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Set project language

Learn how to change the default language in your project for easier use

Updated at 2023-02-27 13:24:47 UTC

There are a couple areas in Protobi where you may want to change the language:

  • User interface (toolbar buttons, menus, editor panel, notifications, etc.)
  • Question elements:
    • Title: The question text from the survey file, or manually edited
    • Values: The raw values as seen in the survey data file
    • Formats: The labels used for display

You can set the application interface in your preferred language, or show languages that already exist in your survey. You can even set the user interface and elements language independently from each other. 

User interface language

Protobi's default interface language is English. You can select additional languages from a list of Protobi's supported languages in project settings.

Project settings Overview page with "Language demo project" as the Name and Brief title. The Languages section shows multiple language checkboxes with Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish selected, while Danish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese remain unchecked.

Once you open the project, you can switch between the selected languages in the toolbar. 

If your survey was not programmed in the language you select, then it will only change the user interface (UI) language and will not change the language displayed in the survey questions.

The toolbar displays a green "Language" button with a dropdown menu showing six language options: English, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. Below, a data table shows country statistics with CHINA 13%, GERMANY 9%, SPAIN 20%, FRANCE 14%, ITALY 20%, and UNITED STATES 24% with N=691.

You can also use the language setting in project properties.

The "Project properties: $root" dialog displays a Language dropdown menu expanded to show available languages including Arabic, Chinese, el, Gujarati, Greek, Italian, Spanish (highlighted in blue), English (with checkmark), German, and French. Other visible settings include P-value for sig tests (0.05), Toolbar position (top), and various display options.

Surveys programmed in multiple languages

Some surveys are already programmed with multiple languages based on where the survey is fielded. You do not need to select the programmed languages in project settings-- they will already be in your language dropdown menu. 

When you change the language dropdown, all the question elements from your survey will change language.

If you want to the UI language to switch as well, select the programmed languages in project settings.

The Protobi interface displays in Chinese with the toolbar showing a green "Chinese" button. The left sidebar contains Chinese translations of questions (Q1-Q15 visible). The main content shows two sections: Country data with Chinese country names (中国 13%, 德国 9%, 西班牙 20%, 法国 14%, 意大利 20%, 美国 24%) and Regions data, plus S1 and S2 sections showing medical specialty questions with [NA] responses and percentage breakdowns.

Translate questions to a different language

If you want to translate questions to a language that isn't programmed in your survey, you can use Protobi's Google Translate feature. 

It also uses Google Language Detection API so you can translate text from multiple languages and character sets at once. This is useful when you have an open-end and respondents from different markets answered in their preferred language. 

Select an element you would like to translate by pressing the header, for instance Q3: 

The Q3 question card displays Chinese text asking "From your current knowledge of once weekly basal insulins, which are their main expected benefits for treating patients with Type 2 diabetes?" Below is a Filter box with an "Apply" button, followed by a vertical list of approximately 16 Chinese response options, each showing 0% on the right side.

Then press the "Advanced" button in the toolbar and choose "Translate...":

The interface shows an "Advanced design actions" menu dropdown in the upper right corner, displaying options including Hide/unhide (D), Group (G), Dissolve (U), Clone (simple) (E L), Change key (E K), Copy Element(s) (C J), Paste Element(s) (V J), Paste Special (V P), Google Translate (A T), Recode (advanced) (A R), and QC checks (beta) (Q C). The main content shows Q3 in Chinese with a list of responses showing 0% values.

Select from the translate dialog whether to translate the data values, the formats or the titles.

The "Translate: Q3" dialog box displays two sections: "What to translate" with three radio button options (Values selected, Formats, and Titles), and "What language to translate into" with a dropdown menu set to "English". The dialog has gray "Cancel" and blue "Ok" buttons at the bottom.