Overview
The Micro:bit Educational Foundation's website, microbit.org and micro:bit teaching tools CreateAI and classroom can be translated into a range of languages. This work is kindly supported by micro:bit community volunteers. If you'd like to get involved, please visit microbit.org/translate.
This guide is for translating microbit.org, CreateAI and classroom.
Contents
- contributing a translation
- brief for translators
- using Page translate
- adding a translation in Crowdin
- completing a translation task in Crowdin
- volunteer reward programme
- FAQ
Brief for translators
To help maintain translation consistency across the site, we ask all of our volunteers to stay close to the intent of the original text and follow the guidelines below.
Target audience | teachers, educators, school leadership, education technology experts, students, young people |
Purpose (category) of the website | education technology, technology for children, hardware and software |
Target languages | can be viewed here https://crowdin.com/project/microbitorg |
Language dialect | If the translation is for a specific dialect, this is specified in the project name , e.g. Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (simplified) otherwise, assume that local dialect is not included in that project. |
Translation memory | available for all projects |
Project glossary | project specific glossaries community contributions are encouraged |
Reference | translation guide platform https://makecode.microbit.org/ https://createai.microbit.org/ |
Tone of voice | informal and family friendly, avoid using slang words |
Reserved words, not for translation | Micro:bit Educational Foundation |
micro:bit | |
micro:bits | |
| BBC micro:bit | |
microbit.org | |
micro:bit classroom | |
| micro:bit CreateAI | |
micro:bit Python | |
micro:bit champion | |
Make it: code it | |
MakeCode | |
Scratch | |
| names in general e.g. British Council | |
Forms of punctuation (ndash, mdash,ellipses) | format in the target country should be used |
Are there any characters that cannot be used? | Single quotation marks are not to be used - website formatting uses double |
Maintenance of languages | translation and proofreading is ongoing |
Contributing a translation
The Micro:bit Educational Foundation uses a community translation service called Crowdin to manage the translations, so if you do not already have an account, you will need to signup as a new Crowdin user. Once you have signed up a member of the Foundation will approve your access to the project.
We'd also encourage you to sign up to the translation community newsletter, so we can keep in contact and let you know about the latest translation activities.
Translations are coordinated using the Crowdin platform. A contextual view is available which makes it easier for you to choose the right words and phrases. This can be accessed via the links below.
Microsoft MakeCode for micro:bit
How to use the in-context translation tool - Page translate
The simplest way to get started with translations is to use the page translation feature at https://microbit.org/page-translate/.
- Click one of the pages linked above or visit https://microbit.org/page-translate/ and login to Crowdin
- Navigate to the page you wish to translate
- Click on a string anywhere on the page to add a translation
- Strings are highlighted with a coloured dotted border. The colour of the border indicates the status of the translation:
- Red - Not translated
- Blue - Translated but not approved
- Green - Translated and approved by a proofreader
Adding a translation in Crowdin
Login to Crowdin and select your language from the list available to you. In this example, we are using Norwegian Bokmal. You will be presented with a dropdown menu of all the files available to translate.
In this view, you can hover over the status bar for each file to see the completion status. The blue bar represents the number of words translated and the green bar, the number of words that have been proofread and approved.
Selecting a file will take you into the Crowdin editor to view the source strings that require translation. Selecting a string will load it in the editor window on the right-hand side of the screen, where you can add and save your translation.
You might find it easier to work on the translations if you open the web page that you are working on in another browser window. For example, open the Beating heart activity in Crowdin and open the equivalent window on the website:
Volunteer reward programme
The Foundation are immensely grateful for the support of the micro:bit volunteer community and recognise volunteer contributions via the volunteer reward programme.
Rewards include digital and enamel pin badges and recognition on social media and in microbit.org news articles.
There are three different levels of digital badge and these are awarded every 6 months for contributions reaching 1000, 7500 and 15,000+ words. The badges can be used on social profiles, email and documents.
The reward programme is still in development and we would love to hear your ideas for things you'd like to see included. Please email the team at support@microbit.org.
FAQ
What do the numbered meta tags eg <1> </1> mean?
If you find a string that contains numbered tags around words, this represents text formatting on the website. For example, this source string in Crowdin:
is rendered on the website, showing link formatting.
If you need to edit the word order of the translated string so that it still makes sense, make sure that you copy the meta tags around the words as they are set out in the source string.
This is a correct example:
<0>Your micro:bit has a </0><1>compass sensor</1> translated to <1>compass sensor</1><0>Your micro:bit has</0>
This is an incorrect example:
<0>Your micro:bit has a </0><1>compass sensor</1> translated to <0><1>Your micro:bit has a compass sensor</0></1>
When will translated content be published?
Languages are published as soon as possible after the translation and proofreading work is complete. As a minimum the pages linked in the 'What to translate' section above all need to be 100% translated and proofread.
I can't register for the language that I'd like to translate?
Sometimes, we need to open a new language project. If you'd like to volunteer and you can't see the language that you'd like to translate then please get in touch via support@microbit.org.
I've found an error in a translation or I'd like to suggest an edit
Thank you for letting us know! Please email support@microbit.org.
Why can't I translate the News page?
Not all parts of microbit.org are available for translation at the moment.
I'd like to translate something else
Please follow the links below to read the guide for translating the relevant content