title: Instructions for Translators

! Overview

The tiddler [[$:/Translators]] provides a dashboard for creating, editing and reviewing translatable strings. It has the following parts:

* A summary of progress
* A copy of the page controls to make it easier to work with the sidebar hidden
* Editor tabs, splitting the translatable strings into groups. Within each tab:
** A title, description and tiddler count for the group
** Radio buttons to select between showing single line and multi-line editors. Some longer strings are easier to edit with the multi-line editors
** A table of each translatable tiddler in the group, each showing:
*** The link and title of the translatable tiddler. In most cases the title is abbreviated; click the link to open the tiddler directly to see the full title
*** An editor for the translatable text
*** A dropdown with:
**** The original en-GB text
**** A button to revert by deleting the translatable tiddler

Most translatable tiddlers consist of a single field. The "Types" and "Help" groups have multiple fields that must be translated. The heading of the editor table gives the names of the fields.

! Step by Step

# Make sure you know how to save changes with ~TiddlyWiki, as described on http://tiddlywiki.com/
# Visit http://tiddlywiki.com/editions/translators/index.html
# Click the ''Save changes'' button below to save a copy of the translators edition to your local hard drive. Name the copy `MyTranslation.html`
#* You may want to save the file into your Dropbox folder (or equivalent) to benefit from automatic backups
# Open the `MyTranslation.html` in your browser
# Translate a single string to make sure things are working:
## Select the ''Sidebar'' tab in [[$:/Translators]]
## Type new text for the item ''Open/Caption'' (the text shown as the caption of the "Open" tab in the sidebar)
## Open the sidebar to check that the translation appears correctly
## Save changes
# Repeat for the other translatable strings
# While working on your translation, remember to save changes and take backups regularly

! Submitting your Translation

When your translation reaches the point that it's useful to be shared with others you can submit it for inclusion in the TiddlyWiki core.

The easiest way to submit your translation is to publish the HTML file on Dropbox (as described on http://tiddlywiki.com/) and then post a link to the TiddlyWiki discussion group.

Alternatively, you can email the translation directly to Jeremy Ruston or Mario Pietsch.

! Translation Advice

Prioritise the groups to translate first. A translation can be useful without being 100% complete; just covering the main groups will cover most of the text seen by ordinary users:

* Buttons
* Control Panel
* Date
* Edit Template
* Getting Started
* Import
* Miscellaneous
* Search
* Sidebar
* Tiddler Info

