How To Improve Translations With Review
The review process is the final step in improving translations. It allows native speakers to see the automatic translations in their natural environment and identify any issues the translation engines may have missed.
What Is Translation Review
In PTC, review is usually the first time a native human speaker sees the translations.
PTC doesn’t expect the reviewer to go string-by-string. You should provide the reviewer with a working build of the software with translations enabled, so they can see the translated texts as they would appear to users.
Reviewing translations will improve your translation score by a few more points.
How to Set Up a Review
1. Invite Reviewers
Reviewers should ideally be native or near-native speakers of the target language. If you have translators who worked on your software project previously, you can just invite them.
To invite reviewers to your project, go to the Dashboard and click Invite reviewer next to the language you want reviewed.
All you need is to enter the name and email address of the reviewer. PTC sends an invitation email, and once the reviewer accepts it, it is reflected on the Dashboard.
Reviewers do not have to do anything to set up an account in PTC. They can access the translations via the link in the email directly.
2. Choose Translations for Review
Once you have at least one reviewer for at least one language, you can send the translations to review.
To do so, click Start In-Context Review below the target languages section and follow the review setup prompts to select languages and reviewers.
3. Give Good Instructions To Reviewers
Once you get to the Instructions stage, take time to give good clear instructions.
3.1. Identify the Key Review Targets
Consider how users interact with your software. Which strings do they see all the time? Which are critical for them to understand?
Two things are usually true about the review process:
- Reviewing even one language vastly improves the quality of translations for all languages, as the context a reviewer provides is applied to all languages.
- Doing a partial review of just the key parts of the interface solves the majority of translation problems.
So as a general rule, keep to the most important parts.
3.2. Provide a Working Build of Your Software
The best way to review software translations is by exploring them within the actual software. This way the reviewer can see the final product and identify not just translation errors, but also other text issues.
- If the app requires authorization, give an account that allows access to all review areas.
- Explain any steps the reviewer must take to enable the locales they will review.
3.3. Give Clear Step-by-Step Instructions
Reviewers may have various levels of experience with your software, but clear instructions never go amiss.
- Try to make the process as simple and as clear as possible.
- If it’s a web app, provide links to specific pages you want reviewed.
- If you can’t provide direct links, clearly explain how to navigate to the screens for review.
- Consider the reviewer’s position before moving to the next review step. Navigate from the current location to the next element.
Once the review invitations go out, you can follow the review status on your Dashboard.
While a review is in progress, you can not make changes to the project.
4. Check the Results
When the review is complete, PTC sends you a notification email and generates a new merge request with all the changes a reviewer made.
The merge request link is available on the Dashboard for you to check.
If the reviewer confirmed any terms to be names during the review, you can check them in the glossary.
What’s Next
After reviewing all languages, you’ll have high-quality translations for your software.
You can also experiment with translation formality settings for any further translations.
Manual Translation Review
How To Improve Translations With Review