After the launch of the new website in December 2023, more emphasis will be placed on the bilingualism of our website, so let's talk about it some more.
The reason WHY is pretty clear - Czech or Slovak is understood by some 15 million people, while English is understood by at least 1 billion, more likely more. So if we want to get the content we create here "among the people", English is essential.
The HOW is very simple - we have two domains, one www.valka.cz for Czech and Slovak content, the other www.armedconflicts.com for English content. www.valka.cz is the primary source, while armedconflicts.com uses English texts, but takes and displays Czech ones if the english ones are not available in the system. On armedconflicts.com, all menus, controls etc. are in English.
So what do I need to do when using valka.cz to make it work on armedconflicts.com at the same time?
The reason WHY is pretty clear - Czech or Slovak is understood by some 15 million people, while English is understood by at least 1 billion, more likely more. So if we want to get the content we create here "among the people", English is essential.
The HOW is very simple - we have two domains, one www.valka.cz for Czech and Slovak content, the other www.armedconflicts.com for English content. www.valka.cz is the primary source, while armedconflicts.com uses English texts, but takes and displays Czech ones if the english ones are not available in the system. On armedconflicts.com, all menus, controls etc. are in English.
So what do I need to do when using valka.cz to make it work on armedconflicts.com at the same time?
- when setting up new sections, categories (in which topics are later included), it is absolutely necessary to fill in the English name, even assuming it is the same as the Czech one (for example, for journals where the category name is just the year of the year, but also elsewhere). If the English title is missing, a "blank space" will appear where the category name should be, and we don't want that.
- when inserting and editing posts, it splits into two parts
- if you are inserting using templates, forms where you are filling in TTD of weapons or details of personalities or units, this table doesn't translate because it is inherently bilingual. So there's nothing to do here, and the system can recognize that this is a template and will display it straight as it is in the CZ part of the post, even for an English-speaking reader. Just keep in mind that the labels of the attachments, footnotes, etc. are not translated. If you want to add something like that to the template, please think bilingually.
- If you are adding anything else in the form of a "normal post", it would always be a good idea to translate that. To make it less laborious or complicated, we have two buttons located between the CZ and EN editors that take the post from the CZ editor and translate it using machine translation and insert it into the English editor, or vice versa, as needed. First always type the text in the CZ editor, edit it, format it, and only then, when it's really finalized, translate it. We pay for translations according to the quantity (simplistically, for each letter sent for translation), so we don't want to do translations over and over again. If you are editing a post, please think of the same edits in the English text. If they are not major, please make them manually in both texts, if there are more major edits in the English text, machine translation can again be used.
Buttons for translation between CZ and EN editor
And if you want to switch between the Czech and English versions, just use the menu with flags in the upper navigation bar of our website (far right).
- if you are inserting using templates, forms where you are filling in TTD of weapons or details of personalities or units, this table doesn't translate because it is inherently bilingual. So there's nothing to do here, and the system can recognize that this is a template and will display it straight as it is in the CZ part of the post, even for an English-speaking reader. Just keep in mind that the labels of the attachments, footnotes, etc. are not translated. If you want to add something like that to the template, please think bilingually.