Matador Jobs Pro is fully ready for translation into any language. We also currently provide three partial translations to our users whose primary languages are Dutch (Netherlands), French (Canada), or German (Germany).
Help Us Translate Matador Jobs
After installing Matador Jobs in another language you may find some things are not translated in a clear way and/or some things are not yet translated. You can help us translate Mat
Translations files need to be as accurately translated as possible.
In Matador we have the english string “Attach a resume file. Accepted file types are %s.” which, through your feedback, has been translated to “Voeg CV toe in DOCX, PDF, etc.” As this conversation has evolved, I applied some thought to your feedback and then did a Google translate on the original english string. The suggestion is “Voeg een cv-bestand toe. Geaccepteerde bestandstypen zijn %s.”
Now, I am not an expert in your language, but to me, I’m going to side with Google. Our string has two ideas, 1. Attach a resume (or CV) file. 2. These are the accepted file types. If I reverse translate the string you’ve provided, your string, “Voeg CV toe in DOCX, PDF, etc.” per Google translate, is “Add CV in DOCX, PDF, etc.” That is materially different. That is wrong.
Translations need to be as close to exact as possible, and I’ll be up-front, Paul and I have not been clear on that in the past, nor do we have the expertise to know when one of our users is straying from that. Translations should be unbiased, as close to possible word-for-word matches.
I am scared that we’ve allowed (on all our translations) for the designer’s/developer’s/client’s bias to get into it and that is not what we should’ve allowed, and something we must fix.
Untranslated strings sometimes need to change.
Building on the above point: untranslated strings sometimes need to change. If you base your website design off of translating a string, if we change the string, this can absolutely cause an issue. Here are reasons an untranslated string might need to change:
– We need to fix a spelling, grammar, or wording error. In version 3.7.1 I fixed a misspelling in a translated string. In english, the word had two vowels and they were mixed up. I don’t remember the exact word, but let’s say it was “view” and it was misspelled as “veiw”. In that case, we had to fix it, but doing so broke the translation. I went through and fixed the translations, but if you’re making custom translations off of our strings and we need to fix them, we will break your custom translations.
– We need to update a term as we add features. With 3.8.0, we will be adding bulk file upload. The error message associated with the “file” input type will might change from “A Resume or CV File is Required” to “A file attachment is required.”
If you’re using translations files or plugins to change your form labels to apply your designer’s/developer’s/client’s “style” to the page, then we will break the page when make a necessary change to an untranslated string.
Professional Translations Inbound
Paul and I have budgeted for professional polygots (translators) to go through Matador Jobs Pro completely early next year (prior to our 4.0.0) update. They will be paid a substantial amount of money to provide unbiased translations for us. In these cases, the Polygots may change translations from one you or someone else proposed that we may have accepted without realizing the translation was materially changing the meaning of the phrase. If you have come to rely on these phrases and don’t want them changed, we can’t be relying on translations in the way you are.
Style Belongs With Filtering
In English, it is extremely common for our users to want to change form labels. One such example might be “First Name” to “Your First Name”. Both strings are english, so there is no translation going on, but one user doesn’t mind our direct default form labelling while the second user wants a more friendly tone. For this reason, they use filters to change form labels.
Earlier in this email chain, Paul showed you a plugin that allowed you to add custom translations. Keeping in mind that Paul was directly supporting your request (how can I change translations) he gave you good advice, but I worry that the best advice was omitted.
If you are trying to change the terms because they are bad spelling, grammar, or structure for your language and are willing to provide us a translation that is exactly (or as much as possible) the same as the untranslated english string, by all means, continue providing that! If you are changing things because the style of the site would prefer a different wording, I ask that you use filters like all our English users use to change labels, descriptions, sublabels, and errors.