The document emphasizes the importance of creating translator-friendly strings to enhance translation quality and usability in WordPress. It highlights common issues like lack of context, untranslatable text, and broken sentences, providing guidelines on how to improve string clarity and consistency. Best practices for internationalization are offered to ensure effective communication across diverse locales.

1. HOW TO MAKE YOUR STRINGS
TRANSLATOR-FRIENDLY
NAOKO TAKANO / AKIRA TACHIBANA / MAYO MORIYAMA
GLOBAL WORDPRESS TRANSLATION DAY 3 | SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

2. NAOKO, AKIRA, MAYO
Japanese Translation Contributors !
About Us

3. Based in Tokyo, Japan

4. WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT
TRANSLATOR-FRIENDLINESS?
🤔

5. CLEARER STRINGS = MORE TRANSLATION
Why translator-friendliness is impor tant

6. MORE TRANSLATION = MORE USERS
Why translator-friendliness is impor tant

7. https://wordpress.org/about/stats/

8. TRANSLATION FRIENDLINESS
= BETTER USABILITY FOR EVERYONE
Bonus!

9. TYPES OF STRINGS
WE HATE THE MOST!
😝

10. 1. No context.
2. Untranslatable text.
3. Split/broken sentences.
4. Too much (unnecessary) text.
Types of strings translator s don’t like

11. 1. Don’t make us get confused.
2. Accommodate for non-(US-)English locales.
3. Keep your string neat & in one piece.
4. Avoid wordiness.
Basic Rules

12. (BAD) EXAMPLES
$%

13. MISSING CONTEXT FOR A WORD/PHRASE
WITH MORE THAN ONE MEANING
Problematic Types of String #1

14. • order (purchase order or sort order?)
• post/email/archive/comment (verb or noun?)
• author (of theme/plugin or post/page?)
• from/to (email sender/recipient or range)
• archived (past tense or adjective)
Bad Examples #1

15. Translation may be different for each meaning.
Translators won't know which to choose, and/or
wrong translation may appear in some locations.
Bad Example #1: Why?

16. Add a context to disambiguate the meanings.
Bad Example #1: How to fix it
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-plugin/#disambiguation-by-context

17. HARD-CODED DATE/TIME, CURRENCY,
NUMBER FORMAT, ETC.
Problematic Types of String #2

18. • Date/time format is not editable
• Currency symbol is not gettexted
• Decimal mark is not editable
• Hard-coded period at the end
• ALL CAPS as an emphasis
Bad Examples #2

19. Many locales use different formats than that of the
(US) English.
Bad Example #2: Why?

20. Follow the best practices of i18n. Learn from how
the core/default themes handles those cases.
Bad Example #2: How to fix it
https://secure .php.net/date

21. SPLIT/BROKEN SENTENCES
Problematic Types of String #3

22. • "You can find this in” & “our documentation”
• “at”, “for”, “in”, etc. by itself
• “To proceed, %s this button”
Bad Examples #3

23. • Word order may be different.
• Different preposition may needed for a noun or
verb replaced by a placeholder (e.g. male/female).
Bad Example #3: Why?

24. Placeholder is your friend. Keep your sentence
together by using (single or multiple) placeholder(s).
Bad Example #3: How to fix it
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-plugin/#best-practices-for-writing-strings

25. LONG, RUN-ON SENTENCES
Problematic Types of String #4

26. • Super long theme/plugin description stuffed with
keywords & slangs
• Unnecessary HTML markup
Bad Examples #4

27. • Unclear original string can be difficult to translate
or prone to mistakes.
• Translator resource is limited. Let’s make sure
meanings can be conveyed with minimum text -
this also helps English users.
Bad Example #4: Why?

28. Bad Example #4: How to fix it
Always keep your strings simple and clean! ✨

29. And there are (many) more…
• Heavily cultural jokes
• Abbreviations
• Leading & trailing white spaces
• Not enough spacing for translated text
• Unnecessary variations: capitalization/punctuation

30. https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-plugin/#best-practices-for-writing-strings
Plugin Developer Handbook
Internationalization

31. THANK YOU!