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# Translate story forms

In your story form, you can provide participants with a choice of languages. For example, a three-language story form might start like this.

When a participant chooses a language from the list, the form will redraw itself in that language. When the participant submits the form, NarraFirma will save the participant's language choice as a question you can graph.

NarraFirma supports multi-lingual story forms using an optional translation dictionary. For each piece of text that is to be displayed on the story form (or in the questions it references), a translation dictionary stores alternative texts to be displayed in other languages. This page of NarraFirma is where you can create and edit a story form's translation dictionary.

## What to do here

1. Choose the story form you want to translate.
2. Enter a default language in which the form will appear when participants have not chosen a language.
3. Enter a question participants will answer as they choose a language. (Tip: It's a good idea to write your choose-a-language question in every language you intend to support, as in the example above.)
4. Enter a list of additional languages you want to support (one per line).
5. Choose Create or update translation dictionary from the drop-down list of actions, then click Do it. Many empty text boxes will appear, one for each text-language combination.
6. Fill in the translations for each text. Do not translate the explanations that are shown after each text (in a smaller, italic font). They are meant to help you understand the context in which each text is used.
7. Alternatively, you can export your translation dictionary to a CSV file, enter your translations there, and import the file. (Do not edit the default-language texts. Save the file as CSV with UTF-8 character encoding.)
8. Periodically test your story form by choosing Preview story form and clicking Do it. Run through each language choice, making sure the form reads correctly.

## Connections to other pages

The translation facility in NarraFirma is a simple one. It matches each translatable piece of text to one or more additional-language versions of that piece of text. NarraFirma has no idea where these translatable texts belong on the story form. It only knows, for example, that instead of writing "How you feel about this story?" it should (sometimes) write "Que pensez-vous de cette histoire?"

This means that if you enter translations for a text, then change the original text (in its question or story form), your translations of that text will become orphaned, or detached from the question or form. They will still be stored in the question or form, but they will never be displayed, because the original piece of text to which they are linked no longer exists.

When this happens, there is an easy fix. Choose Show orphaned translations from the drop-down list of actions, then click Do it. Copy each of the translated texts shown, and paste it into the text box for that field's new translatable text.

To minimize the need to fix orphaned translations like this, we recommend that you design and test your story form in its default language before you enter any translations.

Orphaned translations stay in the story form until you remove them. To remove them, choose Remove orphaned translations, then click Do it.

The one other connection between this page and other pages in NarraFirma is that translated story forms produce a "Language" question, the results of which you can graph in the Catalysis section of NarraFirma.

## Frequently-asked questions

### Can you explain the CSV import process in more detail?

1. Fill in the three fields at the top of this page. Make sure to enter a default language, a language question, and at least one additional language.
2. Synchronize the translation dictionary with your story form by choosing Create or update translation dictionary and clicking Do it.
3. Choose Export translation dictionary. Choose a file location.
4. Send the CSV file to your translator. Ask them to edit only the columns labeled with the alternative languages. They should not edit the default-language (primary) texts. Also ask them to make sure the file stays in CSV format with UTF-8 character encoding. (The CSV delimiter used will be the one you set on the "Project options" page, under "Project administration.")
5. When you get the translated file back, go back to this page. Select the story form, choose Import translations from CSV, then click Do it. The new translations should appear in the form fields on the page. You can review them, and you can preview the story form.

### If I imported my story form from a CSV file, should my translation dictionary be part of that file?

Translation dictionaries are only used to display story forms in NarraFirma-administered surveys. If you collected your story data outside of NarraFirma, you will have no need for a translation dictionary. However, if you have language information from your surveying system, you can include that information in your imported CSV file. See the import guide for details.

If you want to export a story form from one NarraFirma project and import it into another one, you will need to export and import the translation dictionary separately from the form itself.