Help translate Logos 5 into another language!

I regularly get email from people who love Logos Bible Software and would like to help translate it into another language, so that it can be useful to more Bible students.

We have set up a web-based project using the Crowdin translation tool, so anyone who would like to contribute to a translation project can. Right now the Logos 5 desktop UI has been uploaded for translation; help files and other content will follow in the coming weeks.

http://crowdin.net/project/logos-desktop-ui

We have set up projects for around 20 languages of interest to existing/potential users (based on the language their web browser is set to when people visit Logos.com).

Most Logos users read English, by necessity -- most of our the content is in English! (Except for our Spanish product line.) But having the UI in your native-tongue can be more comfortable even when you're using English resources, and this will enable users to contribute to that effort if they wish.

We will build Logos in any of these languages that get 90% or more of the UI translated, and enable switching to that language through the Program Settings. (Though you may have to wait for a beta or SR for updated language resources, until we're able to automate the update process more.)

We do not have in-house skills in all these languages, and will need to rely on user contributions, and on users with strong language skills volunteering to be proof readers who approve submitted translations. (An easy function once you're authorized for that role in Crowdin.)

For a small number of languages we intend to do a full-scale localization effort. This involves translating the software UI, the help files, our unique biblical data sets, creating reverse interlinears for Bibles in that language, translating a significant portion of our web site and automated transaction and service emails, hiring bi-lingual customer service agents, and licensing books in that language.

For these languages we will need translation managers who are willing to commit to the project, and we expect to compensate these individuals in exchange for their commitment to 'treat it like a job' -- making sure the translation is done 100% before a release, reviewing/standardizing vocabulary, etc. It's possible we'll contract this out to professional firms, but we're also open to working with users who would like to work remotely, part-time, in exchange for software credit.

I anticipate (in no particular order, and with no schedule, and we're not quite ready yet) that the first 'done thoroughly' languages will be German, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, and French, in addition to Spanish, which we manage in-house.

(We are not ready to go full-throttle on all this yet, and won't be for some time, but if you want to help in a bigger way, email me -- bob@logos.com -- and I'll add your email to my file for that language, even if I don't respond immediately.)

Again, if you volunteer to contribute to the translation project online at Crowdin, please know that we can't commit to payment or any compensation right now. So we have no expectations, but if you want to do it, you're welcome to and we'll build the localized UI if we get enough coverage in your language. And if you choose to contribute, please use the same email or name at Crowdin as you use on your Logos account, so we can see who contributes and thank you appropriately.

-- Bob

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Comments

Milford Charles Murray

Peace, Bob! *smile* Again I must say, "Well-Done!" You and your compatriots do a wonderful Work that benefits so many peoples (sic!) as you diligently strive "to get the Word out"!

I thank you and I thank our Gracious God and Father for you! Indeed! My mind is often "blown" by your wisdom and daring and enthusiasm. God Bless you in this latest endeavour! *smile* You -- and your colleagues at Logos Bible Software -- will continue in my personal prayers!

Rosie Perera

This is great news!

Bruce Dunning

It is exciting to see the influence of Logos expand to other languages.

Mark Barnes

This is great to see. All we need now is a Welsh Bible - electronic files are available from the American Bible Society.

If anyone is concerned about the current security error when logging into the crowdin website, it's due to a server configuration error at their end. I reported it to their support, and got the following reply: "We are sorry for this temporary inconvenience. We assure you that you can trust the connection, there is nothing to worry about."

Steve Maling

Rosie is right (as usual): this is GREAT news! Just imagine, that "little" startup Bible software outfit way up there (from a US perspective) in "tiny" Bellingham, WA, is moving from the shallow end to the deep end of the linguistic pool of our Lord's Church that includes disciples "from every nation and tongue! Gott sei Dank!

Milford Charles Murray

Peace, Steve! *smile* Great post! My personal life theme for now and the foreseeable future = Gott sei Dank!

*smile*

Randy W. Sims

Wish I could help with this awesome new project, but I don't see any options for 1337 or Ubbi Dubbi. [:P]

It is exciting to see Logos being translated and also exciting to see an open project where users and fans can directly contribute something back and help move it forward.

Todd Phillips

Wish I could help with this awesome new project, but I don't see any options for 1337 or Ubbi Dubbi.

[Y]. Both of those "languages" are machine translatable with near 100% accuracy, so crowd sourcing probably isn't needed---unless 1337 slang is required (see the Leet Speak language setting in Facebook). For novelty languages, I would prefer to see Logos available in Pirate English.

I anticipate (in no particular order, and with no schedule, and we're not quite ready yet) that the first 'done thoroughly' languages will be German, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, and French, in addition to Spanish, which we manage in-house.

This is exciting, especially if it means Logos will be licensing more Bibles in those languages.

David Wilson

The project would probably benefit from each 'done thoroughly' language including a dictionary for the user to translate some of the more difficult English words (in the resources) into the interface language.

(That way the rest of us will benefit from the availability of the German-English dictionary to help us with German language resources u.s.w.!!)

Bohuslav Wojnar

How could I miss your post Bob for so long! It is great. I have been waiting for that since Logos 4 launch. Thank you for that decision. Now I have to find somebody who will have more time than me to work on that [:)]. Excellent move. [Y]

Mikko Paavola

I read the blog post last night at 1am when I came home from my work trip and in the morning I was wondering if this was a dream or true. And it's true! Thank you very much for this new project! I'm in the project!

This makes Logos much more globally oriented program! Some new key resources for those new languages and Logos will be soon top 1 Bible software also for lay people in many non-English languages.

Elias Okkonen

Do TitleCases really have to be Title Cases? I mean it's not proper Finnish. I guess there's some kind of technical reason for this and they really have to be Title Cases?

Operation Evangelism

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to God and for this initiative!!

Chris Robbers

Do TitleCases really have to be Title Cases? I mean it's not proper Finnish. I guess there's some kind of technical reason for this and they really have to be Title Cases?

They often do not. Use whatever would be most appropriate for the language.

Chris Robbers

Indonesian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese have been added. Keep those translations coming, and a big thanks to those who have already contributed.

Tes

I hope to see one day,Amharic and Tigrinya Bibles fully integrated in Logos format.

Matt Kim

Another two cents on Chinese translations - (sorry) - yes the characters may be freely interconverted back and forth between simplified and traditional script freely, but there are terms that will be viewed as between odd to just plain wrong by various groups of people, ie mainlanders vs Taiwanese, Cantonese, or Hong Kong residents (Western influenced region with lots of pop culture and rapidly changing expressions). Keep in mind that the Chinese region comprises lots of people who, though they have a common written script (with a recent modification), have had centuries of lo tech living to develop different ways of speaking... A common thing that I see with children's books in Chinese is that they will apparently be written by a non mainlander and will then generate lots of fairly harsh criticism from Chinese teachers on the mainland (some cultural norms come into effect here). So it's important to know where your translator is coming from if you allow them to lead a project... They may be native speaking, but a slightly different native, with varying levels of sensitivity to speakers from other areas, and a varying sensitivity to vocabulary changes over time, though this is less critical for a UI than for literature, of course.

L.A.

That's really great news!! Logos is going international - step by step - ... (ap)

I've been really missing it after using libronix-sesb2/3 etc.

Thanks a lot!!!!!!! [Y] I appreciate also the growing resources in spanish, portuguese... ...?and german?... (OK - this isn't the resource forum - however :-)

arjeh

As a former user of German SESB (Libronix) who recently changed to Logos 5 with Windows 8 it would be VERY useful to have a German user interface of Logos 5, especially the chance to use bible book references in the form of "Joh 1,1" instead of "Jhn 1:1" or "Offb 12,4" instead of "Rev 12:4".

I'm looking forward to this! Thanks for your efforts.

Friedhelm

Tes

As a former user of German SESB (Libronix) who recently changed to Logos 5 with Windows 8 it would be VERY useful to have a German user interface of Logos 5, especially the chance to use bible book references in the form of "Joh 1,1" instead of "Jhn 1:1" or "Offb 12,4" instead of "Rev 12:4".

I'm looking forward to this! Thanks for your efforts.

Friedhelm

Seth Copeland

We've uploaded the help files for Logos 5!

If you would like to help out translating click on the following link.

http://crowdin.net/project/logoshelpfiles

Thanks!

Seth

L.A.

As a former user of German SESB (Libronix) who recently changed to Logos 5 with Windows 8 it would be VERY useful to have a German user interface of Logos 5, especially the chance to use bible book references in the form of "Joh 1,1" instead of "Jhn 1:1" or "Offb 12,4" instead of "Rev 12:4".

I'm looking forward to this! Thanks for your efforts.

Friedhelm

YES! YES! YES! :-) PLEASE!

Mark Barnes

As a former user of German SESB (Libronix) who recently changed to Logos 5 with Windows 8 it would be VERY useful to have a German user interface of Logos 5, especially the chance to use bible book references in the form of "Joh 1,1" instead of "Jhn 1:1" or "Offb 12,4" instead of "Rev 12:4".

I'm looking forward to this! Thanks for your efforts.

Friedhelm

YES! YES! YES! :-) PLEASE!

A German user interface has been added to Logos 5.1a which is currently being beta-tested. However, Bible book names are all still in English. This post explains why, and offers some hope: http://community.logos.com/forums/t/72954.aspx

David choi

I'd like to expect about new language traslate ~

is it possible copy korean version to logos bible resources ?

many korean websites provids standard korean bible translate version ~

Lee

May I suggest that we start new threads titled "Localization: ___________________" in the General forum.

This can help everybody get to the specific issues.

L.A.

May I suggest that we start new threads titled "Localization: ___________________" in the General forum.

This can help everybody get to the specific issues.

Good Idea!

And everybody is invited to use the crowdin page. :-)

Stephen Kao

Hi is there a list of the relationship between each resource file and the section in Logos UI.

For example LDLS4.indexer\OurResources.resx is for section of the UI in Logos5 that will make translation much more easier and no need to ask for context for clarification.

Luigi Sam

firstly I can't help in this area - just so no one gets the wrong idea,

second, I am unsure if this compensation / 'pseudo' job is clear enough. who are you paying?

the managers, (3rd last paragraph) and not the workers (last paragraph)? Not saying that you meant this, I am just saying: what are you saying? thats all

Wheeler Feng

I regularly get email from people who love Logos Bible Software and would like to help translate it into another language, so that it can be useful to more Bible students.

We have set up a web-based project using the Crowdin translation tool, so anyone who would like to contribute to a translation project can. Right now the Logos 5 desktop UI has been uploaded for translation; help files and other content will follow in the coming weeks.

http://crowdin.net/project/logos-desktop-ui

We have set up projects for around 20 languages of interest to existing/potential users (based on the language their web browser is set to when people visit Logos.com).

Most Logos users read English, by necessity -- most of our the content is in English! (Except for our Spanish product line.) But having the UI in your native-tongue can be more comfortable even when you're using English resources, and this will enable users to contribute to that effort if they wish.

We will build Logos in any of these languages that get 90% or more of the UI translated, and enable switching to that language through the Program Settings. (Though you may have to wait for a beta or SR for updated language resources, until we're able to automate the update process more.)

We do not have in-house skills in all these languages, and will need to rely on user contributions, and on users with strong language skills volunteering to be proof readers who approve submitted translations. (An easy function once you're authorized for that role in Crowdin.)

For a small number of languages we intend to do a full-scale localization effort. This involves translating the software UI, the help files, our unique biblical data sets, creating reverse interlinears for Bibles in that language, translating a significant portion of our web site and automated transaction and service emails, hiring bi-lingual customer service agents, and licensing books in that language.

For these languages we will need translation managers who are willing to commit to the project, and we expect to compensate these individuals in exchange for their commitment to 'treat it like a job' -- making sure the translation is done 100% before a release, reviewing/standardizing vocabulary, etc. It's possible we'll contract this out to professional firms, but we're also open to working with users who would like to work remotely, part-time, in exchange for software credit.

I anticipate (in no particular order, and with no schedule, and we're not quite ready yet) that the first 'done thoroughly' languages will be German, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, and French, in addition to Spanish, which we manage in-house.

(We are not ready to go full-throttle on all this yet, and won't be for some time, but if you want to help in a bigger way, email me -- bob@logos.com -- and I'll add your email to my file for that language, even if I don't respond immediately.)

Again, if you volunteer to contribute to the translation project online at Crowdin, please know that we can't commit to payment or any compensation right now. So we have no expectations, but if you want to do it, you're welcome to and we'll build the localized UI if we get enough coverage in your language. And if you choose to contribute, please use the same email or name at Crowdin as you use on your Logos account, so we can see who contributes and thank you appropriately.

-- Bob

How did the project go now? Is it still open for translation. As a mandarin translator I could put some contribution to it. Will check it out...

Thomas Reiter (Faithlife)

Hi Wheeler,

Since this project was created, we have actually substantially expanded our approach to languages and now have dedicated staff for a number of languages, Chinese being one of them. We have already completed the interface and much more, but still have plenty left to localize, so I have forwarded your info to our Chinese product manager who will reach out to you.

Thomas

Wheeler Feng

OH thank you, I've received an email from Philip Peng and I am going to write back to him.

BTW I am running a professional Chinese translation team here. Will you consider engaging professional service providers like us, or you are only in need of language volunteers?