PGVWiki:Translation guidelines

The PGVWiki translation guidelines provide information about the process of making translation of English PGVWiki articles into another language.

Translation Priorities

1. The first priority is to translate key articles such as the Main Page and any articles directly linked from there
2. The second priority is to deal with any translation requests for your particular language
3. You may then start work on translating pages that have no interlanguage links

Interlanguage Links

Links between articles in different languages are called interlanguage links. Interlanguage links are added to an article by adding the appropriate interlanguage link to the English PGVWiki article (at the end of the article). The following would link to the <article title> page on the Danish (da) PGVWiki site.

[[da:<article title>]]

Adding an interlanguage link to an article results in a link being placed under the in other languages section of the sidebar to the left.

The English PGVWiki site is the "source language" and should always be used as the source for translations. As such the English article should contain all interlanguage links for which there is a translation available. It is not as important that the non-English article contains all interlanguage links, but must always link back to the English article from which is it translated.

Preparing for Translation

Despite the fact you can edit pages without being logged in on your chose language version of PGVWiki, you should always login under your username. This allows for easier detection of spammers and other destroyers of pages, as well as having a log of all your translation efforts so we can thank you for all your hard work! This means you should have a login on the English PGVWiki site as well as on the translated PGVWiki site.

Starting A New Translation

First, you should check to see if anyone has made an attempt to translate the article you are interested in by visiting the English article and checking for a link in the in other languages' section of the sidebar to the left. If you do not see the in other languages section or your chosen language is not present, then you can continue as described below.

Step 1 - Add an Interlanguage Link

Go to the English version of the article you wish to translate (ensure you are logged in) and add an interlanguage link to the translated version of the article. These interlanguage links should be placed in alphabetical order according to the abbreviated language code. After saving the page, you should see a link under the in other languages section of the sidebar to the left.

Step 2 - Start Editing the Non-English Article

On the English version of the article you would like to translate, find and click the relevant link under the in other languages section of the sidebar to the left. This will take you to the correct article on the translated PGVWiki site. If the article is never had any content, you will be taken immediately to the editing page, otherwise you will need to click the "edit" tab (this will be in the non-English) at the top of the page.

Step 3 - Link Back to the English Article

You should add an interlanguage link back to the English article at the end of the translated article so that others can find the source of your translation. This makes it easier for others to update/correct and expand the translation in the future. Something similar to the following:

[[en:Title of English Language Page]]

Step 4 - Create Non-English Versions of Templates

Check if any templates are used on the English version of the article (shown at the bottom of the page during an edit) and ensure that language appropriate versions are created.

Step 5 - Start Translating

Simply start translating the English article, ensuring the same layout is used by maintaining the same divs, tables, navigation links, headings, templates etc but translating the English text to your chosen language.

Continuing/Updating A Translation

As the English version of an article is updated, the translated versions need to be checked to ensure they are still accurate. Go to the English version of the article you are interested in updating the translation for and click the relevant link in the in other languages section of the sidebar to the left and click the "edit" tab at the top of the page.

Simply start updating the translated article, using the English version as the source.