Quick Start

Register an account and login

1. Visit the Pootle server and register an account.
   
2. Login to the Pootle server.
   

Make translation suggestions

1. Visit the Firefox project on the Pootle translation server
   
2. Select your language from the list (e.g. Afrikaans)
   
3. Look for the directory marked user1, click on the link that says 'N words need attention'
   
4. Type in a translation for the English text and submit the suggestions.
   

Congratulations!  You've made your first contribution for your language.

Download and install Firefox

1. Install the latest Firefox Aurora in your language.  If one doesn't exists then download one in English and then...
2. Get a language pack in your language. If that doesn't exists then...
3. Ask us to build a language pack for you.  But that is only userful if you have translated a large enough portion of user1.

Is translating on Pootle for you?

We setup the Pootle translation server for you for these reasons:

1. Firefox translation can be very technical and very geeky.  We try to hide that from you.  You focus on translation and testing and our technical team and community will focus on the hard parts.
   
2. When you start translation you need a lot of hand holding.  We'll do that with you.
   
3. We have a friendly collaborative envionment.
   
4. We support under resourced languages across the globe.
   

Translating on Pootle

Understanding Phases

Our approach to translation is to allow you to focus on the most important things first.  So we've broken Firefox into various phases.  This ensures that you focus on the most important things and leave the rest to last.  You have limited time and resources so we want you to focus on the areas that impact your users.

• The various directories at the first level of your translations (e.g. here in Akan) correspond to the various phases.
  
• The list of phases will show you what each contains
  
• Follow the order in the phases file closely to not waste your time and effort.
  

Translating

Your major task will be translating.  You can always go directly to segments that need attention by clicking on the 'N words need attention' link.

Don't forget to first view which phases need attention.

Make sure you use the following features in Pootle:

1. Terminology - terminology hints, if a terminology file exists, will appear on the left of your translations.  Use this as a guide of which terms you should use.
   
2. Developer comments - the programmers might have supplied some useful information to help you understand the text.  This will appear above the English text.  Please always read this, if it doesn't make sense then ask a question.
   
3. Locations - if there are no developer comments you might see a location or variable name. This can sometimes be useful to understand the use of the string.
   
4. Translators comments - these are comments that translators have left for you.  Use this to leave comments for anyone who will follow you or to read what others have written.
   

Suggestions

Suggestions will not be used in the final translation.  They are useful when you or your community want to suggest a correction.

Quality checks

Everyone makes mistakes when translating.  If you click on the Review tab you will access the quality checks.  Remember that not all errors are mistakes.  If you are unsure then please ask.

The important checks to get to zero are: variables, printf, accelerators.

Firefox translation process

Understanding the 6 week cycle

1. There are 4 stages to Firefox releases: nightlies, aurora, beta and release
2. We focus on translating Aurora
3. You Aurora translation will make it to release after 12 weeks.  6 weeks in Aurora and 6 weeks in beta.

Aurora 6 week cycle and Pootle

1. We will migrate your translations to the latest Aurora at the start of the cycle
2. Mid cycle we will push your translations to Mozilla
3. In the last week we will also push your translations to Mozilla