Protobi can call Google Translate so you can start reading and even recoding text verbatims right away.
Translation in Protobi uses Google Translate API, and works in most major browsers (not just Chrome). It also uses Google Language Detection API so you can translate text from multiple languages and character sets at once.
Translate with Protobi
Select an element you would like to translate by pressing the header, for instance Country:
Then press the "Advanced" button in the toolbar and choose "Translate...":
Select from the translate dialog whether to translate the data values, the formats or the titles. Typically you will want to translate the data values:
Translated values are saved as formats
Translations are stored in the project as simple value formats. They stay with the project when you save and reopen. Users can toggle the translations on/off with the "Format" button in the tool bar.
Keep in mind that Protobi is still working with the raw local-language values underneath. The translate tool is akin to a superpower that allows you to view all these raw values in your preferred language.
Edit translations
Users can edit translations since they're simple formats.
Here, Google Translate recognizes "Ελλάδα" as the country and translates it to "Griechenland" in German and "Hellas" in English. You can press the edit icon on the element, select "Format..." and change the name to "Greece":
Recode translated values
You can even recode the raw values and toggle the translations on or off:
Export translations to SPSS
Translations also export to SPSS .sav files, so you can work on them in any other market research software. Since translations are stored as value formats and variables as labels, they export as such to SPSS.
Translation is safe
The original data is not modified so the user can modify, delete and redo translation as they wish. Only the raw values for the specific selected element are uploaded to Google, and they are sent encrypted under SSL. No other data such as respondent ID is shared.
Professional translation is still an option
Using translation in Protobi does not preclude users from more formal approaches to translation. You can still send your survey responses to a professional translation firm, and merge the results into Protobi when they come back. But that approach will take days, and maybe you want to take a peek at the data earlier.
Video Tutorial
Transcript
See survey responses in multiple languages and different character sets. Here we have respondents country of origin and their native language. Translate element titles, values, and formats within Protobi using Google translate.
Select the element, and from the toolbar select the Advanced button, then "Translate". For this example, we'll translate to English. We can edit the translation by editing the format, since the original, untranslated values are still underneath and the new translated values are saved as value formats. Because of this we can toggle the view between the original and translated values by pressing the Format button in the toolbar.