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

How to Translate with Skipper

Languages available for translation are limited by the fielding country. If you're planning to field in multiple countries, you must create and launch a separate survey per country.

On the Target Market page, make sure a second language is selected in the Language dropdown. 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 to open the Translations table.
3. Click the down arrow next to your alternate translation label and select Translate from __ column to __ from the dropdown. For example, for a US study fielded in English and Spanish, 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: 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.

Viewing a Translation in the Survey Editor

1. Click the dropdown next to the alternate translation label you'd 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 must be made in the Translation Table.

Other Actions in the Translation Table

Click Languages in the upper right corner of the Survey Editor, or above any question, to open the Translation Table. It shows a column for the survey schema and a column for each language selected on the Target Market page.

💡 Tip: Use copy/paste to populate answer options into an empty translation column — one or multiple lines at a time. Pasted content will only be inserted into empty cells; existing text will not be overwritten.

1. Click Undo/Redo across the top of the Translation Table to revert recent changes.
2. Click Target Market to jump back to the Target Market page.
3. Click the Columns dropdown to show or hide languages.
4. Click [+] in the Survey Logic column to show logic. Select Collapse to hide it.
5. Click the translation language dropdown to access additional options:
   • Quick preview — opens a quick preview of the survey.
   • View survey in __ — view the schema in the translated language from the Survey Editor.
   • Set as researcher language — makes a language the researcher language (also affects the Results page).
   • Translate from (researcher language) to (translation language) — localizes an existing translation (e.g. French to Canadian French).
   • Translate this column to __ — converts column content to match the header language when they differ.
   • Translate and copy from this column to (researcher language) — translates and copies an existing column to the researcher language (e.g. Italian to English).
   • Delete the translation — completely resets the translation. A previous version including the deleted translation will appear in Survey History.

⚠️ Note: If the researcher language text fits within the platform's character limits but the translation does not, the text will turn red in the Translation Table. Hover over the text and select Resolve to fit to let Skipper 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.

For example: if you clone a US survey (English) to Italy (Italian), the system will display:

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

You'll be presented with two options:

• Translate from English to Italian — automatically translates the survey content to match the language set on the Target Market page.
• Save English text as a separate survey locale — preserves the original English content by moving it to a new translation column, while keeping Italian as the researcher language. In the Translation Table, click the English language dropdown and select Set English as the researcher language, or Translate and copy from this column to the other language column.

Best Practices

• Always review your survey in the translated language, and consider having a translation company review it. The translation quality is strong, but human review is recommended — reviewing translated text is less expensive than having a translator build the entire survey from scratch.
• Translated surveys won't automatically translate open-ended responses from respondents. Use Verbatim Skipper Translation to review responses in your researcher language and simplify analysis.
• If fielding in multiple countries, first create a master survey draft with all questions, then clone it — one survey per country. Keep the survey structure as identical as possible if you plan to merge data later. Learn more about multi-country projects.
• If your primary language is something other than English, the Results page UI will appear in that language. To keep the Results page in English, set English as the Researcher language.
• Always preview your survey in all fielding languages. Something that looks correct in French may not read correctly in Danish — previewing in each language helps you catch issues before launch.