Tutorial:Managing language labels

This tutorial describes how to manage the navigation labels in the different languages supported in Statistics Explained. Navigation labels are displayed on top, at the left and at the bottom of pages. They can come from two sources:

• the multilingual Mediawiki software itself;
• the page StatExp:Translations containing all other labels specific to Statistics Explained in the different supported languages.

Apart from these navigation labels, text elements (headers and standardised phrases) are also needed for use in pages of all kinds (articles, glossary pages, navigation and project pages) in the different languages. Most can be found in the many different language versions of the statistical article and glossary page model pages (click the required language version on the bottom left, below 'In other languages'); this tutorial, however, mainly focuses on the navigation labels. Both the text elements and the navigation labels specific to Statistics Explained are stored in an Excel overview file available here: R:\dissemination\Publications\Statistics Explained\Multilingual\Multilingual navigation names all languages.xls. (to be uploaded in SE!)

Obtaining translations

For the navigation labels and for the headers and standard phrases still missing in the overview Excel file, especially for a new language, the easiest way of obtaining translations is to send the English version (column B in the Excel file) to DGT. The translations received can then be inserted in the Excel file and of course also in StatExp:Translations for effective use in the different language versions of Statistics Explained.

The navigation labels have to be simple and short, and aligned with the normal everyday practices in a linguistic community. It is recommended to use the same terminology, whenever possible, as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Google and explore these sites when a new label needs to be added (they all have versions for all languages used in Statistics Explained); furthermore, NSI or multilingual international organisation sites (Europa, EC DGs, OECD, UNECE, ...) can also provide inspiration for more specific statistical or dissemination terminology!

Adding a new label

When a new label is needed in Statistics Explained (for instance 'Other online publications'), the following steps have to be taken:

• ask technical support (Grégory Klein) to define the label name to be used in the multilingual navigation; for instance: [coll-add_page|en] for the label 'Add a page', where 'col-add_page' is the label name and 'en' is the language code of the particular language;
• insert in StatExp:Translations a new level-3 heading for this new label, in the correct alphabetical order (for convenience only, no impact on technical functioning);
• insert the label coding (=label name combined with term(s) for a particular language) for all different languages needed below this heading, one per line in edit view (to keep overview); the code consists in general of '[label name|language code]=label to be used in that language'.

Example:

[coll-add_page|sv]=Lägg till denna sida

Inserting a new language (or missing labels)

The page StatExp:Translations is organised alphabetically, with level-3 headers appearing in a table of contents, for convenience. Normally each label (heading) contains the coding for all languages (except in those cases where only English is needed, or only English, French and German). However, in many cases the label is still the default English version; wherever possible this should be replaced with the label in the other languages!

• when a language needs to be added, add below each header a line for the new language, for instance by copying the line for English and replacing the language code 'en' with the one of the new language (for instance 'hr' for Croatian);

Example: [coll-add_page|hr]=Add this page

• replace the English label ('Add this page') with the one in the new language received from translation (or ripped from other site).

In the many cases where the label is still in default English, this second action can improve and complete the navigation in the different languages.

Notes

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