Free Website Localization - Free Web Site Translation Service for Webmasters

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Free Localization Project?

Free Localization is a collaborative localization project to help webmasters cooperate on the translation of their own web sites. There are many webmasters who understand English but are native speakers of another language. Thanks to the multicultural nature of its users, Free Localization effectively enables online peer to peer (P2P) translations. Users can manage, coordinate and exchange the translations by means of a complete set of online localization tools. The service is totally free.
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What techniques does Free Localization use to promote cooperation between users?

Cooperation between users is promoted by means of WordMoney. WordMoney is virtual money that you earn by translating other people's web pages into your native language. Whenever another person translates your own web pages, you lose some WordMoney.
The basic rule is: the more you translate for other users, the more translations you will get.
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What languages does Free Localization support?

Currently, Free Localization supports the following foreign languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Malay, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Tajik, Tamil. We will add more languages within a few months. If your language is not supported, please send us an email.
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How do I view documents with different characters?

When you receive a translated web page, you probably want to open and view the translation. If the document has a different character set (e.g. Japanese, Chinese), it will not display correctly.
If you are using Windows, you can download support for double-byte character sets from Microsoft.
Using Internet Explorer, click here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/recommended/ime/install.mspx.
Choose the language pack and install it. After the installation, you will be able to see the appropriate character set.
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What file types can Free Localization handle?

At the moment, only HTML files are supported.
We will add support for PHP, ASP, ASP.NET and JSP within a few months. If you are using a file type that we don't handle, please contact us.
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What character set and encoding should I use?

Please use Unicode character set with UTF-8 character encoding.
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Does Free Localization manage updates to my HTML files?

Yes. The translations of previous versions are preserved when you upload updated versions of your HTML files.
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What is Internationalization?

Internationalization (also called I18N) is the operation by which a program, or a web service application, is made aware of and able to support multiple languages. This is a generalization process, by which the programs are untied from calling only English strings or other English specific habits, and connected to generic ways of doing the same, instead.
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What is Localization?

Localization (also called L10N) is the process of translating a piece of software or a web site from one language into another one. Localization requires a complete conversion from one kind of audience to a completely different one. There are many attributes beside the country's native language: the formatting of the date and time, the representation of numbers, the symbols for currency, etc. Language translation must be coupled with necessary sensitivity to cultural differences.
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General Questions

Supported File Types

Internationalization and Localization