Working with More than One Language : SMDS Help Desk

When you customize a tool that is offered in more than one language, you will need to update the additional language(s) before your tool can be published and used.

Place cursor over the Data Collection Tools tab.
Click Manage Tools.

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Here, you will see a list of every tool in your SMDS account. To find the tool you are customizing, search for the tool by name using the search box or scroll through your list of tools and click on the name of the desired tool.

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Let’s look at a tool where we have made some changes in the English version. Here, we have added a question.

You can go into the Spanish version to translate the added question or delete the Spanish version of the tool. The system will display comment flags to note which questions need to be translated.

At the top of the tool, click the SP button and then Select.

When you make edits in one language, the system automatically tracks that fact in the other languages and adds comment flags for those questions that need to be updated in the other languages.

Click the Click here blue link to modify the desired question.

The Edit Question page will display, where you will see the question in a text box, along with the answer options below. Both the question and the answer options must be changed to the new language if there are words involved. Answer formats such as Short Answer Text, Open-Ended Text, Numeric or Date Picker, do not need translation.

Enter the translated text in the text field for the question as well s for the answer option
Click he Save button.

NOTE: This process needs to be done for every flagged question in the Spanish version (and for any other language you have in your survey).

When you have finished making changes to your tool, review your tool in Word form and in Preview mode to check for any errors by using the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Word Format will download the tool as a Word document. The Word version of a tool can be formatted for page spacing, to insert your organizational logo, or other formatting to make it visually comfortable for respondents to fill out the tool on paper.

Preview will show the tool as it appears in SMDS when you enter a response or when a respondent clicks on a hyperlink or opens a QR Code to respond to your survey.

If no further edits are needed, return to the English version to check for any pop-up warnings. If there aren’t any, the tool is ready to be published.

NOTE: To make an edit to the wording of a question in a published tool, such as to fix a typo, you click on the pencil icon on the right hand-side of the question space in your tool.

NOTE: Once a tool is Published you can only make edits to the question text. If you need to modify an answer set you will need to take the tool back to draft.