| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | How do I learn to translate webpages? Thread poster: Nicole Coati
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Nicole Coati 
Spain
Local time: 20:27
Spanish to German
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Dear Proz community,
I would like to learn how to translate webpages. Do you have any helpful tips on this topic? When searching in Google only the mashine translation comes up. Your help is much appreciated.
Best regards,
Nicole.
PS: Not sure if this is important but I do not have Trados, I work with OmegaT and SmartCAT.
| | | | ttp_doza (X)
Germany
Local time: 20:27
English to German
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| Translation of webpages | Jan 27, 2017 |
Hi Nicole,
it depends on what you want to do. The webpages that appear in two (or more) languages in German were really created as two (or) more sites (one for each language) on the platform.
If you want to translate a website that is available only in one language you'll have to get the original text either by copy+paste individual pages or requesting the source text from the website designer/owner, translate them with your CAT tools and have a web designer or a similar perso... See more Hi Nicole,
it depends on what you want to do. The webpages that appear in two (or more) languages in German were really created as two (or) more sites (one for each language) on the platform.
If you want to translate a website that is available only in one language you'll have to get the original text either by copy+paste individual pages or requesting the source text from the website designer/owner, translate them with your CAT tools and have a web designer or a similar person create a second site with your translation in it.
I hope that helps.
Best regards,
Dorita ▲ Collapse
| | | | Francesca D'Asdia (X)
Germany
Local time: 20:27
English to Italian
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| Localization | Jan 27, 2017 |
Hi there,
What you are looking for is called "Website localization". You can find courses here on proz.com or LinkedIn and many other professional platforms. I hope this helps!
xx
Fran
| | | | ttp_doza (X)
Germany
Local time: 20:27
English to German
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| Translation of webpages | Jan 27, 2017 |
Sorry, I made a mistake:
"...that appear in two (or more) languages in German" should read "that appear in two (or more) languages in Google"
Best regards
Dorita
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| Just like software localization | Jan 27, 2017 |
Hi, Nicole!
That's a lot like Dorita said, but you shouldn't really do the copypasting yourself. Instead, request all texts from the client (i.e. owner of the website), this way you certainly won't miss anything (and won't be liable if you do).
After that, yes, you just make a project in your CAT tool and do the job.
Be careful with placeholders and tags! Websites may contain strings of text with regular expressions, which can later be replaced by a variety of other things. One... See more Hi, Nicole!
That's a lot like Dorita said, but you shouldn't really do the copypasting yourself. Instead, request all texts from the client (i.e. owner of the website), this way you certainly won't miss anything (and won't be liable if you do).
After that, yes, you just make a project in your CAT tool and do the job.
Be careful with placeholders and tags! Websites may contain strings of text with regular expressions, which can later be replaced by a variety of other things. One example: see the The Group Buy widget on ProZ? The numbers there are not manually edited any time someone reserves a unit. Instead, there is something like "Sale closes %date%, or when the final %units% units are reserved." When you translate a line like this into a target language, you need to make sure that the line won't look odd with any number instead of %units%. (Try placing 1, 2, 6, 100 instead of a placeholder in such a case and see what happens.)
Another thing (a bane of my existence, in fact) is proper interface translation. Well, with websites, you are most likely to have an actual website in the source language to check and see, to what the lines correspond. The main difficulty lies in the fact that interface is a discontinuous text, so there is barely any context.
I hope these tips help. And yes, you can search for any online courses as well. They can be really helpful.
Edit: got rid of a typo.
[Edited at 2017-01-27 10:20 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Coati
Spain
Local time: 20:27
Spanish to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you both... | Jan 27, 2017 |
...for your answers
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 19:27
Member (2007)
English
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| Ask the client for a Word file | Jan 27, 2017 |
I know it may not always be the solution, but in my experience doing a copy/paste can be disastrous. I had one communications agency insist on it. So I quoted for the job and delivered just before the deadline. They came back askng about this, that and the other mssing bits. So I was into a mega-rush job I didn't feel justified in charging for. The next time I made sure I got the ,doc file! Sure enough, I got a last-minute addition - but this time subject to my rush terms. We both learnt from th... See more I know it may not always be the solution, but in my experience doing a copy/paste can be disastrous. I had one communications agency insist on it. So I quoted for the job and delivered just before the deadline. They came back askng about this, that and the other mssing bits. So I was into a mega-rush job I didn't feel justified in charging for. The next time I made sure I got the ,doc file! Sure enough, I got a last-minute addition - but this time subject to my rush terms. We both learnt from that. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 12:27
Dutch to English
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| Whether Word file or not | Jan 28, 2017 |
Regardless of how you receive the text, the problem with translating a website is that if another person puts it online and makes mistakes, you can point them out but they may never be corrected. Of course you never have control of your translation once it is out of your hands, but in this case it is out there on the web for everyone to see.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 20:27
Spanish to English
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| I was that soldier | Jan 28, 2017 |
Tina Vonhof wrote:
Regardless of how you receive the text, the problem with translating a website is that if another person puts it online and makes mistakes, you can point them out but they may never be corrected. Of course you never have control of your translation once it is out of your hands, but in this case it is out there on the web for everyone to see.
Indeed. A local goverment site changed "international" to "intentional" when uploading my translation of a University website. I noticed and reported it, only to be told that it couldn't be corrected because that was the "official site". However, I just ran a google search for the University name with the mistake and there were no results, so maybe someone did correct it eventually.
PS: Any clients wanting me to translate the text of their website have to supply me with the text in Word or similarly compatible format if they want the basic rate. If they want me to use things like HTML, Dreamweaver... or any other more complicated software or formats, they need to pay handsomely for it. Which they never do, preferring to provide me with plain text or Word.
| | | | | Specific issues/doubts | Jan 28, 2017 |
Nicole Coati wrote:
I would like to learn how to translate webpages. Do you have any helpful tips on this topic?
What are the specific problems/doubts you're encountering?
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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| where is it? | Jan 28, 2017 |
If a web page is not dynamic, then > PAGE > Save As... works fine.
The aforementioned HTML is but a plain text, if you wish, yet with untranslatable tags as markups/elements.
MS WORD can create, read, and save HTML pages (since 2003, I guess).
Many CATS work can do sites.
[Edited at 2017-01-28 16:45 GMT]
| | | | esperantisto
Local time: 21:27
Member (2006)
English to Russian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
DZiW wrote:
MS WORD can create, read, and save HTML pages (since 2003, I guess).
Don't use MS Turd for such a task: you will get a file overloaded with junk code, which may look really ugly in a browser other than Internet Explorer. If you prefer a word processor, OpenOffice Writer is a better solution. However, in my experience, it badly treats external CSSs (converts them into internal ones). Instead, use a dedicated HTML editor or a good text editor.
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esperantisto
Local time: 21:27
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER
Nicole Coati wrote:
… OmegaT and SmartCAT.
… well, just go and translate. OmegaT is an excellent tool for translating HTML pages. Notably, non-English parts of www.omegat.org have been translated with OmegaT.
| | | | Maija Cirule
Latvia
Local time: 21:27
German to English
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| | CatsCradle seems a good choice | Jan 29, 2017 |
I still have the early version of CatsCradle from the days when it was free. I use it to count words on web sites, in order to offer translation cost estimates, bet never actually translated a web site in HTML using it. Clients usually send me Word files to translate, and then get their webmaster to implement it.
What are the "hurdles" in this process (CatsCradle)?
For the record, I'll assume that its m.o. hasn't changed.
It is a WYSIWYG process, and it has its own internal CAT tool. It will leave the HTML code intact, including the URLs for each page.
Bottom line is that if I translate, say, for the sake of briefness, an entire web site from EN into PT, I'll have the exact web site in PT. If a careless client uploads it as I deliver from CatsCradle, the site in PT will actually overwrite its original in EN.
Also, it has no tools to do graphic editing on buttons and other elements (e.g. jpg, gif, etc.) that have embedded text. You'll have to pull them out, edit/re-create them, and put them back on the translated page ONLY (i.e. different filename or folder). This will require some possible simpler and lighter equivalent of the best-known Photoshop. Some people use Windows Paint for that.
The key issue is that you don't know the site/hosting structure the client intends to use. Let's take the EN>PT(BR) example.
If the source is site[.]com, the Brazilian version could be: site[.]com.br, br.site[.]com, site[.]com/br/ or anything else. This would require setting up the entire structure, URLs, and internal links.
Either a properly trained translator could do it, or the webmaster. AFAIK CatsCradle (unless it has changed) will overwrite the HTML file on disk with the translation you make with it. So, safety first, I'd keep a "source" folder with all files "safe", perhaps zipped for ultimate safety, and work on a backup folder with it.
You'll probably need HTTrack to download an entire site to your hard drive.
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