View source for Wiki translation guide

This page will provide instructions and guidelines for translating pages using the Translate extension.
=Instructions for translating pages=
Pages that have been marked for translation will have a languages bar at the top of the page. The 4 boxes next to each language show the completeness of the translation-- in the example image below, Chinese has 4 empty boxes as no translation has been started. You can translate to a language not shown in the bar. 

[[File:translatebar.jpg]]

#In order to begin translating, first click on the "'''Translate this page'''" text above the bar.
#You will then be taken to the Translate tab for the page, which has a settings bar at the top (shown in the image below) and a list of the sections or units to be translated. Select the appropriate language to be translated to (''i.e.'', "zh" for Chinese) and then press the '''Fetch''' button at the right. 
#*[[File:translatesettings.jpg]]
#The page will then refresh to show the units to be translated for the selected language, as seen in the image below. Units that have not been translated since the page was last saved are in green, as shown below. To translate a unit, click on the title of unit, which is left of the text, i.e. "'''Translations:ADE User Guide/1/zh'''". 
#*[[File:currentmessage1.jpeg]]
#Once a unit title is clicked on, you can input the translation in the box below the original text, as seen in the image below. Clicking the down arrow next to the text will copy the original untranslated text into the translation box. 
#*[[File:currentmessage2.jpeg]]
#Once the translation has been inputted, either click '''Save (a)''' or '''Save and open next (b)'''. '''Save (a)''' will save the translation and close that unit. '''Save and open next (b)''' will save the translation, close the unit, and open the next unit. 
#*'''Skip to next (d)''' will simply skip to the next unit without saving the current unit. 
#*Clicking on the '''X''' button in the top right corner of the unit will simply close the unit without saving.

=Translation Guidelines=
==Code and Fixed-Width Text== 
Text in <nowiki><code></nowiki> and <nowiki><tt></nowiki> tags should not be translated, as it typically refers to code that is put in the software and is not changed for different languages. For exmaple, the following code:
<pre><code>Text</code></pre>
Will remain the same when translated: 
<pre><code>Text</code></pre>


And the following fixed-width text:
<pre><tt>Text</tt></pre>
Will also remain the same when translated: 
<pre><tt>Text</tt></pre>

==Links==
Links should also not be translated, but should be reformatting to link to the same language as the translation. For example:
<pre>[[ADE User Guide]]</pre>
would change to this for a Chinese translation:
<pre>[[ADE User Guide/zh|ADE User Guide]]</pre>

As a general rule, a forwardslash "/" + the language suffix will be added to the link so that "ADE User Guide" becomes "ADE User Guide/zh". Then a "|" + the original name of the link are added to the end, in this example "|ADE User Guide", so when the link appears in the text it will not have the language suffix at the end.

==Parameters==
A parameter will show as part of a function or method name, typically in parenthesis, but also on its own in the text. When it is on its own it often either has brackets, is bold, or italicized. For example, for the following method AddModule(fileName,merge), «fileName» and «merge» are parameters. When they appear in text they may show up as «fileName», '''filename''', or ''filename''.

Parameters do not need to be translated, but can be. The important thing is to keep parameters consistent throughout the text, so if a specific parameter is translated, it should be translated throughout the text. It is preferrable to be consistent across all parameters -- either all parameters will be translated or no parameters.

=See Also=
*[[Special:PageTranslation]] for a list of all pages to be translated.