Skipper Translate is an automated translation tool that will translate your survey draft into another language, as available per fielding country.

How to Translate with Skipper

Languages to translate are limited by the fielding country; if you are planning to field in multiple countries, you must still create and launch a separate survey per country.

On the Target Market page, make sure a second language is selected in the Language drop-down. If your fielding country only has one language available, proceed to the Survey Editor.

 

1. Program your survey in the researcher language on the Survey Editor page.
2. Click the Languages button in the upper right corner of the page to open the Translations table.
3. Click the down arrow next to your alternate translation label, and select Translate from __ column to __ from the drop-down menu. 
   Note: In our example, a US study, Fielded in English (researcher Language) and Spanish, we select: Translate from EN column to ES, United States.
4. Skipper will run the text through the latest language processing model, and populate the alternate language column with your translated survey text. 

Note: When preparing your survey for translation, it's important to note that routing logic should only be included in the main survey draft (in the researcher's language), and can be viewed in the Translation Table in the Survey logic column. All other translation columns should only contain piping logic related to the text.

View a Translation in Survey Editor

To view a translation in the Survey Editor:

1. Click the drop-down menu next to the alternate translation label you would like to view.
2. Select View Survey in __.

Note: Only the Researcher Language can be edited within the Survey Editor. Any edits to a translation need to take place in the translation table.

Other Actions

With your survey programmed, click on the Languages button in the upper right corner, or the Languages button above any question. The Translation Table will open to show a column for the survey schema and a column for each language you selected on the Target Market page.

Note: Use copy/paste commands to automatically populate answer options into an empty translation table column. Copy and paste one or multiple lines at a time, but keep in mind, pasted content will only be inserted if the destination cells are empty. Existing text will not be overwritten.

1. Click the Undo/Redo buttons across the top of the Translation Table to revert any recent changes.
2. Select the Target Market button to jump back to the Target Market page.
3. Click the Columns dropdown menu to show or hide languages.
4. Click the [+] in the Survey Logic column to show logic. Select Collapse to hide logic.
5. Click the Translation language dropdown to:
   • Open a Quick preview of the survey.
   • Click View survey in_ to view a schema from the Survey Editor page in the translated language.
   • Select Set as researcher language to make a language the the researcher language (remember this will also affect the Results page).
   • Select Translate from (the researcher language) to (the translation language) to localize an existing translation (e.g. French to Canadian French).
   • Select Translate this column to __ If the text in a column differs from the header language. This will automatically convert the content to match the header language.
   • Select Translate and Copy from this column to (researcher language) to translate and copy an existing column to the researcher language (e.g., Italian to English).
   • Delete the translation, which will completely reset your translation. A previous version of the survey, including the deleted translation, will appear in your Survey History.

Note: After translating, If the Researcher Language text fits within the platform's character limits, but the translation does not, the text will turn red within the Translation Table. Hover over the text and select Resolve to fit, which allows skipper to improve and condense the translation.

Researcher Language Auto Switch Warning

When cloning a survey from one country to another, especially when the destination country supports only a single language, you may encounter a language mismatch warning in the Survey Editor. This feature helps ensure that the survey language aligns with the selected fielding country.

For Example:
If you clone a survey originally fielded in the US (English) to Italy (Italian), the system will detect a mismatch and display the following warning:

“Language mismatch detected. Language is currently set to Italian, but the survey below appears to be written in English.”

You will be presented with two options to resolve the mismatch:

• Translate from English to Italian: Automatically translate the survey content to match the language setting on the Target Market page.
• Save English text as a separate survey locale: Preserve the original English content by moving it to a new translation column, allowing Italian to remain as the researcher language.
  Note: If selected, in the Translation Table, click the English language drop-down and select Set English as the researcher language, or Translate and copy from this column to the other language column.

These options help streamline multilingual survey setup and reduce launch errors due to language inconsistencies.

Best Practices

Here are some best practices to help you avoid making costly errors while using Skipper Translate:

• As much as possible, still review your survey in the translated language, and use a translation company to review your survey. The translation should be pretty good, but it's always a good idea to have human eyes on it; having a translator review text will be less expensive than having a translator create the entire survey translation.
   
• So you’ve translated your survey with Skipper Translate, but what about the open-ended responses from your respondents? Those won’t be automatically translated. Use Verbatim Skipper Translation to review responses in your chosen Research Language and simplify analysis. Learn more about Verbatim Skipper Translation.
  
   
• If you are fielding in multiple countries, first create a master survey draft with all questions for all countries, and then clone the entire survey; one survey per fielding country. You can then edit the fielding country and the text for each survey, but remember, if you're merging the data later, you'll want to keep the survey structure as identical as possible. Learn more about Multi-country projects here.
  
   
• When you set your primary language as something other than English (language availability varies per country) the Results page will appear in that primary/researcher language. If you'd like the Results page UI to be in English, set English as the Researcher language.
  
   
• Always preview your survey, in all fielding languages. Just because something looks correct in French, it may not be correct in Danish. Using preview mode to look through your survey in each language will help give you context and avoid re-fielding.