Table of contents
- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Tor documents to translate
- Technical details
- External translation resources
Introduction
Thanks for helping us translate our software! On this guide we give you information about the translations, please read it to solve your doubts and feel free to propose changes or additions.
- Translators are, as the rest of the Tor community, bound to respect the Code of Conduct: https://gitweb.torproject.org/community/policies.git/tree/code_of_conduct.txt
- Please consider helping with translations in your native language, however don't start a new regional variant of your language if there is a more general language available (for example: contribute to the French translation, instead of starting Canadian French). This is due to the fact that each additional language requires more resources, including a set of committed translators and space on our servers. There are many files to translate and keep up to date to maintain a language for the Tor Project. Moreover, once translated, there are always future updates and new pages needing translation. If more users benefit from a translation, that translation is more updated and better quality, as it will also benefit from the help of a larger number of volunteers keeping it up to date.
- We also recommend forming a team for your language: this way, the content can be reviewed by at least one other person, producing translations that are of higher quality and are easier to maintain. To organize your team, you can start a topic on our forum, or also write to our mailing list.
- Remember that the username and email you choose will be made public in the translation platform, as you will be 'signing' the changes with it. We encourage the use of pseudonyms!
Tor documents to translate
The different translations needed for the Tor Project can be found at https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tor/
This is the list of resources for translation ordered by priority. Please make sure translations are complete in order to start translating documents further down the list:
Tor Browser
The Tor Browser has several resources for translation.
- Tor Browser: Please make sure your language has not failing checks
- Tor Browser Manual can be translated at https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tor/tor-browser/tor-browser-user-manual/
Tor Browser User Manual
This is an important website that is linked from the Browser and has documentation useful for new Tor Browser users. It is necessary to translate it to release a Tor Browser locale.
Translate later - Preview (user: tor-www - no password) Live
OnionSproutsBot
This is a Telegram bot that allows you to download Tor Browser over Telegram. It also provides some basic instructions and other download URLs. This is useful when the Tor Project page is blocked. You can test this bot in Telegram: https://t.me/gettor_bot
Style: When translating this resource, please take into account that this is not a traditional UI, the UI is a chat client and the communication should feel like a conversation between two people. Write as if you were talking to a friend.
Tor Project website
This resource is written in markdown and translates the main website
Translate - Preview (user: tor-www - no password) - Stats - Live
Support Portal
Our documentation for the whole of Tor Project, in FAQ format.
Translate - Preview (user: tor-www - no password)- Live
Community portal
Here we show all ways to volunteer for the Tor Project (localization, running a tor relay, giving talks about tor)
Translate - Preview (user: tor-www - no password) - Live.
Onion Launchpad
A customizable landing page for organizations and individuals to advertise their onion addresses to their audiences. The landing page is easy to navigate and describes to users how to connect to an Onion Service. The text (or copy) is available in over 60 languages.
Translate - Preview (user: tor-www - no password) -
Tails
See https://tails.net/contribute/how/translate/.
Technical details
Please read this section to be aware of the most common errors while translating.
Markdown text
Our websites are written using Markdown, which is a text format with simple syntax, similar to wiki syntax. To learn more about markdown syntax you can read this page: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax
Current problems in translations
In this page you can see some of the current problematic strings : https://tpo.pages.torproject.net/community/l10n/
Weblate also provides checks for the strings. See Weblate's checks by going to https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tor/#languages and clicking the checks number for your language. Please try to clean the list once in a while.
Links
One of the most common translation mistakes are links. Links in markdown are like this: [linked word](link), where link can be a URL as in https://community.torproject.org/ , or an internal link as ../training/ . For example:
See our [documentation about circumvention](../circumvention)See our [documentation about circumvention](https://tb-manual.torproject.org/circumvention/)
Remember not to leave any spaces between [] and (), because otherwise the link will not work.
| good | bad |
|---|---|
See [here](../circumvention) |
See [here] (../circumvention) |
See [here](../circumvention) |
See [here](../ circumvention) |
Also important: Leave the link untranslated:
| good | bad |
|---|---|
Mira [aquí](../circumvention) |
Mira [aquí](../censura) |
The pillows (#)
Pillow signs at the start of a string will become headings when the string is rendered.
For example: ##### Title will become:
Title
Is important to keep the same amount of '#' that the source has, as it affects the page layout.
The quotes with '`'
Some words are wrapped between ` characters. This quotes give the word a special styling.
Example:
Open the `torrc`becomes: Open the torrc
Please don't replace them with other types of quotes, nor add this quotes to strings that don't have it.
The alt attribute
In HTML
When we have images for translation, many times they have an alt attribute, as this:
<img class="" src="../../static/images/how-tor-works.png" alt="How Tor Browser works">
In the example, the alt attribute value is "How Tor Browser works"**. And we should translate the alt attributes to our language, as they are used by screen readers to provide a description of the image for people that cannot see the picture. But unfortunately many translators overlook it. The rest of the attributes do not usually need to be changed.
In markdown
Sometimes the images are included with markdown, as this:
In this case, Image of an onion with a caution sign is the alt attribute that needs translation.The address of the image is between parenthesis and is usually not changed.
Access keys
Access keys are used to create shortcuts on the interface. They usually are marked by an underscore on the string when translating, and they activate when typing Alt + key on the keyboard.
For example for this menu:
We can see the access keys underlined on each of the menu options:
- A for Administration password
- M for MAC Address anonymization
- O for Offline mode, and so on
For this, it is important to give different access keys to each option on a menu.
When we are translating, access keys appear as this:
Or for example in the Tor Browser translations, they will appear separately. In this case you can deduce the access key string with Key information and the screenshot:
Quality checks on the websites
Ways to review your work and ensure that your translations do not create problems
- Navigate and see how your translation looks:
- There are preview versions for the yet-not-released languages at https://review.torproject.net/tpo/web/\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\[website\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\] /l10n (user: tor-www, no password)
- Check specially that the links are working correctly and don't lead to a 404 error.
- Compare with the English version. Do the images appear? are the styling, links, the same?
- Check the broken links page to see if there are links you need to fix
- Check the list of weblate errors: https://hosted.weblate.org/checks/?project=tor and make sure there are no problems
Corrections to Tor Websites
If you have comments on source strings it is always better to submit the main content repositories, as developers often don't look to the issues in transifex.
Some other documents, as the Code of Conduct, are not available for source string editions at the moment, in particular the Code of conduct has been ratified by the members of the Tor Project, and changing the text here and there will need a big organizational effort. You are invited to start that process, or wait until there are new amendments to the Code of Conduct to also proposed grammar changes.
For the websites based on Lektor (Tor Browser User Manual, Support Portal, Community Portal, Tor main website) you can submit corrections as explained here:
How to edit a source string, or submit feedback about a source string
- Look on the 'String information' window for the 'Source string location'. This section has a link to the current english string on our website, and a link to the markdown file on the website development repository:
- Click on the first link. Once you have opened the page, click on the link 'Edit this page' at the bottom of the text. You will be offered to edit the original English strings on gitlab.
- Once you are confident with your changes, create a fork of our repository and submit a pull request. The changes will eventually be reflected on weblate.
External translation resources
- Microsoft translations search - a dictionary of terminology about computer provided by Microsoft
- Poedit - a cross-platform translation editor for PO and XLIFF files.
- Translation search for Mozilla Firefox: to get inspired when we don't know how to translate a word.
Keyboard maps for Indian languages
- Keyboard Layouts for Indian Languages - For all the folks translating into Indian languages, a list of the various keyboard layouts for different languages compiled by @championquizzer, so you can change the language at the operating system level and then you can use your en-US keyboard for typing the characters using the layouts as a reference.
- PramukhIME Keyboards - Web-based keyboards for 23 different Indian languages. This will be useful if you do not have the keyboard you need installed on your computer. (Shared during the 2020 India L10n Sprint).