Starting a Project Translation

Once you are authenticated, you can start translating! Transifex makes it easy for you to get the most up-to-date po file, translate, and post it back to the project.

Most of the projects listed on translate.moblin.org are part of the moblin repos, with the following exceptions:

• powertop
• gnome packages (these are in the process of being moved off translate.moblin.org, so that translations can be done directly from the gnome repos. Stay tuned on the mailing list for updates)

Note: We assume that you are familiar with po files, Linux, and character encoding. All Moblin po files are encoded with UTF-8. Please be sure that the Content-Type in the header of the PO file is "UTF-8."

1. Once authenticated, choose a project from the translate.moblin.org home page. (Click the “Browse through all projects” link to see the entire list.) We will use bisho as an example. Click master under the bisho heading.
2. Under the heading “Translation Files” there is “Source File” followed by po/bisho.pot. This is the template you use. Click the little icon with the green arrow to download it.
3. We highly recommend using PO Edit to translate the file, mainly because it is part of Moblin. :-)

However, there are other applications that also get the job done. Lokalize (formerly known as KBabel) is a program from the KDE project that works on Linux. The biggest plus with this program is the translation memory. You can load other translations, such as the Gnome translations, in the memory and Lokalize suggests the translations when a similar translation exists. Very handy for consistency.

Note: We assume that you are familiar with po files, Linux, and character encoding. All Moblin po files are encoded with UTF-8. Please be sure that the Content-Type in the header of the PO file is "UTF-8."

For those of you familiar with PO Edit and editing po files, skip the next 3 steps.

1. Open the bisho.pot file in PO Edit. Put your email address in the file heading (under “Last-Translator”) so we know who did the work and you get the recognition for doing it! Also, please be sure that the Content-Type in the header is "UTF-8."
2. Notice that there is a English string and right below it is msgstr “”. Put your translation of the English string inside those quotes.
3. The first time you save the file, make sure it has a "po" extension (not "pot.")
4. If there is anyone that can review your work before you post it, please have them do so.
5. Go back to translate.moblin.org and go to the Bisho project.
6. Scroll down until you see your language. (If it does not appear in the list, you will need to click "Add a New Translation." See below.)
7. Select the last icon in the row of icons next to your language (the icon has a pencil in it and the mouse-over says "Send a translation for this language."
8. Use the “Browse” button to find your local file and select it.
9. Click Send. If all goes well, you will see a message at the top of the screen that the po file was added successfully. You will also see your file appear in the list with the percentage of translation.
10. If you have any problems, send the issue to the mailing list.

Add a New Translation

If you are adding a new language for the first time to a project, click Add a new translation. The information that appears is pretty self-explanatory, but it is important to remember the following:

• Use the “Browse” button to find your local po file and select it.
• Ignore the "Select the target file" drop-down list, and enter "po/<languagecode>.po" in the "or enter it here" box.
• Finally, add some message that details what you did.
• Click Send. if all goes well, you will see a message at the top of the screen that the po file was added successfully.