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Translating HTML
HTML or web page markup language often occurs in GUI translations. You will
also see XML - which looks very much like HTML. Should you translate this?
Well that depends.
What not to translate
Do not translate the actual markers. HTML consists of tags which indicate the
start and end of a section of text. This text could be a heading, a paragraph,
a hyperlink or just a piece of text to display in bold:
- <h1>A heading</h1>
- <p>A paragraph</p>
- <a href=bob.html>A hyperlink</a>
- This is normal and <b>this is bold</b>
Some markers just beg to be translated. Such as these:
<title>, <center>, <body>
Do not be tempted these need to remain in English.
Attribute - which to translate?
An attribute is a variable associated with a tag. Eg. <body bgcolor=blue>,
here bgcolor is an attribute and blue is its value. Attributes, like tags, are never
translated. However some values can be translated. In the example above the value
blue should not be translated.
There are only a few values that can be translated:
alt - found in the img tag and used to give a textual description of the picture
that will be loaded.
title - a text title that pops up when you hover over a URL
Should I change hyperlinks and images?
Although as a translator you should only change the text of the program, you do have
complete control over the HTML. This can be used to your advantage if needed.
If for example you were translating a manual that referred to an image of the
application then you would most likely want to have an image in the users language,
rather then explaining to them in their language using an English picture.
Often however because of the work involved the translation teams will not change images
until much later in their efforts.
To change the image first you will need to create an image. You can use ksnapshot or Gimp
to create screenshots. Remember to keep the look consistent i.e. try to use the same theme
across all images. Ideally your picture should be the same size as the one it is replacing.
Lastly depending on the application you will need to place the file in the correct place
so that it will be shown with your translations. What usually happens is that images
are first sought in the language specific directory and if they are not found
then they use the English version
Tags that should be translated
Some things that looks like tags are not really tags and should be translated. These
would include the following:
<Error>, <File not found>, etc
How to identify them? If you are an experienced HTML editor you will know which are
real immediately. If you are not then use this rule. If its all in lowercase or
uppercase then it in more likely that it is a valid Tag. if it combines case most
likely it is not. If it contains any attribute such as <font color=blue> it is
definitely a tag.