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3. Frequently Asked Questions for Translating Articles

Frequently Asked Questions for Translators

Q1-   How do I become a volunteer translator?
Q2-   How can I contact Bible.org?
Q3-   What do you want me to translate?
Q4-   How do I format the documents so they are ready for the internet?
Q5-   What if I don’t have Microsoft Word?
Q6-   Where should I place my name on the document that I have translated?
Q7-   Where should I send the finished translated material?
Q8-   How long should it take me to translate an article?
Q9-   Can I use google translate to translate documents?
Q10- Can I have a list of other translators that volunteer for Bible.org?
Q11- How long will it take once I translate an article for it to appear live on Bible.org?
Q12- How do I translate the footnotes?


Q1. How Do I become a volunteer translator?

Go to our volunteer page and contact us, we do like to receive a copy of your salvation testimony, and have acknowledgment that you agree with our doctrinal statement. After these steps you are ready to begin translating!
 

Q2. How can I contact Bible.org?

Always send us an email before you start working on translating an article. Anytime you have questions email us.
 

Q3. What do you want me to translate?

*  Go to http://bible.org/language and download the formatting guidelines. 

*  We want God’s Plan of Salvation translated into every language. Check to see if this article needs to be translated in your language. To check on the article’s translation status go to http://bible.org/list_of_translations_table and a list of translations page will appear. Under show/hide click hide all this will clear the template. Next place a check mark in your language. Then click on the column with your language name and the table will sort all of the articles translated in your language.  If a number appears in blue that means the article has been translated, if a number appears in red that means the article is in the process of being translated. If you do not see a number that means that this article that has not been translated yet. You can also check at the bottom of any specific article to see if any links to translation articles are available.

*  You have the freedom to translate any article that you would like. However, we do have a list of articles we would like to see translated.

*  Please send us an email letting us know what article you will be translating. To contact Bible.org click http://bible.org/contact?category=Translations. After you have filled out the form, click send email at the bottom of the page.

 

Q4. How do I format the documents so they are ready for the internet?

*  Find the study you want to translate and then send an email telling us of your intention. This will help us make sure nobody else is already working on that study in your language.

*  Download the Word document (the link to the doc file is located at the top of the study)

*  Try to follow our paragraph styles as you translate. This means that you assign a Heading 1 or Heading 2 or Body Text or Quote paragraph styles to those paragraphs that we assigned those styles to. You will not be able to just start a new document in Word and have all those styles we use available to you, so you might try deleting all the text in our document and saving the empty document with a new name. Then you can start your translation in that new empty document and assigning styles because all the styles we use will still be in that empty document.

*  Email us the new translation and we will convert it to HTML.

*  Click on http://bible.org/article/translation-formatting-guidelines then click on the download word document to download the guidelines.

Q5. What if I don’t have Microsoft Word?

You can download OpenOffice which is free and similar to MS Office and compatible with MS Office documents: http://www.openoffice.org. Please remember to save your translated file as a .doc extension.
 

Q6. Where should I place my name on the document that I have translated?

You may do so at the end of the document. For example
"Translated by Joe Smith"
 

Q7. Where should I send the finished translated material?

 Please notify us via email that you have completed a translation and we will reply to you with an email address you can use to send the file.
 

Q8. How long should it take me to translate an article?

It is hard to calculate how long it will take someone to finish translating an article. Usually it should take no longer than three weeks (However this may vary a lot depending on your schedule and the amount of time you are able to spend on the project). If you use google translate it will probably help speed up the translation time. See the answer to the question "Can I use google translate."
 

Q9. Can I use google translate to translate documents?

Google translator is a tool that can be used for translating documents quickly but with any program, grammatical errors will still occur, so please take the time to edit the document for grammatical and formatting errors before sending the translated copy for publishing. This is not a substitute for actual translation work. Go to http://translate.google.com/translate_t# copy the article into the editor box and then pick English as the first language and then choose your language as the next language, click translate. Once the document has been cleaned up and properly formatted send the document back to Bible.org. 
 

Q10. Can I have a list of other translators that volunteer for Bible.org?

We keep this list of names private. 
 

Q11. How long will it take once I translate an article for it to appear live on Bible.org?

It depends on the current queue of articles to post. It can take 1-3 weeks for a new article to appear on the website.
 

Q12. How do I translate the footnotes?

Footnotes are an important part of many articles, and need careful attention.

*  If a footnote is simply an explanatory note related to the text then translate it fully.

*  However, if it is the bibliography information for a book or article it may be left untranslated to accurately show the resource and page number that was originally referenced. If a translated version of the work is known then that translated name may be put in parenthesis after the original language version. This will aid readers in locating a copy in their own language. A quick search on the internet often will uncover if such a translation is available. Doing such a quick search would be preferred, but there is no need for exhaustive efforts to locate translated versions.

*  Lastly, if a footnote is a mixture of bibliography information and explanatory note be sure to translate the note portion.

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