Global WordPress Translation Day 3 Video: https://wordpress.tv/2018/11/23/how-to-make-your-strings-translator-friendly/ September 30, 2017 Naoko Takano, Akira Tachibana, & Mayo Moriyama

1. HOW TO MAKE YOUR STRINGS
TRANSLATOR-FRIENDLY
NAOKO TAKANO / AKIRA TACHIBANA / MAYO MORIYAMA
GLOBAL WORDPRESS TRANSLATION DAY 3 | SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

2. NAOKO, AKIRA, MAYO
Japanese Translation Contributors !
About Us

3. Based in Tokyo, Japan

4. WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT
TRANSLATOR-FRIENDLINESS?
🤔

5. CLEARER STRINGS = MORE TRANSLATION
Why translator-friendliness is impor tant

6. MORE TRANSLATION = MORE USERS
Why translator-friendliness is impor tant

7. https://wordpress.org/about/stats/

8. TRANSLATION FRIENDLINESS
= BETTER USABILITY FOR EVERYONE
Bonus!

9. TYPES OF STRINGS
WE HATE THE MOST!
😝

10. 1. No context.
2. Untranslatable text.
3. Split/broken sentences.
4. Too much (unnecessary) text.
Types of strings translator s don’t like

11. 1. Don’t make us get confused.
2. Accommodate for non-(US-)English locales.
3. Keep your string neat & in one piece.
4. Avoid wordiness.
Basic Rules

12. (BAD) EXAMPLES
$%

13. MISSING CONTEXT FOR A WORD/PHRASE
WITH MORE THAN ONE MEANING
Problematic Types of String #1

14. • order (purchase order or sort order?)
• post/email/archive/comment (verb or noun?)
• author (of theme/plugin or post/page?)
• from/to (email sender/recipient or range)
• archived (past tense or adjective)
Bad Examples #1

15. Translation may be different for each meaning.
Translators won't know which to choose, and/or
wrong translation may appear in some locations.
Bad Example #1: Why?

16. Add a context to disambiguate the meanings.
Bad Example #1: How to fix it
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-plugin/#disambiguation-by-context

17. HARD-CODED DATE/TIME, CURRENCY,
NUMBER FORMAT, ETC.
Problematic Types of String #2

18. • Date/time format is not editable
• Currency symbol is not gettexted
• Decimal mark is not editable
• Hard-coded period at the end
• ALL CAPS as an emphasis
Bad Examples #2

19. Many locales use different formats than that of the
(US) English.
Bad Example #2: Why?

20. Follow the best practices of i18n. Learn from how
the core/default themes handles those cases.
Bad Example #2: How to fix it
https://secure .php.net/date

21. SPLIT/BROKEN SENTENCES
Problematic Types of String #3

22. • "You can find this in” & “our documentation”
• “at”, “for”, “in”, etc. by itself
• “To proceed, %s this button”
Bad Examples #3

23. • Word order may be different.
• Different preposition may needed for a noun or
verb replaced by a placeholder (e.g. male/female).
Bad Example #3: Why?

24. Placeholder is your friend. Keep your sentence
together by using (single or multiple) placeholder(s).
Bad Example #3: How to fix it
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-plugin/#best-practices-for-writing-strings

25. LONG, RUN-ON SENTENCES
Problematic Types of String #4

26. • Super long theme/plugin description stuffed with
keywords & slangs
• Unnecessary HTML markup
Bad Examples #4

27. • Unclear original string can be difficult to translate
or prone to mistakes.
• Translator resource is limited. Let’s make sure
meanings can be conveyed with minimum text -
this also helps English users.
Bad Example #4: Why?

28. Bad Example #4: How to fix it
Always keep your strings simple and clean! ✨

29. And there are (many) more…
• Heavily cultural jokes
• Abbreviations
• Leading & trailing white spaces
• Not enough spacing for translated text
• Unnecessary variations: capitalization/punctuation

30. https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-plugin/#best-practices-for-writing-strings
Plugin Developer Handbook
Internationalization

31. THANK YOU!