Translating Scratch

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"Translating Scratch" redirects here. For the extension, see Translate Extension. For translating ScratchJr, see Translating ScratchJr. For other uses, see Translate (disambiguation).

Scratch has been translated into more than 75 languages with the help of volunteering List of Translators from all over the world. If you have experience with some language, you can help the Scratch Team and other translators in completing translations for new languages and correcting any mistakes in current translations.

The Guide for Scratch Translators is the official guide for translating Scratch.

Translating Scratch and Scratch Website

Note:

You need to be over the age of 18 in order to translate Scratch.

Scratch and the Scratch website are translated using Transifex. It lets registered translators suggest and edit the translations. The submitted translations are licensed under the MIT License.

Registration

To translate part of Scratch or Scratch website, you have to create a Transifex account and join the Scratch Translation team.

Translate

After creating an account and logging in, you can start translating! In the dashboard on your account page, you can choose, from your personal list of projects, what to start translating.

Click Translate. You will be taken to the translation page. Choose the language you want to translate to and the resource you want to start translating.

What to translate first

The most important things to get translated are the Scratch Blocks and Scratch Editor. They need to be almost completely translated and reviewed before the Scratch Team will add the language to the languages menu.

After the blocks and the editor, it's important to make sure that the home page and general navigation of the website are also translated. You can find most of these strings by searching for splash and general within location. The community guidelines are also important. Those can be found by searching for ".guidelines" within location.

When starting a new translation, always begin with the glossary. In the right pane, choose Glossary, then View Glossary. In the glossary page, provide translations for the terms. When the glossary translation is complete, proceed to translate the terms in the left pane.

Offline translation

We recommend that you translate directly on Transifex, as it provides suggestions from others and warns of possible errors. However, if you prefer, you can translate offline.

Start by clicking the languages tab under the project being translated from your personal list in the Dashboard. Choose the language you want to translate to, then click Translate.

In the popup window, click on Download for translation as XLIFF. The file contains the current strings to be translated. You can open the file and edit it using a text editor. (What are the next steps?)

When you're done, you can upload through the same popup window. Make sure to choose the Upload XLIFF file option for the upload.

Reporting Translation issues

Please check this document before reporting any Scratch translation-related issues. The document lists some of the known translation issues, including vocabulary in Scratch Editor that is not translatable yet.

For Scratch Translators:

If you are a member of the Scratch translation team, and have a question or see an error with a string translation, you can leave a comment or open an issue. With the string selected in Transifex click on the Comments tab to add a comment. You can also mark the comment as an issue. When there is more than one translation suggestion, you can vote for the translation that you think is best by clicking the vote button to the left of the suggestion.

For Scratch users:

If you have any questions or problems regarding Scratch translation that are not addressed on this page, please write to the translation admin on the Scratch Team: translate@scratch.mit.edu. You may also use the Translating Scratch forum.

Communication Channels

Transifex will be used for communication between the Scratch Team and the translator community, and between members of the translator community.

• Transifex provides a messaging system that can be used to send a message directly to another user. The messaging system can be accessed through the profile page.
• Transifex also supports team discussions and project announcements. The Scratch Team will use Announcements to inform the translator community of important information. Translators may start a new discussion from the Teams page, reply to announcements, and participate in ongoing discussions.