Problem w/ date and place translation
Hello!
I am from Brazil, but I usually use the English version of the FamilySearch website. I have recently noticed that the automatic translation of dates and places is not working properly. I save someone's birth or death date/place in the standard English format and if I open the Portuguese version of the website the date and place will not translate, and, therefore, show a "not standard format" notification.
The opposite also happens. If I work on the Portuguese version of the website, and save dates and places in the standard Portuguese format, when I open the website on the English version, dates and places will not have been translated either.
Has anyone noticed a similar problem?
Thanks
Lia
Answers
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This is not a problem and it is not a change. Family Tree has always worked this way.
All dates and places in Family Tree are entered and stored in two forms. The Displayed Data and the Standardized Data. The Displayed Data which is typed in by the user is never changed or translated by the program. However all Displayed Data must be linked to a correct standardized form of that data and it is entered by choosing from a drop down menu. If the two pieces of data are identical, it is only shown once. If they are different, both are shown on certain screens. It is only the Standardized Data that is automatically translated as can be seen in this example:
I have the web site set to Norwegian and enter the date in English:
The Displayed Data is in English. The linked Standardized Data is in Norwegian.
I change the website to German:
What I typed in, the Displayed Data does not change. Only the linked Standardized Data is translated.
If I change the website to English, the same happens:
However, now because the two sets of data are the same, the display collapses to show just the one entry.
This is how Family Tree has functioned ever since it opened in 2012. It is important to note that all these are standardized just fine and there is no need to do any type of editing. An entry is only not standardized if you have a bright notification to that as effect as seen here:
This is really hard to get for a date. With places it is easier to demonstrate:
As long as that red text is not present, the data is standardized.
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Hello, Gordon!
I understand what you are saying. Maybe that is not a huge problem, but it’s still weird. Because sometimes the translation happens, while other times it doesn’t.
For example: In this landscape tree view, the wedding date and place are correctly written in Portuguese.
But if I enter the person page, it is no longer translating, and the place and the date appear in English:
For birth and death info, the same. The header shows the translated Portuguese information, while the details show the English version:
Thanks
Lia
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@LiaBoaventura
To test it, I changed the birthdate from English to Portuguese.
It works as described.
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OK, kind of weird. I can agree with that. At least until one understands and gets used to what is going on. Here is the underlying principle: All dates and all places are stored as two values: the Display Date or Place and the Standardized Date or Place. Some areas of the website show the display value while some areas only show the standardized value.
So what you are seeing is not that the site is translating things at random or not, but that the website is using one of the two values depending on what you are looking at.
The Display Data is used on the profile page and summary card and is the information that the user wants other users to know.
The Standardized Data is used, as you have seen, in the Header and on pedigree charts, in searches, and in the auto-generated biography and what the computer program can understand.
Basically, don't think in terms of "Is this being translated or not?" Think in terms of, "What is displaying here? The Display data or the Standardized data?"
Here is an example that clearly shows what is going on:
The Display value is what allows a researcher to enter full, complete, rich, accurate information about a person.
The Standardized value is a simplified, pre-set, potentially less accurate and less complete equivalent that the computer program can use to compare, match, and search. The programmers have also made use of it to provide a simplified translation system so that users can have a basic idea of the data when using a language different from the original users. The system never translates the Display data, only the Standardized data.
Here is what is going in your example:
If you want some in depth information about this dual entry for place names, here is a presentation I put together a couple of years ago. The basic principles apply to dates as well. It is at:
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