Request for 2023+ : weird translations (french at least)

[ateliernab]

Hi there.
This is a direct copy of a message I sent to SU contact earlier. Tim answered me that it would be good to post it here as well, as engineers and product managers come by and read stuff.
——

I’ve been using SU since 2007, teaching it since 2016 (but ver. 2013), and there is something that has been bugging me.
Over the years, and the versions, I’ve seen some weird french translations, but this one (on mac at least, I don’t have my PC woth me rn) is problematic.
The “extension” menu is translated into “prolongement”, an adverb a noun (you muppet!) meaning “an elongation, a longer one”. Like an extension of a road or a bridge.

There is a french word for extension in the way SU means it. it’s… “extension”. It’s actually a regular french translation for things like plug-ins and add-ons. And it’s not even a word we borrowed from english. It comes from latin extensio. French took it and passed it to the brits. So you’re translating a french word into another french word that doesn’t convey the same meaning.

So,
With SU 2023, could we have a return of the “extension” menu please ?

I added two similar issues I spotted, one in 3d warehouse (still mentioning layers - or calques - instead of tags - balises) and buttons too short for translations in layout (on PC it’s worse, reset all - tout réinitialiser - appears as “tout” so “all”. REALLY confusing to people not used to the software.)

I hope my two cents can help. It might actually be good to have an official thread on the forums for people to spot and report translation mistakes as 2023 comes up, don’t you think ? I’m sure that even though the translating system is good, small things like this may slip in every languages, and we , users, can help on this issue.

Cheers,
Nab.

———

Before anyone asks, yes, I was partly inspired by this post about Russian translation missing several words

Translation of the application SketchUP 22.0.353 into Russian macOS Ventura 13.0.1

Hi! How to send feedback to technical support in the program SketchUP 22.0.353 that the application has bugs in translation into other languages, many places in the application do not have a translation into Russian, etc. languages, letters through the help center menu do not come? In the Object Data menu - Additional attributes, all names have no translation! The Label menu, the dotted section, has no translation if you open the list, there will be an inscription in Russian, and if you close …

Hence my feeling it’s not just french, it’s little things here and there.

[simoncbevans]

@ateliernab

The “extension” menu is translated into “prolongement”, an adverb meaning “to make longer”. Like to extend a bridge.

Yes, one suspects the involvement of Google Translate in some of this!

BTW, on a point of pedantry, isn’t “prolongement” a noun, not an adverb? In English, extension would be a noun and extensively its adverb. Yawn.

[Eqc]

Hi,
I am wondering which version you are using because I do have the proper translation on my side (and it’s been a while) :
Sketchup 2021

Sketchup 2022

Mac version maybe?

[ateliernab]

Yep, It’s on Mac only, if it had been on both, I wouldn’t have been as suprised. Similar to Tags, named Balises (not 100% behind the translation here, but at least it’s on both mac and PC, so it’s the official term). But no, mac only, so a problem somewhere.
As they have different menus (preferences, trays are placed differently), I wouldn’t be surprised if they called slightly different databases.

Same in the layout problem, I guess the diff between mac and pc (“tout” vs “tout réini” comes from the font rules of the OS.

@simoncbevans oh, you pedant ! yeah, it’s a noun, in my defence, I wrote this after midnight, my brain was yawning. I’ll correct

[colin]

That translation was fixed 7 years ago, for SketchUp 2016 I think. When 2017 got its own Extensions menu, the correction was carried over on Windows, but on Mac it reverted to Prolongements.

I have asked if the correction can be put back in on the Mac version.

[ateliernab]

Huzzah ! Thanks Colin !

Today I also spotted something else. PC version (last one), the sandbox. It was on all 5 computers.

In the sandbox toolbar, the different tools have no name. Instead, they have their description both as name and description.
It seems to be the same on mac, as if the name part completely crashed, and it reverted to the next best information.

——
I often teach on older versions, 19-21, because the companies that hire me have small numbers of computers with SU installed on it, and they only renew their licences every 3-4 years. And after all these years, when I work by myself, I don’t really look at these things anymore, I don’t notice.

[ateliernab]

Well Colin I do have a bad news for you.

SU 2023 is in dire need of a hotfix
Seems someone at SU’s HQ is pranking the french again

[colin]

I added a note to the (still) unresolved bug report, to show that it still isn’t fixed in 2023.0.

[ateliernab]

Hi,

New translation error that is a bit annoying.

You see here when you want to delete a tag folder ? it’s named Explode Tag Folder. pretty straightforward. and at the top, to expand all folders, it’s Expand All.

In SU2023 in french, there has been a mistake, they used the translation for Expand instead of Explode. Therefore, the option to delete a tag folder is now named Expand Tag Folder and not Explode — Développer le dossier de balise instead of, I guess, Eclater le dossier de balise.

It had me confused a minute, couldn’t find a way to remove a tag folder in my file, I thought there was now two option to expand either all tag folders or simply one. But no, the bottom choice has a crucial mistranslation.

---

and you know, still Prolongement instead of Extension.

[colin]

I couldn’t find a bug report about that, so I made one. It’s SU-54172 in our system.