damaged keys).
Files of different formats in one project
2. Confusion and delays with dozens of translation directions. Both the product and all related marketing materials need to be translated into 20 languages ... Imagine how many hitches can only occur when writing Russian texts, and now all this is in twentyfold!
With Crowdin, the translation process is transparent, understandable, and visual: you can monitor how each line is translated into each of the project languages.
The process will go even faster if you work through the API. You can configure Crowdin so that it receives a file every time it is updated from Github and automatically sends notifications to translators and pruders, and when all the lines are translated, it picks them up and puts the updated resource file back to the repository.
3. It is necessary to show everything, and explain what is shown.Often seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times. So I want to attach +100500 explanatory screenshots to the project so that the translators figure out what's what. And leave a few hundred comments. And mark all those lines that are in no case worth touching.
Crowdin can do it all. As many screenshots as you like, which become available to the whole team of translators and editors when downloading (no need to send a copy of screenshots to each translator, hooray). Same story with comments. For example, a translator has a question, he asks it, you get a notification, answer - and here, attention, the whole team sees the answer, including translators working with other language versions. It is no secret that most of the questions relate to the source code. Effective communication is convenient for everyone: translators do not need to ask again if there is already a question from a colleague, but you should answer each person personally, since everyone sees the answers.
4. Your product does not stand still.It is constantly improving: new lines are regularly added, and all of them need to be commented on, and each should be translated into 20 languages ... And it doesn’t matter if there is one new line or a hundred new ones - when it comes to multilingual translation, you won’t get in anyway.
In fact, continuous localization is not a problem, but a service . In this case, we at Alconost do this: coordinate the budget with the client and ask him to upload new lines directly to Crowdin. As soon as the next update arrives, we immediately receive a notification - and immediately begin localization.
5. We need a public translation memory and a glossary.Both that, and another simplifies the coordination of terminology. Not every translator will guess that the Snow Maiden is not a retired Snow Maiden! And you will have to somehow explain to everyone that this is a huge bloodthirsty monster, devouring everything in its path.
This is especially true for continuous localization: for example, for three months nothing was translated, and the translator managed to forget all the terminology. It is the translation memory and glossary in Crowdin that will help him quickly restore all the gaps. This function is equally important and useful when the translator changes on the project.
This is what glossary 6 looks like
. Still not to damage resource files!That is, it would be nice to “chew” the translators how to work with the source so that they only translate, and do not write code at the same time (we all know where this leads). And I would like to bring it all back just as quickly to its original form. Like a wave of a magic wand: op - and beauty :)
With Crowdin you don’t have to worry about code safety. No need to make bulky comments, no need to export and copy anything. It is enough to upload files to the platform and select a few settings to fit your needs. By the way, Alconost customers do not have to spend their precious time on this: our managers are ready to take over everything .
The .xml file, as the translator sees it. No code!
In general, it turns out a solid profit for developers, and for translators, and for managers, and for editors. If our experience eliminates the fear of localization of at least one Habr reader, we assume that they wrote all this for good reason :)
About the author
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and sites in 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
. It was Crowdin who allowed us to do localization of applications, sites and games in more than 40 languages for dozens of different clients at the same time.
So, we identified six main localization difficulties that Crowdin eliminates:
1. Very. Many. Different. Formats. You have to work with a huge number of various files in various formats: .xml, .strings, .resx, .properties, .po, .yml, .json, .ini, .xliff, .csv, .xlsx and so on . If you upload them to Crowdin, he will “recycle” them and provide translators with only text without keys and code - nothing more that they could get confused or inadvertently ruin (which are some errors with encoding or damaged keys).
Files of different formats in one project
2. Confusion and delays with dozens of translation directions. Both the product and all related marketing materials need to be translated into 20 languages ... Imagine how many hitches can only occur when writing Russian texts, and now all this is in twentyfold!
With Crowdin, the translation process is transparent, understandable, and visual: you can monitor how each line is translated into each of the project languages.
The process will go even faster if you work through the API. You can configure Crowdin so that it receives a file every time it is updated from Github and automatically sends notifications to translators and pruders, and when all the lines are translated, it picks them up and puts the updated resource file back to the repository.
3. It is necessary to show everything, and explain what is shown.Often seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times. So I want to attach +100500 explanatory screenshots to the project so that the translators figure out what's what. And leave a few hundred comments. And mark all those lines that are in no case worth touching.
Crowdin can do it all. As many screenshots as you like, which become available to the whole team of translators and editors when downloading (no need to send a copy of screenshots to each translator, hooray). Same story with comments. For example, a translator has a question, he asks it, you get a notification, answer - and here, attention, the whole team sees the answer, including translators working with other language versions. It is no secret that most of the questions relate to the source code. Effective communication is convenient for everyone: translators do not need to ask again if there is already a question from a colleague, but you should answer each person personally, since everyone sees the answers.
4. Your product does not stand still.It is constantly improving: new lines are regularly added, and all of them need to be commented on, and each should be translated into 20 languages ... And it doesn’t matter if there is one new line or a hundred new ones - when it comes to multilingual translation, you won’t get in anyway.
In fact, continuous localization is not a problem, but a service . In this case, we at Alconost do this: coordinate the budget with the client and ask him to upload new lines directly to Crowdin. As soon as the next update arrives, we immediately receive a notification - and immediately begin localization.
5. We need a public translation memory and a glossary.Both that, and another simplifies the coordination of terminology. Not every translator will guess that the Snow Maiden is not a retired Snow Maiden! And you will have to somehow explain to everyone that this is a huge bloodthirsty monster, devouring everything in its path.
This is especially true for continuous localization: for example, for three months nothing was translated, and the translator managed to forget all the terminology. It is the translation memory and glossary in Crowdin that will help him quickly restore all the gaps. This function is equally important and useful when the translator changes on the project.
This is what glossary 6 looks like
. Still not to damage resource files!That is, it would be nice to “chew” the translators how to work with the source so that they only translate, and do not write code at the same time (we all know where this leads). And I would like to bring it all back just as quickly to its original form. Like a wave of a magic wand: op - and beauty :)
With Crowdin you don’t have to worry about code safety. No need to make bulky comments, no need to export and copy anything. It is enough to upload files to the platform and select a few settings to fit your needs. By the way, Alconost customers do not have to spend their precious time on this: our managers are ready to take over everything .
The .xml file, as the translator sees it. No code!
In general, it turns out a solid profit for developers, and for translators, and for managers, and for editors. If our experience eliminates the fear of localization of at least one Habr reader, we assume that they wrote all this for good reason :)
About the author
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and sites in 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com