Content Localization

Read this page in other languages: French, Gujarati, Italian

Our vision is for learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ to host educational resources about WordPress in multiple languages. There are two ways to contribute towards this vision: you can either translate existing content from English to another language, or create new content in a language other than English.

In both instances, it is good practice to have another person review the translation before the content is published. This helps ensure the translation quality of the content is high. It is also a good idea to refer to the locale’s Glossary and Style Guides when available, as this helps maintain consistency throughout Learn’s content even when translated/created by different authors. 

Translating content

If you are new to translating resources for WordPress, then we recommend you first read through the General Expectations for Translators. Most of the concepts listed there will apply to translating content for Learn, too.

Once you have familiarized yourself with those expectations, then you can follow the steps below to translate each content type: Lesson Plans, Tutorials, Online Workshops and Courses.

The Translation Consistency tool is a great tool for translators to bookmark! If you come across a word or phrase you’re not sure how to translate, then you can search for it in that tool to see how other people have translated it in the past.

Top ↑

Lesson Plans

  1. Choose an existing Lesson Plan that you’d like to translate.
  2. Create a new GitHub issue using the “Content Translation Template”.
    • Creating a GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issue at the beginning of the process allows the team to track localized content currently being created, and offer any support you need throughout the process.
  3. Translate the content in the application of your choice. (Google Docs is a good choice, as it allows easy sharing with others.)
  4. Update the GitHub issue with a link to your translation, and request a translation review.
    • If you are using Google Docs to draft your translation, make sure the document sharing settings are set to public so that others can see your work.
  5. Once reviewed, request a Faculty Member to create a new post on Learn WordPress for the content. Then, copy-and-paste the translated content into that new post.
  6. Once done, notify the Faculty Member to publish the content.

Top ↑

Tutorials

For Tutorials, you can either rerecord the Tutorial in your own language, or just translate the subtitles and other text shown on the Tutorial page.

Top ↑

(a) Add subtitles to the English video

  1. Choose an existing Tutorial that you’d like to translate.
  2. Open a new GitHub issue using the “Content Translation Template”.
    • Creating a GitHub issue at the beginning of the process allows the team to track localized content currently being created, and offer any support you need throughout the process.
  3. In the application of your choice, translate the text shown on a Tutorial page under the video, such as “Learning outcomes”, “Comprehension questions” and “Transcript”.
  4. Update the GitHub issue with links to your translated resources, and request a translation review.
  5. Once reviewed, request a Faculty Member to create a new post on Learn WordPress for the content. Then, copy-and-paste the translated content into that new post.
  6. Then, follow Translating Subtitles to download an English subtitle file, transfer the translated transcript into this file, and upload it back to WordPress.tv.
  7. Once done, notify a Faculty Admin to approve the subtitles.

GitHub doesn’t allow .ttml file uploads. If you need to upload a subtitle file to GitHub, you can do one of the following:

  • Upload the file to https://gist.github.com/ and share that link
  • Change the extension of the file to .txt or .xml (Note, once downloaded, this will need to be changed back to .ttml for it to be uploaded to WordPress.tv)
  • Compress the file and upload the compressed .zip file

Top ↑

(b) Rerecord the Tutorial in your language

  1. Choose an existing Tutorial that you’d like to translate.
  2. Open a new GitHub issue using the “Content Translation Template”.
    • Creating a GitHub issue at the beginning of the process allows the team to track localized content currently being created, and offer any support you need throughout the process.
  3. Translate the content in the application of your choice. Content that needs translation will include:
    • Slides presented in the video
    • Video script
    • Text listed on the Tutorial page under the video, such as “Learning outcomes” and “Comprehension questions”
  4. Update the GitHub issue with links to your translated resources, and request a translation review.
  5. Once reviewed, record the tutorial video.
  6. Update the GitHub issue with the recording, and request a second review.
  7. Once reviewed, request a Faculty Member to create a new post on Learn WordPress for the content. Then, follow steps 1-3 of Publishing a Tutorial.
    • These steps will include uploading your video to WordPress.tv, generating subtitles, and creating the actual Tutorial post.
  8. Once done, notify the Faculty Member to publish the content.

Top ↑

Online Workshop Subtitles

  1. Choose an existing Online Workshop that you’d like to translate the subtitles for.
  2. Open a new GitHub issue using the “Content Translation Template”.
    • Creating a GitHub issue at the beginning of the process allows the team to track localized content currently being created, and offer any support you need throughout the process.
  3. Follow Translating Subtitles to download and translate the subtitles.
  4. Update the GitHub issue with links to your translated .ttml file, and request a translation review.
  5. Once reviewed, Upload the translated subtitle file to WordPress.tv.
  6. Once done, notify a Faculty Admin to approve the subtitles.

Top ↑

Courses

  1. Choose an existing Course that you’d like to translate.
  2. Open a new GitHub issue using the “Content Translation Template”.
    • Creating a GitHub issue at the beginning of the process allows the team to track localized content currently being created, and offer any support you need throughout the process.
  3. Reach out to a Faculty Member in the #training Slack channel with a link to your GitHub issue. The Faculty Member will discuss next steps towards translating the course.

Top ↑

Creating a Content Localization GitHub Issue

Note that you will require a GitHub account in order to create an issue on the Learn WordPress GitHub repository.

  1. Navigate to the Learn WordPress GitHub Repository
  2. Click on Issues
  3. Click on Add New
  4. Click on Get Started next to the Content Translation Template
  5. Fill out the information in the Details section and the right-hand sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.
  6. Click on Submit New Issue
  7. Contact the Training Team Representatives or Faculty Administrators using @faculty-admin in the Make WordPress #training Slack Channel for assistance with assigning the GitHub issue and giving Contributor access on the Learn WordPress site (if applicable)

Top ↑

Adding a Content Contributor to Learn WordPress and Assigning them Content

Note that you will require Administrator role status to add Contributors to Learn WordPress.

  1. Log in to Learn WordPress
  2. Navigate to Users -> Add New
  3. Type in the Contributor’s username or email and assign them the Contributor role
  4. Go to their content’s section (Ex. Lesson Plan, Tutorials, Courses), and search for the original post (Using parenthesis gives you a more relevant result– ex. “Dashboard Overview”)
  5. Hover over the content and click on Copy
  6. Assign the Contributor as the Author and click on Save as draft
  7. Comment on the GitHub issue that they have been assigned the post in their related GitHub issue and share the link

Top ↑

Adding Your Translated Content to Learn WordPress

Note that you will require Contributor role access on Learn WordPress.

  1. Contact the Training Team Representatives or Faculty Administrators using @faculty-admin in the Make WordPress #training Slack Channel to be added to the Learn WordPress site as a Contributor.
  2. Training Team Representatives or Faculty Administrator, go to the Learn WordPress WP Admin and create a copy of the content type and assign the Contributor as the Author.
  3. Once the Contributor has access, they can edit their content directly in the post editor or paste their translation from their word processor of choice.
  4. Once the translation is complete, save the draft, create a public link, and share it on the GitHub issue for the content review.
  5. Reviewers follow this review labeling process outlined in the How we Use GitHub handbook page.
  6. If the content passes review, reach out to a Training Team Representatives, Faculty Editor using @faculty-editors, or another Training Team Member for them to perform the final checks for publication.

Top ↑

Publishing Translated Content

Note that you will require Editor status or above to publish another contributor’s content on Learn WordPress.

  1. Ensure the translator is set as the Author of the post
  2. Set the language
  3. Add the language code to the permalink
    1. Note that pages created with newly translated content should have a URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org structure using the language’s respective ISO 639-1 in the URL– so for example -es-original-title. Check two-letter language codes using this table.
  4. In the sidebar, click on Editorial Metadata, select Link to GitHub Issue and in the Editorial Comments section add the GitHub link affiliated with the content.
  1. Share the preview link for the prepared content with the translator in the GitHub issue
  2. Once the translator approves the prepped content, click publish and share the link permalink
  3. Add the newly published content to the 2023 Published Learn Content Sheet

Top ↑

Creating new content in languages other than English

For the most part, the process of creating content in other languages will be the same as creating content in English. Please follow the respective guides in this handbook when doing so.

In addition, we ask you request a review from someone else who speaks your language.

Top ↑

Request a review from someone else who speaks your language

Please make a good effort to have another contributor who speaks your language review the content before it is published. Their reviewer should focus on these two areas:

  1. Is the language well-polished? (grammatically correct, no typos, etc.)
  2. Does the language follow the locale’s Glossaries and Style Guides?
  3. For translations: Does the translation follow the General Expectations for Translators?

If you know someone in the community who could review the content for you, feel free to connect with them directly and invite them to get involved. If you’re not sure who to ask, then a Faculty Member would be happy to discuss options with you.

Once chosen, please @-menton your content reviewer in the GitHub issue tracking your content creation. They are welcome to leave comments from their review directly in the GitHub issue. Having them participate in this way will help the Training Team recognize their contributions. (If you are unsure of their GitHub username, feel free to ask them for it in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Or, you can ask a Faculty Member to help you locate it.)

If you’re not sure who would be a good reviewer, an option may be to reach out to a Locale Manager of a given language to ask them who they think might be interested/available to help out. Each locale’s managers can be found by clicking on the respective “View Team Page” link from this list of Translation Teams.

When reaching out to Locale Managers, it’s a good idea to do so in the #polyglots Slack channel or on the Polyglots team blog. This keeps the conversation public, and others interested in helping out will be able to jump in, too.


Thank you for helping make Learn WordPress more accessible!

Last updated: