If you’re interested in learning how to translate a guide or wiki on iFixit, you’re in the right place!
We want to spread the word about the repair revolution globally! While English is the most common language in the world, we want everyone to get involved in the repair revolution, so we have to offer our repair guides in more languages. We already have 8 active languages open for volunteer translation on iFixit: English, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
If you don’t have a specific guide or wiki in mind, we have some recommendations for the most needed translations over at ifixit.com/translate. You may easily navigate there by clicking on “Help Translate iFixit” in the footer of all our pages.
Navigate easily to the translator interface from every footerOn the translation page, we display a list of popular pages which would be most relevant to translate to your language. You can double-check if you’ve correctly set your language as the respective language abbreviation (eg. “EN”) will show up under “translate” and you’ll have the abbreviation of the source language (e.g. “DE”) displayed on the left. Please only translate to and from languages you speak. More information about some minimum requirements to become an iFixit translator can be found by clicking on the “translator guidelines” button. You may sort the list by Guides or Wikis.
The starting point for the translators
Once you’ve found a page that matches your language skills and ideally field of expertise (or at least interest) simply click on the respective link.
Note: If you see a banner appear on the guide that says “This version may contain incorrect edits. Switch to the latest verified version”, check back in a few days before starting your edit. That banner means someone else has suggested an edit, potentially a translation. They might accidentally overwrite your edits, or you might overwrite theirs!
Please wait for this version of the guide to be verified and approved!
In the guide view, click the “translate” button on the top. Any time you click on a “Translate” button, you will automatically be taken to the translation interface.
The translation interface
The first thing to check is whether the guide is using prerequisite guides that might need translation as well. If the guide you’re translating has any prerequisites, they will automatically be displayed on top, together with their translation status. In cases of incomplete translation of prerequisite guides, we strongly recommend translating those first, it helps users and gives you better context.
Under “Guide information” you’ll find all relevant details in the source language on the left as well as empty fields for your translation into the target language on the right. You may use the option to copy the current text to your translation using the arrows if that helps, or you can also just type in your translation in the empty fields.
Translating the guide information section
As soon as you’ve entered your translation, the red “incomplete” icon will change to the green “done” icon, while the field you’re currently working in will have a yellow bullet.
Using the copy arrow can be specifically helpful in case of a long device name and model number which do not require a change in the target language. Please check whether your translated title includes the device’s name, component, and the guide type such as “replacement” or “repair”. The title should clearly convey what the guide will show and you’re welcome to step away from literal translation towards more clarity in the target language if needed.
When translating the search summary field, use the relevant keywords in your language to help your readers find your guide. Include any terms or phrases that your readers would be likely to type into a search engine (like Google or Bing) when looking for repair instructions.
The introduction field should explain everything your reader should know before attempting the repair. If you come across errors or mistakes in the source language, please first go to the guide in the source language and make changes there before you go on translating, otherwise your translation will be flagged outdated once errors are corrected in the source language.
By default, each guide ends with a default conclusion: “To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order”. You can always borrow this translated text from other guides in your target language—you don’t have to re-invent the wheel each time, and it helps with consistency.
Finally, remember to hit “Save Changes”.
Scrolling down will reveal the guide steps section.
The guide steps overviewFrom here, you can click the arrow next to each incomplete step and start adding the translations.
Translating the guide steps
To add your translation, simply click the “insert translation here” text and fill out your translation.
Again, you may wish to use the arrow in order to copy over the source text to the translation, this is especially useful as it also copies the formatting such as indented bullets, colored bullets matching markups in the photos, and special bullets.
Don’t forget to also add a translation for the step title if there is one.
Remember to click save when you’re finished.
If you’re translating a guide from scratch, and not editing or completing an existing translation, you can comfortably move on to the next step clicking on the “Next step” button on the top right corner.
Once you’ve translated all steps of your guide, you’re ready to see what it looks like in your language! Click on “view” and quality-check your own translation. If you still need some polishing, don’t worry—everything is fully editable and you can take your time perfecting your work. You can always return to the translate screen by clicking the “translate” button on the top of your guide. Or, you can edit a specific step translation by hovering over it, and clicking on the translate button that appears to the right of each step.
Admire (and review) your new translated text!
Happy Translating!
Please see the translator guidelines for more tips and tricks, and the Reputation page for details on how many points you’ll receive translating the content.
If you have any problems, questions, or feedback about our translations project, please contact us at translate(at)ifixit.com.
