Translations
Translations define the languages an Ad Hoc survey uses in its survey and it is required when sending Email invitations in multiple languages by specifying a preferred language for each email. Additionally, you can decide when to enable those languages, and manage all the translated text in an Ad Hoc survey by tracking the progress of your translation efforts. Using translations entails:
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Adding the languages the surveys (and emails, if the distribution method is Email) are sent into.
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Exporting the text strings you need to translate.
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Importing the translated strings back.
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Previewing the survey (and email, if any) to test and validate the translated content.
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Set the Preferred language for the individuals in the file to upload when distributing surveys via Email.
Base language
Base language defines the language the Ad Hoc survey content is written in. When translating an Ad Hoc survey into other languages, base language works as the source language or original language.
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Creating a new Ad Hoc survey.
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Editing an existing Ad Hoc survey — If there are existing translation for the previously chosen base language, you must confirm some translations might be lost.Note: For cases where languages are unavailable (grayed out), either because they are inactive or set as usedForReporting, enable them in your instance by navigating to Locales and either unlock an existing locale or create a new one. Ensure that unlocking/activating an existing locale does not impact any survey.
Base language selection prevails when creating subsequent Ad Hoc surveys. For example, if you choose English (Canada) as base language when creating your first Ad Hoc survey, the second one will have English (Canada) as base language selected by default, which you can modify to choose another language.
Languages
For multi-language Ad Hoc surveys, you can choose the languages to translate the Ad Hoc survey text into (and emails, if applicable). If an Ad Hoc survey is single-language, click This Ad Hoc survey does not need translations to consider the Translations step completed and move forward.
Adding languages
After adding a language, its status needs to be Complete in Review and deploy. To be able to deploy the Ad Hoc survey using the base language even if translations are not completed, select Use base language - <Base language name> I will translate later.
Language status
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Incomplete — This is the default status when adding a new a language for the first time. Text strings of either the survey or the Invitation and Reminder emails (if any) are not translated. Languages with this status cannot be used to distribute surveys (and emails, if applicable).Tip: To identify these strings, export all text strings filtering by this status, complete the missing translations, and import the file(s) again. See Exporting and importing strings for details.
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Complete — All strings (100%) from the survey and emails (if any) are translated, with no translation issues. Languages with this status can be used as the Preferred language value.
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Enabled — Automatically set when language is completed with no translations issues. Enabled languages are used to send emails (if applicable) and appear in the language dropdown in the survey.
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Disabled — Language was manually disable and cannot be used as the Preferred language value to send emails (if any) nor as an option in the survey language selector.
Language menu
- Preview survey — Generates a Preview link to see the survey text in the chosen language.
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Preview email — Allows for entering an email address to preview the Invitation and Reminder emails (if any) in the chosen languages.
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Translate invitation email — Allows for translating the Invitation email in the Email translation editor.
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Translate reminder email — Allows for translating the Reminder email in the Email translation editor.
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Remove language — Deletes the language. This doesn't delete the translations, which should be available if the language is added back.
Exporting and importing strings
To bring the translated text into the Ad Hoc survey, first export the text strings of the survey as well as the Invitation and Reminder emails (if any) written in the base language, and then import the your translation into your Ad Hoc survey.
Exporting
To download the text strings, click Export and select:
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Text strings — By default, Select all is chosen to export text strings from the survey, the Invitation email and/or Reminder email, if any, though you can deselect it and choose what best fits your needs. Click Include Shared survey text to also export content including the 'Required' tooltip, 'Choose language' string, button labels, and language dropdown names, as well as errors and timeout warning messages. See Survey settings for more information.Note: Shared survey text of the following languages are already translated in Experience Cloud: English, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), French (France), French (Canada), German, Italian, and Portuguese (Brazil).
Changing the Shared survey text translation impacts all surveys that use it, both Ad Hoc and non-Ad Hoc surveys.
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Languages — The language/s text strings are translated into. Click Select all to translate text strings into all the added languages.
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Translation status — Text strings status. See Translation status below for details. Click Select all to download strings with all statuses or choose the status of the text strings.
In the following example, only text strings from the Survey, for French (Luxembourg) language with Missing translations status are exported.
Based on your previous selection, clicking Export downloads a ZIP file that may contain:
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A spreadsheet file (XLSX format) with the survey and emails (if any) strings, in the same order they appear. Each of the columns that follow the Original text column (strings written in the base language) correlate with each of the added languages where you need to add the translations. Each row in the spreadsheet represents an item to translate, with items grouped by their category. For example, Questions and Choice set strings are grouped together, in the same order they appear in the survey.
Warning: Do not modify the first five columns of the spreadsheet for any reason. They are used to identify translation strings upon the importing of file. If you change these columns, the import fails. - An HTML file for each email (Invitation and Reminder email, if applicable) and for for each language (the base language and each of the added languages), in the same order they appear in the emails. Warning: Downloaded HTML files follow this naming convention:
<adHocSurveyName>_<email type>_lang_exportDate.html. Maintain the same file naming when importing the file with the translated text strings as changing its name results in the Ad Hoc survey not recognizing the file.
Importing
To upload the files with the translated text strings, click Import and choose the previously exported files with translations to import.
After the Ad Hoc survey processes the file, a preview screen summarizes what items have been added, removed or changed. Click View changes to see these in detail before approving them. Click Import changes to import the affected strings.
Note that you don't need to import a completed file. As long as the first six columns remain untouched for each row, you can leave empty cells in the spreadsheet.
Translation status
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Missing translations — Shows the number of text strings from surveys and emails in the base language that have not been provided a translation yet.
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Translations with errors — Number of text strings that have errors in the translation.Tip: To identify the translations errors, export all text strings filtering by this status, fix the errors, and import the file(s) back again.
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Translations out-of-sync — Displays the number of text strings that have changed in the base language survey or email(s) after translated strings were uploaded.
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Completed translations — Number of text strings that were translated without errors.
Preferred language
When distributing Ad Hoc surveys via Email, you must define the language in which each individual in the uploaded file will receive the emails and take the survey. To identify the language, add a new column in the file (such as Language) to enter the language values and later map them to the Preferred language field in the Upload file screen, required for multi-language Ad Hoc surveys distributed via Email. See Upload and map data for more information on how to upload audience information and map it to fields.
The file should always contain to the complete name of the added and enabled languages, as set in Supported languages for translations. For example, if the Ad Hoc survey has French, French (Luxembourg), and French (Belgium) language translations, each record in the file must include either French, French (Luxembourg) or French (Belgium) values to receive the email(s) and take the survey in the corresponding language. Records that do not include a value for their preferred language receive emails in the Base language.
