Downloading and uploading translation files

If you want to translate user interface text for Drupal core or add-on modules and themes, you can do this on the localization.drupal.org site. However, if you prefer to use a translation text editor, you can download a PO file with existing translations for a particular language and project, edit off-line, and then upload your translations to contribute them back to the community.

Downloading a PO file

You can download a PO file for a particular language and project from the localize.drupal.org download page. The files there contain all approved translations up to when the file was generated, which should be less than a week ago.

If there is active work going on in your language/project, you can export up-to-date translations, including ones that have not been approved yet. To do this, you must be a member of the translation language group for your language and be logged in; see Overview of localize.drupal.org for instructions on joining a group. To download an up-to-date PO file:

1. Visit the localize.drupal.org home page.
2. Click on your language.
3. Click Export.
4. Choose whether to include suggested (unmoderated) translation strings or not, and download the file.

Downloading a POT file

If you follow the instructions above to download a PO file, but on the Export page, uncheck the box saying "Add Spanish translations" (or whatever language group you joined), you will download a POT file. (Remember: a PO file is the same as a POT file, with translations added.)

Uploading a PO file

When you have finished editing the translations in your editor of choice, contribute the translation back to localize.drupal.org by importing the file. You will need to join the language group (see Overview of localize.drupal.org for instructions); if you do, you will have an Import link on the language page that will let you import the PO file. Translations can either be attributed to you or "Multiple contributors" during the import. "Multiple contributors" means that multiple people worked on the translations being imported and singling out one contributor for attribution would not be correct.