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microsoft-translator

Translation prevention mechanism does not work

As an example, I'd like to translate "Overview of Azure Machines" to "de", where "Azure Machines" shouldn't be translated, but there are several issues with it.

This is the documentation I am relating to.

Escaping single words via @ or # works.

Not translating a sentence or parts of a sentence does not:

Input (plain): Overview of <span class="notranslate">Azure Machines</span>
Output       : Übersicht über die Option "span class="notranslate">Azure Machines</span>
Issue        : Opening angle bracket removed

Input (HTML) : Overview of <span class="notranslate">Azure Machines</span>
Output       : --- This is the only combination that works but not documented. ---
Issue        : --- This is the only combination that works but not documented. ---

Input (plain): Overview of <div class="notranslate">Azure Machines</div>
Output       : Übersicht über die Datei »div class="notranslate">Azure Machines</div>
Issue        : Opening angle bracket replaced

Input (HTML) : Overview of <div class="notranslate">Azure Machines</div>
Output       : Übersicht über<div class="notranslate">Azure Machines</div>
Issue        : Space before opening angle bracket removed

NOTE: The docs have been updated and now saying that the class="notranslate" scenario works for HTML only (so the Input (plain) examples are now out of scope here).

The following questions remain to me though:

  • Why is the space being removed in the last example? This basically makes it a blocker for us.
  • Is class="notranslate" working on every HTML tag? For example if I have a table <table class="notranslate">...</table>. If so, this should be reflected in the documentation accordingly.
  • I suppose the dynamic dictionary syntax (<mstrans:dictionary translation="translation of phrase">phrase</mstrans:dictionary>) is supported in textType: plain mode, why is this not the case for <something class="notranslate">phrase</something>?

For those "no-translate" scenarios I would not want to use the dictionary syntax because it would lead to a drastically increased character count and hence, increased costs.

And just a side note which has nothing to do with the question: Naming it "Twitter tag" is really weird. It has nothing to do with Twitter. These are simply two possible escaping prefix characters.

Solution

  • The documentation clearly states this only works in html mode. You need to use the no-translate tag to not translate part of the sentence.

    Only div and span are supported, not all html tags. Also you should not repeat the content you want to be not translated outside of the no-translate tag. For your example, span preserves the space.

    Overview of <span class="notranslate">Azure Machines</span>

    Übersicht über <span class=\"notranslate\">Azure Machines</span>

    It's by design that this works only when the input textType is set as HTML