Feed The Beast Wiki:Conventions for translation administrators

This guide is designed to replace the previous translation markup guide.

Conventions for translation administrators serves as a guide for properly marking up templates, articles, pages and for properly editing and maintaining marked up pages. It largely applies to Translation Administrators, but normal editors should pay attention as well so as to not damage existing translations. For simply writing translations of pages, see the translation guide and/or the translation portal.

Applying translation markup

Note: This can only be done by a Translation Administrator.

The majority of applying translation markup to pages is the appropriate insertion of <translate> and </translate> tags. These tags should be inserted around all of the displayed text in the page. However, while they can contain some basic formatting, they should not contain Template calls or larger structures such as tables. In the case of templates and tables, insert <translate> tags around textual template parameters, and around the contents of cells within tables.

The second stage of applying translation markup to pages is to fix page links. All standard [[links]] should be changed to uses of {{L}}, in the form of {{L|link}}. This includes Category links. A similar rule applies to Templates. All translateable templates should have an {{L}} appended to their calls, in the form of {{infobox{{L}}|parameters}}.

Finally, as is noted in the ACG, all pages should be created including the final line <languages /> required for translations to function. Before saving the page, make sure that the "langbar" (as it is called) is present at the end of the page.

Once the required edits have been performed, the administrator editing the page should save the page, and press the "Mark for translation" button that appears at the top of the page. This button will activate the Translation Extension, which will divide the page into a series of translateable blocks. If all blocks have been created appropriately, the page can be saved, the Page Translation Log will register the markup, and Translators can begin their work on the page.

As is noted in the ACG, all pages should be created including the final line <languages /> required for translations to function. As a note to all editors, if a page is encountered that does not have that as its final line, please put it there.

Editing around translation markup

Translated pages can still be edited mostly like normal pages, with a few advisories.

• All sections of the page that have been marked by the Translation Extension will contain <translate> tags and <!--T:#--> comments. These comments refer to individual sections, usually paragraphs, of the translated page. Do not add or modify these T:# comments under any circumstances.
• Do not delete these tags or comments, unless your edit to the page fully deletes the paragraph with which the comment is associated. A full rewrite is not the same as a deletion; if the paragraph still serves the same purpose, keep the tag. Deleting one of these comments results in the deletion of that paragraph from all translated versions of the page.
• If you are going to change the order of sections or paragraphs in a page, move the <!--T:#--> along with their associated paragraphs, and ensure that all existing T:# paragraphs are fully contained within <translate> tags.

If you are either improving existing content or adding new content, without deleting existing content, you the editor should not worry.

As is noted in the ACG, all pages should be created including the final line <languages /> required for translations to function. As such, if a page is encountered that does not have that as its final line, please put it there.

Misc stuff

• All test pages and user pages should be "discouraged" from translation. Although users may translate their user pages if they so desire, it should not be considered as a priority for regular translators.