Introduction

In an effort to reach more users, we want to make the Heavens-Above site available in other languages. A quick look at the hit counts per country will show that English speaking countries are higher in the table than their populations would suggest. Our goal is to reach more users in other countries who either cannot speak English at all, or prefer to receive our content in their own language. Over the course of the last year or so, we've spent considerable time and effort preparing for this.

• All the text strings have been taken out of the web pages and replaced with keys which are used to look up the string to be inserted in a dictionary for each language.
• A special "translation mode" has been implemented for each page which includes a link to a translation page for each text string. This "translation mode" is only available to translators.

The final step is to translate all the text strings into other languages. We've already made a start with several languages - German is the most complete, followed by simplified Chinese, but we can't finish the job without the help of native speakers. There are many text strings, and as we add new pages to the site they will also have to be translated, so this will be an ongoing task. For this reason, it would be beneficial to spread the load between several volunteers. To help translators of a particular language coordinate their efforts, we have set up an online forum where information can be exchanged. The forum will initially only be visible to translators, but we aim to make it available all site visitors in the near future.

We cannot offer you payment for your translation efforts, but we will include your name, if you wish, in a list of credits that will be linked from the footer of every page. Here is a list of languages and translators where you can see how many people are already helping, and which langauges they are translating.

Getting started

To become a translator, you will need a user account with a valid e-mail address. If you don't already have one, you can create one here. Once you have your account, please send an e-mail to chris.peat@heavens-above.com and include the following information;

• Your Heavens-Above user name
• The target language(s) you are offering to translate into
• Your willingness to have your name listed in the credits.

We will then give you privileges to translate your chosen language(s) and send you a confimation e-mail. Once you receive this, you can login and begin translating. You will have access to a help page describing the translation procedure, the new forum, and the special page translation mode.

Translators will be able to view the pages in their chosen language, even if the translations are not complete, but other site users will only have access once we officially "enable" the language.