Data is a universal language. Column headers, notational conventions, and units may vary from place to place, but the information at the heart of a spreadsheet or database can often be understood the world over. But when it comes to working with that data, tools like Grist can pose a language barrier to those unfamiliar with the product’s native language.
Typically, localizing and translating software requires time, technical infrastructure, and fluent or native speakers of any language into which the program is being translated. Even then, software companies have to select specific regions and languages to pursue based on user needs and their resources.
Work on translating Grist began in the fall of 2022. By then, ANCT (l’Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires), a French government agency, had already deployed Grist on their servers to pilot a project. In order to recommend Grist more broadly across the nation’s French-speaking civil service, they needed Grist’s UI to also be in French. ANCT was willing to translate Grist themselves, but the product lacked support for alternate languages.
Our team saw an opportunity to build translation infrastructure that would make it possible for contributors to translate Grist into any language, in line with Grist’s open source ethos. With support from ANCT to make the project a roadmap priority, the translation infrastructure within Grist was built out by the end of the year.