Translating GZDoom's text content. Read if you want to help

[Graf Zahl]

I finally managed to export all language content to a spreadsheet. Here are links to a couple of Google spreadsheets.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing (Engine)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing (Game)

My hopes are that there's some interest here to help fill in some gaps.
If you want to contribute, please continue reading.

This Google spreadsheet will serve as the master text list for GZDoom in the future. What gets in here will get into the next release.
Any contributions should be submitted in spreadsheet form and formatted so that they can be easily copied into this master list.

This means, you should download this sheet, and depending on whether you want to complete an existing language or add a new one, either edit the column for your language or add a new one. If you start working on something please post a quick note here.
Alternatively you may ask to get write access to this one. For that, please send me a PM.

Also, please make intermediate submissions of your work if parts are complete so it can be reviewed by other users.

If someone is interested in contributing some graphics work but not actually translating, there are still some characters to be added to the fonts.
Here's a spreadsheet with the current status:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Disregarding Chex Quest's BigFont which is already being worked on, the entries marked red are missing for the current set of languages, and the ones marked orange are missing for languages that are currently being translated. Yellow ones would be an extra, but right now no language requiring these characters has seen any work. All other colors mark characters that won't be needed or are already done.

[Rachael]

It should probably be stated that currently only LTR languages are supported.

[Graf Zahl]

Currently only Latin and Cyrillic scripts are supported. Hopefully we get Greek support as well, but anything else would be wishful thinking because someone has to draw all those characters.
The console font supports all relevant Latin special characters, the other fonts are still missing many diacritical letters.

[Enjay]

Given that the new fonts are case sensitive, what is the requirement for capitalisation? The reason that I ask is that I notice that there are already massive inconsistencies in the capitalisation of the default text. The French text seems to be better, but what is required here? Should contributors try to emulate the inconsistent (and often wrong or non-existent) capitalisation of the default or should it be corrected?

Leading on from that, should the default be corrected/made more consistent or would that be considered meddling with the original messages?

Does it matter? Will GZDoom be case sensitive for these messages or is it just for particular strings/menu heading/etc?

I'm not in a position to provide any translations myself (willing but unable - the few UK English words seem to be done already and I have no knowledge at all of the missing languages) so I'm just asking because the questions might be important.

[Graf Zahl]

Proper capitalization should be preferred. Even though the standard fonts aren't case sensitive and probably will never be for historical reasons the text should be able to deal with truly case sensitive fonts.

Yes, there's a lot of work needed to fix all those inconsistencies, so if someone feels like fixing that, the same procedures apply as for new translations.

[Nash]

https://convertcase.net/

This looks like it does a decent job in helping you save some time. You'll have to choose Sentence, Capitalized Case or Title Case depending on context, and of course ultimately you'll still have to go through the text manually to fix whatever the generator didn't fix, but it's much better than retyping everything from scratch.

[Graf Zahl]

I already used that to convert the Strife dialogues which were mostly uppercase only. But for the rest a lot more reviewing is needed.

[Undead]

My team and I already have a spreadsheet for Strife, with each map split into its own tab, complete with character names and coloring to indicate the type of dialog and its context. We’ll move our work to the GZDoom spreadsheet as soon as everything is finalized.

[Graf Zahl]

Ok. There's a "Remark" column that is intended for that kind of information like the talking character etc., in case you have something like that and want it preserved.

[Tapwave]

Oh gosh yes! That's exactly what I wanted for so long, thank you! Now I can work on this wherever I want, gonna fill up my breaks with this

[Undead]

I propose that the font of the whole spreadsheet is changed to Open Sans. It’s a lot more readable, in my opinion. (It might increase the load time, but I’m not sure.)

Also, is there any way to “fork” the spreadsheet and work on it online? I have no program on my computer that can open and edit any of the downloadable formats.

[Nash]

You can edit it directly in Google Spreadsheet.

[Undead]

Oh, you’re right. I was able to copy it just fine. Thanks!

I suggest changing the instructions in the OP to “Copy the spreadsheet through File > Make a Copy…”, which will allow people to make their own copy of the spreadsheet and edit it freely before submitting anything to the official one.

If I get editing access, I’d like to add a WIP Serbian and maybe even Interslavic translation (in both Latin and Cyrillic), both of which I’ve worked on just for fun.

Regarding the spreadsheet itself:

1. I think it’ll be best to sort all text at the top of each column by selecting everything and clicking Format > Align > Top. This will prevent any strange alignments when a column is extended due to word wrapping. Case in point:
   
   
2. It’s also possible to pin rows and columns so that translators can always see certain parts of the sheet, no matter which language they are focused on. Use the View > Freeze function.
   
   • For this to have maximum efficiency, you would have to move the default strings all the way to the left, and it would look like this on a zoomed 1280×720 screen (as a worst case scenario). When translating, reading the original text takes priority over reading the identifiers.

While I don’t like the idea of making sudden changes to the whole spreadsheet (partially because it strongly impacts the spreadsheet history by highlighting the whole spreadsheet), I could do all of this myself, with Graf’s permission.

[Graf Zahl]

You have my permission. Right now it has no history, so there's no concerns.

[Undead]

Could you export all the strings in these two files and add them to the language table?

language.srb
language-extra.srb