Starting A New Translation Project

If you want to translate the xTuple ERP application interface into a new language, we ask that you first translate a copy of the xTuple Phrase Book. The Phrase Book contains about 1,000 of the most commonly used words and phrases in xTuple ERP. Once the Phrase Book has been translated into your language, simply send the completed Phrase Book to us at translate@xtuple.com and we'll create a project for the language in our Translation Portal.

These are the steps required to start a new translation project for xTuple ERP:

1. Download the xTuple Phrase Book (see attached)

2. Download Qt Linguist

3. Translate the Phrase Book into your language

4. Refer to the Translation Glossary for help understanding terms

5. Complete Phrase Book translation 100%

6. Send Phrase Book to translate@xtuple.com

7. xTuple adds new language to Translation Portal web page

8. xTuple creates Internationalization forum for new language

9. Community members finish translation work

Working with the Phrase Book

The Phrase Book is designed to speed up the process of translating xTuple ERP from English into other languages. By translating the Phrase Book first, you are accomplishing 50% of the work required to translate xTuple into your language. The Phrase Book includes the following categories of words and terms:

1. Most commonly used words and terms
2. Application menu terms

Once a Phrase Book has been 100% translated, xTuple will apply the Phrase Book to an empty translation file. And then the translation project will be well underway. The formula is really quite simple:

100% translated Phrase Book = 50% translated xTuple ERP

To help you understand the words and terms which appear in xTuple ERP, we have put together a Translation Glossary. This glossary of terms includes many of the terms found in the xTuple Phrase Book. It also includes many other words and terms found in xTuple ERP. If you discover words/terms that should be added to the Translation Glossary, please join our translation community and add the missing terms.

You will need to download a copy of Qt Linguist to edit the Phrase Book. You will also need a copy of the xTuple Phrase Book, which is attached to this page. Once you have installed Qt Linguist, you open the xTuple Phrase Book using the "Phrases" menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

Opening xTuple Phrase Book in Qt Linguist

You will be prompted to locate the xTuple Phrase Book on your file system. Simply browse your computer for the location where you saved the xTuple Phrase Book. Then simply select the file and click on the OPEN button, as shown in the next screenshot:

Locating xTuple Phrase Book on Your Computer

Next you will go to the "Phrases" menu again to open the Phrase Book for editing. The next screenshot shows how to select the "Edit Phrase Book" option. Assuming you opened the xTuple Phrase Book successfully, then it will appear as shown below:

Opening xTuple Phrase Book for Editing

The next screen shows the editing screen for the xTuple Phrase Book. The Phrase Book includes 1,000 entries--including the most-commonly-used terms in xTuple ERP, as well as the complete set of menu terms. In the following screen, you can see the Phrase Book before any translations have been added to it. The first column contains the source phrases. The source phrases are the words and terms as they appear in English in xTuple ERP. The second column will contain your translations of the source phrases into your language.

So here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Open Phrase Book for editing
2. Select source phrase
3. Enter translation for source phrase

4. Refer to the Translation Glossary for help understanding terms

5. Select next source phrase
6. Enter translation for next source phrase
7. Keep going until you finish 100% of the Phrase Book

8. Email the completed Phrase Book to translate@xtuple.com

Of course, you do not have to complete the Phrase Book in one session! You can always save your work and come back to it later. Simply select the SAVE button to save your work. To reopen the Phrase Book for editing later, simply follow the steps described previously.

Untranslated Empty xTuple Phrase Book

When you are finished, the Phrase Book should look like the Russian Phrase Book shown in the following screenshot. In this example, you can see the translations right next to the source phrases. The Russian Phrase Book was submitted by an xTuple community member. And now the Russian translation project is part of the xTuple Translation Portal!

Sample Translated xTuple Phrase Book