This article provides a comprehensive guide on using the EFS Translator Interface, a tool designed for translating questionnaires directly into EFS. It covers various aspects of the translation process, from logging in to managing multiple languages and exporting/importing translations.

Logging In

The login to EFS Translator Interface is performed via the URL of the respective EFS installation, with the addition of /translations/.

Orienting Yourself

After successful authentication, you enter EFS Translator Interface.

Navigation bar

In the navigation bar at the top of the screen, you will find links that will be constantly displayed while you work:

• The link Deutsch / English allows to switch from the English to the German inter- face and vice versa. After clicking it you need to update the page to trigger the change of language.
• By clicking on Help you invoke the online help.
• With Logout you leave the translator interface.

Menu

The menu on the left-hand offers access to various submenus and features:

• Project list: Via this menu item you can open the list of those projects which you’re authorized to access.
• Account data: In this dialog, you can edit your own address data and change your password. (Click on your name below the menu to access this dialog.)

Content area

• In the content area, you can find the current menu. The figure above shows the list of projects.

Changing the Password

When you log into the EFS Translator Interface for the first time, you are asked to change your password and define a security question. The security question is required to establish your identity if you forget your password.

The request to change your password is repeated monthly. If you want to change your password on your own, go to the Account data → Password menu. (Please click on your name below the left-hand menu, then open the Password menu to access this dialog.)

Updating Address Data

When creating your acccount, the project manager has entered your address data. In the menu Account data, you can view and update these data. Please take special care to keep your e-mail address up-to-date and working: If you forget your password, the process to reset it runs via this e-mail address.

Your Projects

In the project list, you can find all survey projects that you’re authorized to access.

If a project for which you are supposed to have access is missing from the list, usually the corresponding rights must be set up. Also, if you can see a project but the title is not clickable, access rights for the project have been assigned but you are not authorized yet to view or edit any of its languages. In such cases, please contact the responsible project manager or the Questback’s support team.

Search

If you make frequent use of EFS Translator Interface, the list of projects might get long. Therefore, two search features are available:

• ????Simple search: If you know the project title, you can find the project easily by using this feature. Just enter the project title and click Search.
• ????Extended search: Using this feature, which is opened by clicking the link Extended search, you can search for the title of the project, the type of project or both.

To reset the search, delete the existing keyword and click Search.

Information and functions in the project list

For each project, the following data is offered in the overview list:

• Title of the project. By clicking the title you can open the editing menu of therespective project.
• Description
• Type: EFS supports various project types which are optimized for specific situations.
• Project start/end

The following actions are available:

• Edit: Opens the editing menu of the respective project-
• Preview: Opens the questionnaire in the default language in preview mode. If the project manager has activated linking between the questionnaire and the EFS Translator Interface for you, you can jump directly from the preview to the corresponding page of the editor, see Figure 3.2. (Please note: The linking is not available for question types 911, 921, 998, and 999.)

To hide columns of the table or limit the number of rows per page, click the button View.

Editing a Project

By clicking on the project title or the Edit icon in the project list, you can access the editing functions of the respective project.

In the menus, you find all the functions needed for your work.

• Survey languages: This menu offers an overview of the languages that you’re authorized to access.
• Search and replace: This function allows you to search the question texts, answers, and fill-in instructions of a project for a certain keyword and to optionally change the text in one step.
• Text elements: In this menu, you translate the text elements of the questionnaire.
• Survey messages: Here, you can edit messages and button labels.
• Wildcards: If wildcards are used to insert predefined texts into the questionnaire in your project, you can access the texts via this menu.
• Logos and form elements: If logos are used in your project or if the buttons are based on image files, you can upload translated versions for the various languages.
• Import / Export: If you want to export the text elements of the project for external editing with Microsoft Excel or SDLX, you can find the respective functions in this menu.

Survey Languages

When entering a project, you will automatically reach the menu Survey languages. This menu contains an overview of all languages that you’re authorized to access and various administrative features which are introduced in the following chapters.

Overview of the Survey Languages

The overview table in the upper part provides the following information for all languages that you’re authorized to access:

• Label of the language
• Language identifier: Unambiguously identifies language and region.

Depending of your access rights, you may see one or both of the following actions:

• Edit language: Opens a dialog in which you can change label and identifier of the respective language.
• Print: Opens a view of the questionnaire in the respective language that is optimi- zed for printing.

Using the button View, you can hide columns of the table or limit the number of rows per page.

If a language that you’re supposed to translate is missing from the list or the Edit language icon is missing, usually the corresponding rights have not been set up yet. Please contact the responsible project manager or Questback’s support team.

Language Identifiers

The language identifier enables you and your colleagues to identify the target language and region of a translation unambiguously. E.g. en_US: Englisch / USA, en_GB: Eng- lish / Great Britain; de_DE: German / Germany. The use of the language identifier is of specific importance when localizing a questionnaire for various dialects of the same language, as e.g. American and British English.

The identifier is constructed by combining

• the language code according to the ISO 639 standard. For a complete list, see e.g. http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
• the country code according to the ISO 3166 standard. For a complete list, see e.g. http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/english_country_na- mes_and_code_elements.htm

For example, en is the language code for English, US is the country code for the USA. Accordingly, the language identifier of an English text localized for US readers is en_US.

Editing Languages

You can change the label and identifier of a language.

• To do so, find the language in the overview and click the icon Edit language.
• Change label and identifier as required.
• Confirm with Save.

Copying Language Elements

You have translated a questionnaire into American English. Now you want to create a second version in British English. Instead of starting anew, you can copy the texts of the already-existing American translation into the second language version, and then modify them as needed.

To do so, set the appropriate source and target languages in the “Copy language elements” section and confirm with Execute.

Tracing Changes Made in Language Administration via the Log

The “Language selection log” section displays important operations within language administration (e.g. change of name or identifier of a language) in chronological order. That way, you can check e.g. who has changed a language identifier or whether a language which you’re supposed to translate has already been created.

Translating the Text Elements of the Questionnaire

If you translate the questionnaire via the EFS Translator Interface, you will work with the text element editor most of the time. With this editor, you can edit the text elements of your questionnaire page per page. In the following, you learn:

• how to open the editor
• how to edit text elements in the editor.
• how to configure the editor.
• how to change frequently repeated terms all over the questionnaire using search and replace.
• which statistical information is available e.g. for billing purposes.

Opening the Editor

By clicking the menu item Text Elements, you open a list of all pages of the questionnaire. It shows if there are still untranslated text elements on a survey page.

• All text elements in the text element editor that have been filled in the source language should be filled in the additional languages, too. I.e. the pages of the default language will always be marked OK.
• Until all the text elements of an additional language have been completed in the text element editor, the table will output the Edit message for the respective page.
• Once all the text elements of a language have been completed, the table will output the OK message for the respective page.

You can click on the OK and Edit messages and switch directly to the appropriate page of the editor. The To-do icons enable you to store a note for each page in each language. This is quite handy if you translate the questionnaire in a team with several other colleagues.

Please note that the overview will only indicate whether or not the text elements of a page are filled with text in the target language. It is not possible to check automatically whether the text is in the correct language and has been translated correctly.

Also, this list does not indicate whether the survey messages have already been translated or whether translated logos or form elements have been uploaded.

Translating Text Elements

Via the OK or Edit links of the questionnaire overview, you enter the editor itself. The editor is structured as follows:

• The text elements of the questionnaire page displayed will be grouped by questions and listed in the order in which they appear in the finished questionnaire. The type of the respective text element (question text, item text, etc.) will be displayed in the “Element” column.
• The second column of the editor contains the text elements of the default language, i.e. the texts that the project manager has entered in the questionnaire editor. The default language is usually also the reference language for your translation. If you have read rights for the default language, you can only see the texts – with write rights, you can also edit them.
• In the other columns, you can enter the text elements of the selected page for all other languages. To learn how to display languages or how to change the size of the entry fields.
• By clicking on the Preview icon, you can open the questionnaire in the respective language in preview mode. Save first to make sure that you see the most recent status of your translation.
• After completing and Saving the page, you can use the Arrow icons in the right upper corner to skip to the text elements on the previous or next questionnaire page.

You can change the text elements in all languages for which you’ve “write” rights. Afterwards, confirm by clicking Save.

Configuring the Editor

You can decide yourself which languages you want to edit at the same time in the editor and how big the entry fields should be. If you translate only one or two languages, for example, it might make sense to display the text elements of all languages at once and edit them in parallel. If you have access to half a dozen or more languages, on the other hand, it might be more comfortable to display only a few languages at once.

• Click the View button.
• A layer opens, offering the following configuration options:
  • Number of rows in input fields (height): This field allows you to add rows to the open entry fields.
  • Number of characters per row in input fields (width): This value allows you to change the width of the open entry fields.
  • Languages: You can activate the languages that you want to edit or hide superfluous languages. The languages available are those which you’re authorized to access.
• Afterward, confirm with Apply.

Search and Replace

The “Search and Replace” function allows you to search the text elements of a project for a certain keyword and to optionally change the text in one step.

The search function covers all text elements which are accessible via the text element editor. Survey messages and wildcards cannot be searched.

<img> tags used in the HTML question type for example to insert an image, are not covered by the “Search and replace” function. The purpose of this restriction is to prevent inadvertent destruction of image linking. The Questionnaire editor → Media check function is better suited to manage the linking of images.

Defining search criteria

First, open the Search and replace menu and define your search criteria. Then click the Search button. The following search criteria can be used:

• Language version to be searched: You can search those languages which you are permitted to access.
• Search term
• Optionally, case sensitivity can be activated
• Optionally, you can search for regular expressions
• It is possible to search for specific text types. You can, for example, restrict your search to scale titles or long variable names.

Viewing the results

In the results table the results are listed, sorted by page, with the following information:

• Type: Text type
• Content: The text of the respective question, answer category or fill-in instruction. The search term is highlighted.
• Preview: Opens the respective page in the questionnaire preview.

Replacing text elements

If you wish to edit text elements centrally, first select the search results for modification using the checkboxes in the “Replace” column. Then enter the new text element in the “Replace with” field. Your changes will be performed once you click on the Replace button.

Statistics

The tab Statistics provides information on the progress of translation activities and on the number of translated words and characters.

For each language version, it shows:

• the total number of phrases in the questionnaire
• number and percentage of the already-translated phrases
• number of words: This is often used for billing.
• number of characters: Might also be used for billing.

The statistics feature covers the texts of the questionnaire. It does not include survey messages and wildcards.

For some languages, it is not possible to detect the number of words accurately. In such cases, the number of words may not be correct.

Translating Survey Messages

The various messages that are used in a survey, such as e.g. error messages, labels of HTML buttons, or of graphical form elements, are translated in the Survey messages menu.

f graphical form elements are used in your project, you can change their labels in the Survey messages menu. The layout of graphical form elements is usually defined by the project manager, using the button generator in the admin area. You do not need access to it. In case manually-created graphics are used as graphical form elements in a project, for which you’re responsible, you can find the corresponding upload features in the Logos and form elements menu 

The dialog of this menu is divided as follows:

• The left-hand column, titled “Element”, explains in which situation the respective survey message will be used.
• The middle column contains the text elements of the default language, which is usually the reference language for the translation.
• The right-hand column shows the text elements in the target language. To change the target language, use the drop-down list “Which language do you want to edit” in the upper part of the dialog and confirm with Apply.

The character set in which the respective survey language will be encoded is defined in the field “Character set”. Usually, this is UTF-8. Change the setting of this field only after consultation with the project manager.

To translate the survey messages, proceed as follows:

• If the desired target language is currently not displayed, select it in the drop-down list “Which language do you want to edit”.
• EFS contains a library in which complete sets of messages can be stored. If a complete set already exists in the library for the desired target language and the project manager has given you read access, you can upload these messages and use them as a base for your translation. To do so, select the appropriate set in the field “Copy elements from survey messages library”.
• Confirm with Apply. The desired target language is displayed. It contains the selected messages.
• Now, all preparations are finished, and you can start translating. When you’ve entered all texts, confirm with Save.

Translating Wildcards

If wildcards are used to insert predefined texts into the questionnaire of your project, you can access and translate the source texts in the Wildcards menu. The editing dialog is structured quite similar to the editing pages of the text element editor.

Uploading Translated Logos and Form Elements

In multilingual projects, the layout created for the default language will usually be used for all other languages as well. However, you will sometimes wish to display customized layouts for the various languages (if, for example, the regional subsidiaries of a multinational company have different names and logos). The features that enable you to upload logos, background images and, if required, manually-generated buttons for the various languages can be found in the menu Logos and form elements. They allow to upload four logos, a background image, and various buttons for each language of the project.

Before you start

If this function should be used for translating and uploading buttons, depends on the layout configuration of the project, which is not accessible for you via the EFS Translator Interface:

• If HTML forms elements or graphical form elements are used, the buttons are labeled with the translations entered in the menu Survey messages.
• If the buttons are really based on image files that you create manually, you can use the upload function in the Logos and form elements menu.

Get in touch with the project manager before you start working on the buttons!

Uploading logos and buttons

If you edit the image files of the logos and buttons of the target language(s) in the context of your translation activity, proceed as follows:

• Open the Logos and form elements menu.
• Search for the language, then for the desired logo or button. Click the Edit icon.
• Search the appropriate file on your PC with Browse.
• Upload the file by clicking Save.

Translating Surveys Externally

You can export the texts of a project (i.e. questionnaire and survey messages) and edit them externally with Microsoft Excel or with the translation software SDLX.

The required operations,

• exporting texts from EFS
• translating the exported data into an external program
• importing translations into EFS Survey

are introduced in the following chapter. Following that there is an explanation of how to edit with Microsoft Excel and SDLX.

Exporting, Editing and Importing Survey Texts

Exporting survey texts

The tabs for exporting and importing files for external editing are located in the menu Import / Export. Click on the Export file tab.

Set the file format for the export. The following options are available:

• XLS for editing with Microsoft Excel
• HTML for editing with SDLX.

Select the reference language i.e. the source language for the translation.

Optionally you can select another language. This might be helpful, for example, if you have already translated parts of the questionnaire: The fields for entering the translation will be preallocated with the already-existing translations.

If you wish to use the versioning features, activate the checkbox “Save exported version for later comparisons”.

If you have chosen XLS as the export format, several special options are available for defining the file structure. Select the desired options.

Click the Export button to download the file.

In most browsers, a dialog will open in which you can choose whether you wish to directly open the file in a program or save the data. It is recommended that you save the data on the hard disk. In some browsers the file will be automatically opened in Excel: In this case you should likewise save the file onto you hard drive, make sure that you enter a file extension that matches the file format.

• Confirm by clicking on Save.

Translating text elements externally

You can open and edit the exported file in Excel or SDLX depending on which format you choose. 

Importing translated text elements back into EFS

After completing the translation, switch back to the EFS Translator interface and select the Import file tab in the menu Import / Export.

Specify the target language and import conditions:

• In the drop-down list labeled “Into which language do you wish to import the new text elements?”, you can select the target language for the import.
• In the “Back up old elements in another language?” field, the “Overwrite old elements” function is selected by default. (If you do not want to lose text elements you have already entered, you can also back them up in another language. But when uploading translations, usually this does not make sense.)
• Only those elements containing a string will be transferred to the language table or the editor tables. Empty strings will be ignored.
• Use Browse to select the edited file.
• Click on Continue to import the changes.
• Changes will be documented in the overview “Import finished”.

Translating Externally with Microsoft Excel

Editing the Excel file

The exported XLS file contains the text elements and survey messages of the questionnaire, an empty column for entering the desired translations, and various meta-information, ordered in a five or six-column table depending on the export settings.

If you use external editing with Microsoft Excel in order to create translations into several languages, copy the exported file and use one file for each planned language version.

Column	Meaning
internal	By default, this column is hidden. It contains the coded information for internal use. Do not change!
description	Provides information about the type of text element in the respective column. The separate elements are explained in the following table. Do not change!
meta	Meta information that is not displayed in the questionnaire, such as page or question title. Do not change!
content	The previous content of each text element. Do not change!
new content	The translations are entered into this column.Optionally you can preset this column either with the source texts of the reference language or with already-translated parts of the text. To do this, select the language that is to be preset in the field “Other language” in the export dialog.Cells that are marked with °~° do not permit any changes: The related cells contain context and structure data that cannot be changed but nonetheless do help to provide orientation. You can display or hide these rows by using the option “Also export unchangeable data rows (for informational purposes only)”.
status	This column informs you about the editing status:To do: The text element has not been edited yet.Done: The text element has been edited already.Please note:The status only shows whether the “new content” cell is filled with text or not: it is not possible to check whether the text is correct.If you simultaneously select prefilling of the “new content” column with the source text and refrain from using change protection, not only will changes in the “new content” column be classified as edited, but undesired changes in the column “content” as well causing the creation of a status change from “To do” to “Done”. Therefore pay attention that you only make changes to the “new content” column highlighted in color.

A frequently made mistake is to change the text in the “content” column. New text must be entered in the “new content” column.

The “description” column indicates which question element is meant in a specific row. You can edit the following types of question elements:

Element	Text Element
Q-text	Question text
Q-instruct	Fill-in instruction
Q-help	Help text
Category	Answer category
Item	Answer item
HTML-text	Text with HTML tags
Message	Survey message
Scale	Scale

By default the setting for the export dialog is such that the column “internal” is hidden, the column “Status” is activated and the Excel sheet is protected with a Protect Sheet.

The password for deactivating the Protect Sheet is located in the export dialog under the Question mark icon: It is constant and applies installation-wide. Deactivation of Protect Sheet is done in MS Excel in the Extras → Protect… → Deactivate Protect Sheet.

Optimizing the structure of the Excel file for external editing

You can adjust the file structure to your needs. The following special options can be selected in the download dialog:

• Also export unchangeable data rows: If this option has been activated, (unchangeable) context and structure data, such as page title, question title, or question type will be output to the Excel file. This makes the exported file somewhat more extensive and makes it possible for the translator to make more targeted inquiries to the questionnaire programmer.
• Protect unchangeable columns in Excel files against modifications: If this option is activated, cells with only informational purposes are protected against erroneous changes. Changes to the Excel file are only possible in the column “new content”, i.e. the area highlighted in color.You can disable the function that protects against changes: This function can be found in MS Excel in the Extras → Protect… → Deactivate Protect Sheet menu. The required password can be found in the EFS Translator Interface under the Question mark icon. (It is constant and applies installation-wide.)

By default change protection (2) and display of the Todo column (3) are activated.

Translating Externally with SDLX

You can use the professional translation software SDLX for external editing, using an HTML file for exporting and importing the text elements.

Please take note of the following when translating with SDLX:

• If HTML has been used to format the questionnaire, you should check carefully, whether all HTML tags are correct before exporting: Because SDLX does not produce HTML error messages, rather it tries to repair incorrect HTML, it is possible that information may get lost. If for example the HTML tag at the beginning of a sentence is not closed properly, SDLX will under certain circumstances not dis-play the sentence at all and it will not be translated.
• The HTML file must always be coded in UTF-8.

For further details on the functionality and scope of SDLX please refer to the product information and software documentation provided by the manufacturer.

Version Control for Translation Processes

Subsequent changes to texts in multilingual projects are costly: The texts that were changed in the source language must be exported again, passed on to translators, translated, and then re-imported. To make it easier for you to identify subsequent changes and thus to reduce the text to be translated to only what is really necessary, the “External editing” function has a version control feature: You can save the file version that was exported, create a comparison between the saved and current versions after changes have been made, and then export either the complete questionnaire or only the texts that have really been changed.

You can save up to 10 intermediate versions for each project and survey language.

Saving file versions during the download

• Perform the first export. In doing so, tick the checkbox labeled “Save exported version for later comparisons”.
• Click the title of the tab Export file to update the display.
• The exported version is now available for comparisons or for exporting changes.

Viewing differences between saved versions

As soon as one or more exported questionnaire versions have been saved, you will be able to view directly in the EFS Translator Interface the changes made either between the different versions or between one exported version and the current questionnaire:

• Open or update the Export file tab.
• In the upper part of the tab, the saved versions will be listed. Below, you can compare versions. To do so, select the versions which are to be compared.
• Click on Display. A list of the differences will be output.

Exporting changes

If you wish to export only the changes, proceed as follows:

• In the “Only export changes relative to previously recorded version”, select the version against which the comparison is to be performed. In the example shown, all changes made since version 1 will be exported.
• Confirm by clicking on Export. The exported file contains only the changes.

Creating Translator Accounts and Configuring Access Rights

Planning

As usual in EFS, you assign access rights for the translation languages to teams. How many teams you need, depends of

• how many translators or translator groups work on the questionnaire
• if all translators are permitted to see all translations, or if each of them is only allowed to see their specific constellation of languages.

If all translators are allowed to see all translations, you need only one team with access rights to all languages. If the translators or translator groups are allowed to see only their own specific constellation of languages, you need a team for each translator / each group of translators.

Realization

• Create the translator teams.
  • Take care to assign access rights to EFS Translator Interface while creating the teams, which corresponds to the ACL right area_translations. The teams should not have access rights for other areas of EFS.
  • Optionally, you can assign read rights for print_survey. It enables the translators to print the questionnaires in their languages.
• Make sure the teams have no other ACL rights.
• Assign write and read rights to the project to all translator teams.
• Navigate to the menu Projects → {Selected project} → Questionnaire editor → Language editor. In this dialog, you can assign rights to the appropriate languages to the various translator teams. Usually, translators will have read rights for the default language, which serves as reference language, and write rights for the language(s) into which they translate. Search for the required languages, click the Rights icon and assign “read” or “write” rights as required to the appropriate team.
• Create the required staff accounts, and assign them to the respective teams.

Activating a Link from the Questionnaire to EFS Translator Interface

Optionally, you can activate links in the questionnaire and in the preview, which enable you, your staff and translators (depending on access rights) to jump directly into the respective editing pages in the Language editor or in EFS Translator Interface.

If the translators want to make small changes during proofreading or if you want to control the translators’ work, the link saves time-consuming forward-backward skipping: You can click through the questionnaire and if you notice a problem, open the respective editing page easily.

The direct links are not available for question types 911, 921, 998, and 999.

Activating the links

In the admin area, open the menu Projects → {Selected projekt} → Project properties. In the section “Internal organization”, you can find the option “Activate the link to the EFS Translator Interface”. Activate “Display for all participants” and Save.

Do not forget to deactivate the links before starting into the field!

FAQ

How do I change the interface language?

Click on the “Deutsch / English” link in the top navigation bar, then refresh the page to see the change.

What should I do if a project is missing from my list?

Contact the project manager or Questback’s support team to ensure you have the correct access rights assigned.

Can I translate only part of a questionnaire?

Yes, you can export only the changed texts by using the version control feature when exporting.