Translator handoff

Translate the complete message for its audience and purpose. Keep the product facts, approved terminology and literal syntax intact.

Before translating

Use the source text, its interface or document context, and the relevant language and terminology pages. A terminology page lists the approved or proposed form, its status, translator notes and a link to the English definition. The language roster describes the planned review level; it does not prove that review is complete.

Ask for the meaning and possible values of placeholders. Identify exact interface labels, user input, code, file paths and version strings before changing the prose. The messages and variables guidance covers parser constraints and grammatical variation. Keep the message contract, source revision and review decisions with each resource through delivery and import. For documents, check the localization workflow before assigning segments: include surrounding text, media and all required outputs.

Name the delivery revision, expected files, review responsibilities and the person who resolves source questions. Share accepted answers across affected languages. Include corrected editable sources in the return package so a late fix survives the next build.

What can change

Use natural sentence structure, word order and register for the target language. Split or combine sentences when their conditions, scope and meaning remain clear. The language guides describe local conventions.

An approved term fixes the concept and its established wording. Apply the target language's grammar without renaming the concept. If an approved form cannot work in context, flag the entry and propose a correction rather than introducing a competing term in one page.

What must stay exact

Preserve protected product and service names, identifiers, code, paths and format syntax. A protected spelling does not approve a draft English product name for publication. Check both statuses.

Quote the interface label the reader actually sees. Preserve the operation, shortcut, menu path, version and quantity. Locale formatting may change how a number is displayed; changing a unit requires a verified conversion, not just a translated label. See names and formats.

Propose a terminology change

Use the English term when a translation is missing or still proposed. When the English term will not travel, translate its fallback original term instead: the x-fallback property of the unit gives a plain English phrase (main stroke for stem, optical surplus for overshoot) chosen so that translating it literally gives a defensible target term. Submit the proposed form with its context, reason and any grammatical information a reviewer needs, as a unit of the language's core memory localization/<code>-core.tmx. For example:

<tu tuid="term:kerning-class">
 <prop type="x-term-id">kerning-class</prop>
 <prop type="x-category">font-engineering</prop>
 <prop type="x-translatable">yes</prop>
 <prop type="x-fallback">pair spacing group</prop>
 <prop type="x-status">proposed</prop>
 <tuv xml:lang="en"><seg>kerning class</seg></tuv>
 <tuv xml:lang="de">
  <note>Proposed German term; confirm the actual interface label before approval.</note>
  <seg>Kerning-Klasse</seg>
 </tuv>
</tu>

Update the core memory after approval so every generated page receives the same correction. A one-page edit will be overwritten by the next build.

Review the result

Check terminology, facts and language together. Automated checks can compare literal tokens; they cannot establish that negation, responsibility or a condition keeps its meaning. A proficient reviewer must read the complete translated text.

Test realistic variable values and inspect the rendered result for agreement, clipping, wrapping, direction and accessible reading order. Record the reviewed version and unresolved questions. Use the shared localization review before publication. For an application or interactive website, also review the working interface: retain the locale settings, interpreted values and observed fallback behavior with the review evidence.