Please note...... I don't really want this page translated! (Explained below)

Thank you, translators!....

... and an appeal for new translations

Welcome! Buonas Diaz! Bonjour!

From the creator of Sheepdog Software

File: otherlang.htm


I have built up numerous free tutorials on the web. I fear, however, that I only speak one language.

(I also write and distribute freeware and shareware. Most of what I say below also applies to that, modified, of course, for the nature of those things. I even have programs which are engines "running on" data files. The engine can stay in English, and you could write data files in other languages. See, for instance, my program for helping learners with vocabulary work.)

Once upon a time, I said "I'd be delighted if you would be willing to do a version of my site in your language!"

Alas, there are always underhanded cheats around, especially on the internet.

If you are approached by someone offering to translate your page, be warned: Many will do this, but any links in the translation of from to other pages you have will be routed through their page. You may be okay with this... if you don't care about your SEO status.

I explained, upfront, that this would not be acceptable. So many people in that line of business did a translation, with direct links... and after I'd stopped checking changed their page, and began to hurt my SEO status.

So... if you want to do a translation, you are a Very Nice Person. But there will be no link from my page to your page.

As so often, the creeps ruin things for the good people.

What I say below may also be useful to people who would like to make my pages available on intranets, or DVD for use where the internet is not easily available. (At least one prison uses my pages on a locked-down intranet, for inmate education programs. The pages adapt easily to such use.) If that's closer to what you are interested in, I have a page just for you! All about putting my material on DVDs or intranets. (The page opens in a new tab, so you can get back here when you're done there, just by closing the other page.)

If you want the license to do translations of my copyright material... and get links to your page... the following explains what I require. By all means email me if you want to discuss alternatives... this is not "take it or leave it".

But!

Your translation has to meet the guidelines below. Many people have met them in the past (See Artur Weber's Portugese site via the link at my page about the Lazarus programming language for an example of what I am happy to do for you, by way of "thanks".


Which sites do I hope will be translated?

I am particularly hoping that people will create translations for the sites I've listed on the page to which this link will take you.

(I put it on a separate page so it can be updated frequently!)



How to do translations, please... My "cunning plan"....

I would ask that you to translate/ copy my pages as faithfully as possible, with three exceptions....

- Take out some of the stuff in my headers (details follow) - Add a small header (details follow)
- Change links, slightly (details follow)
- Add a small footer (details follow)<\p>

Details of "cunning plan" in a moment.



PLEASE NOTE what follows- This is by far the most common source of problems

Details of Change links...: The links on the translated version of my page must take people directly to the page the English version of my page took them to. See below for more on this. The same applies to tags that pull in images, etc.

Links that aren't like this are the most common reason for me not creating a link to a translation. Getting these things right from the beginning is going to be much easier than fixing them after the fact.

If you would like further help on this aspect of what I need before I will link to your (much appreciated!) translation work, I have done a separate page about the link fixing task for you. It will open in a new tab, so when you are done there, just close that tab, and you will be back here!

End of "PLEASE NOTE... common source of problems"


Details of cunning plan...

Take out.. from my headers: Up above the large font titles that readers see, most of my pages have links to things like Facebook, Google translate, etc. I don't expect you to make those work for your pages. There is also stuff in the "internals" of my pages, in the <HEAD>...</HEAD> section that should probably go, if you work directly with the underlying HTML. (Don't worry about it, if you don't.) (By all means also remove such things from the page's footer, if they don't "just work"... but not, say, the simple links for contacting me, seeing my shareware, etc.)

Add a small header...: This extra bit of "header" text shouldn't take more screen height than necessary. It should consist of something like the following, in the language you are translating the page to...

Each word or phrase IN-CAPITALS below marks where you should make a substitution. What you need to insert is obvious, I hope? In most places, you need to insert a link. I don't mind if you change the text, to make it more sensible after your insertions.

====
The following is a translation of some pages
originally at ON-THE-WEB-IN-ENGLISH. Translation
by YOUR-NAME, IF YOU WISH (You can also put
advertising for YOUR-OWN-WEB-PAGES here.)
To discuss this page in the language it is
written in, please contact TRANSLATOR.
The editor of original only knows English. His
contact details are on the English page.

Remember that there may have been corrections and
additions to the English version of this page
since DATE, when this version was created or revised.
====

The "ON-THE-WEB-IN-ENGLISH" link would take readers to my page... directly. E.g. a link like "http://sheepdogsoftware.co.uk"... NOT a link through some other server. It would take them to the page you have translated from for me. Well... more for the people you will be helping, but of course that helps me too.

The "YOUR-OWN-WEB-PAGES" link would take people to a page where you put what you want to put! I imagine you might want to advertising some venture of your own, or a worthy cause you want to help... but what you put there is up to you!

Just the month and year are fine for "DATE".


Advertising FOR YOU!...

A typical entry on one of my pages, to announce a translated version is....

"This page, as it stood in Mar 17, is available, translated by humans, into Czech by Ivana Horak, at ScientificAchievements.com"

If you do a translation, please tell me how you want your name to appear in the text like the example above. (This is something I will create for your translation on the English version.) And please tell me what website you would like me to "advertise". Besides the way shown above, the link could look like...

"This page.. translated.. Czech by Fred, who would like you to visit Medecins Sans Frontieres, a charity he thinks does good work."

... or something else! Tell me what you would like?



By all means, add a small footer to the page...: The footer you are invited to add would be similar to the extra header material I discussed earlier.



I would suggest that you contact me before you start work on a page. It may be that someone is already working on translating to the same language as you were thinking of doing. The fact that there is not yet any link a version of the webpage in your language doesn't mean that no one is working on one.


If you are going to try to create translations of more that one of my pages, if they are related (have links to one another), I have a suggestion for you: I think you will find it much, much easier to do that if you put all of your translation pages in a sub-directory of their own on your server, and use the same page titles (URLs) as I have used.


I would ask you to do an "all or nothing" job of translating my pages. In other words, please translate all of a given page if you wish to translate any of it. Page! (I don't expect you to undertake translating a whole site!)

Also, I would ask you to leave the contents more or less as I have written them. Many things are not explained perfectly, I know! But "my" pages, even in translation, need to retain whatever consistency of approach and policy I have managed to achieve in the English version.

Another thing: If I give you a license to use my copyrighted material, that would come with a license for me to use the work you've done. Let's say you translate 5 pages, and then decide you don't want to do any more, and you don't want to put the translated versions on your server any more. I would then want to put your work on my server, and your license to work from my pages is conditional upon your permission to use your pages thus.

Not (very) negotiable: If you want the license under my copyright to use the material, even if you choose not to do it "my way", you must contact me. You must make clear on your site that it is a copy of my site, and give people links to the original. Remind them that I update my site from time to time, and that a page on your site may have been created before one of those updates.

When you have a page done, I'll be delighted to provide a link to your pages from mine.


Not this page, thanks anyway!

Not wanting to seem ungrateful, or anything, but....

I don't want THIS page (the one you are reading) translated, thank you. (If someone's English isn't fluent enough to read this, they probably aren't the person I want translating for me.) Nor would I want my "how to contact me" pages translated. If someone read a page in, say, Swahili, telling them how to contact me, it would be reasonable if they assumed I could read Swahili. I'm afraid that my knowledge of other languages is almost nil. I do try to know "Yes/ No", "Please/ Thank you", "A glass of red wine, please", and "Where are the toilets?" in the local language, before I set off on a tourist jaunt. But I have usually forgotten even that within two weeks of getting home.


And so, finally...

I hope this hasn't made you less interested in creating a copy of my page in a new language to benefit people. Thank you for reading to here, at least!

If you email me, please give me a little bit of information... nothing too "personal"... about where and who you are? It makes working with you a bit more "human"... you become more than just an email! Remind ME to tell YOU a bit more about myself that I put up on widely accessible web pages.



Click here to visit editor's freeware, shareware page.




How to email or write this page's editor, Tom Boyd


Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional Page tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. There were two "unknown attributes" in Google+ button code. Sigh.

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