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Translate languages

Translate values, formats, and titles

Updated at 2019-06-26 16:53:12 UTC

Protobi can call Google Translate so you can start reading and even recoding text verbatims right away.  

Translation in Protobi uses Google Translate API, and works in most major browsers (not just Chrome).  It also uses Google Language Detection API so you can translate text from multiple languages and character sets at once.

Word cloud displaying country names in their native languages and scripts. Countries shown include Australia, Deutschland (Germany), Ελλάδα (Greece), República Argentina, 中国 (China), México, Česká republika (Czech Republic), Österreich (Austria), and many others. Text appears in various sizes, colors, and writing systems including Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese, Hebrew, Greek, and Armenian scripts.

Translate with Protobi

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

Protobi interface showing the Country element with respondent country data displayed. A filter box and Apply button appear at the top. Below is a scrollable list of countries in their native languages with percentages and blue bar charts: Australia (7.0%), Česká republika (7.0%), Deutschland (7.0%), Ελλάδα (7.0%), República Argentina (6.0%), Кыргызия (6.0%), México (6.0%), and others continuing down the list.

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

Advanced menu dropdown showing various element manipulation options. The menu includes options like Hide/unhide, Group, Dissolve, Clone (simple), Clone (recursive), Change key, Extract common title text, Autogroup, Edit properties, Edit JSON, and at the bottom, Translate (BETA) is highlighted. Each menu item shows its keyboard shortcut in parentheses.

Select from the translate dialog whether to translate the data values, the formats or the titles. Typically you will want to translate the data values:

Translate dialog box with blue header and help icon. The dialog asks "What to translate" with three radio button options: Values (selected with filled blue circle), Formats (unselected), and Titles (unselected). Below that, "What language to translate into" shows a dropdown menu with "English" selected. Cancel and Ok buttons appear at the bottom right.

Translated values are saved as formats

Translations are stored in the project as simple value formats. They stay with the project when you save and reopen. Users can toggle the translations on/off with the "Format" button in the tool bar.

Keep in mind that Protobi is still working with the raw local-language values underneath. The translate tool is akin to a superpower that allows you to view all these raw values in your preferred language.

Edit translations

Users can edit translations since they're simple formats.

Here, Google Translate recognizes "Ελλάδα" as the country and translates it to "Griechenland" in German and "Hellas" in English. You can press the edit icon on the element, select "Format..." and change the name to "Greece":

Context menu showing various element editing options. The menu includes Select to copy as text, Copy as image, Round by..., Statistics..., Color..., and Format... (highlighted with blue background and tooltip showing "Specify how to show raw values for display"). Additional options below include Chart type..., More properties..., and Edit JSON..., each with keyboard shortcuts. Edit format dialog showing a table with three columns: Value, Format, and Remove. The table lists countries with their original names in native scripts and their English translations. The row for Ελλάδα (Greek) shows "Greece" being edited in the Format column with a text cursor visible. Other rows include República Argentina/Argentinian republic, Հայաստան/Armenia, Australia/Australia, Österreich/Austria, България/Bulgaria, and others with their translations.

Recode translated values

You can even recode the raw values and toggle the translations on or off:

Context menu showing element editing options. The menu displays Select to copy as text, Copy as image, Round by..., Statistics..., Color..., Format..., and Recode... (highlighted with blue background and tooltip stating "Translate verbatim responses or change specific values for analysis"). Below are Chart type..., More properties..., and Edit JSON... options with their keyboard shortcuts.

 

Export translations to SPSS

Translations also export to SPSS .sav files, so you can work on them in any other market research software. Since translations are stored as value formats and variables as labels, they export as such to SPSS.

Translation is safe

The original data is not modified so the user can modify, delete and redo translation as they wish. Only the raw values for the specific selected element are uploaded to Google, and they are sent encrypted under SSL. No other data such as respondent ID is shared.

Professional translation is still an option

Using translation in Protobi does not preclude users from more formal approaches to translation. You can still send your survey responses to a professional translation firm, and merge the results into Protobi when they come back. But that approach will take days, and maybe you want to take a peek at the data earlier.

Video Tutorial

Cloud translations