A good translation of text or terms needs to be complete, unambiguous, usable, and documented. These aspects of translation are defined below.

Complete

If a translation is complete, it means that everything is translated and that no untranslated words or sentences remain.

Unambiguous

An unambiguous translation means that users have no doubt about the meaning of a term. If a term's meaning could trigger a debate between people, the term's meaning is unclear and the translation must be changed. Terms may have an equivalent word in a local language or have different words that are equivalent. Translators thus will sometimes have to choose between different translation solutions.

If you have to choose between different solutions, please consider this rule: Always use the word that is the most used in your language, even if it is not the less ambiguous word. This rule is the only exception to the Unambiguous criterion described in this paragraph.

Usable

What is the goal of a good translation? It is to make the program usable by users speaking a given language. If they use it and do not complain about it, then the translation is good. For this to be true, the translation must pass the translation tests successfully and then be approved afterward. The acceptance of users comes after this and will confirm or deny whether the translation is usable.

Documented

A documented translation, for our purposes, means that each word has a proper description in the Glossary. The description should give the meaning of each word and, if needed, an example of where it is used. This rule applies only to English terms that will be the basis of future translations. It is, of course, better to document each language in the Glossary, but this is not compulsory.

Text must be clear, especially if there is no additional explanation. In the area of user interface localization, it is often necessary to find short, clear wording. In the lists below, you will find some tools that can help with the translation.

• Translation draft: https://translate.google.de/

• Synonyms: https://synonyme.woxikon.de/

• Pre-translated dictionary: https://www.linguee.de/