Multilingual FeaturesSome of the speakers on Peoples Archive are filmed telling their life story in their native language. This is great for users who speak those languages, but those that don't needn't feel left out; Peoples Archive provides the ability to watch these great stories with subtitles or to read along with translated transcripts and biographies. This guide provides details on how to use the subtitle and translation features of the web-site. Watching SubtitlesIf a story has subtitles there will be a "Subtitles" section present in the "options" panel just underneath the Quicktime movie (see Figure 1), similarly if no subtitles are available for a story there will be no "Subtitles" section listed (see Figure 2).
If subtitles are available for a given story, there will always be at least two options; the subtitle language itself and "Off". As with all the other choices listed in the "options" panel, whichever is your current choice is displayed in bold (see Figure 1, which shows the selected subtitle as "English"). Clicking on one of the non-bold choices will change the page to display your new choice. For example clicking on "Off" will turn off the subtitles and reload the movie without any subtitles (although you will always have the option of turning them back on from the options panel), whereas clicking on the name of a language will show subtitles in that language. The subtitles are delivered as part of the Quicktime movie and appear below the actual speaker footage rather than super-imposed over the top as you may be used to in some subtitled films. Below are examples of what the movies look like with (see Figure 3) and without (see Figure 4) subtitles. The subtitled movies are taller than the non-subtitled movies, so you may need to resize or scroll your browser window to see everything.
If you make a change to the subtitles whilst you are watching a movie, the whole page reloads and goes back to the "Click to play" poster. This means that you would have to start watching the movie from the beginning or manually fast-forward using the Quicktime controls to return to where you were before, so it's a good idea to choose your subtitles before you start watching a movie. Once you have chosen what subtitles you want for the story you are currently watching this choice will stay with you as you browse through the rest of that speakers life story. Using any of our navigational tools, such as the next and previous buttons (see Figure 5) or the explorer (see Figure 6) will retain this choice as long as you are browsing within that speaker. As soon as you start to view the stories of another speaker (who may have different subtitle options) the web-site will revert to whatever defaults you have set (see Setting Defaults later in this guide for more information on setting a useful default).
The only place where you won't have any control over the subtitle viewing options will be the trailers section of the site. The stories presented in this section will either display subtitles in English or display no subtitles at all. Everywhere else on the site (search results, playlists, browsing etc...), you will be given full control over the presence of subtitles. Reading TranslationsAs well as the ability to view subtitles, the Peoples Archive web-site can also provide the viewer with translations of various parts of the speaker's story. Currently we offer translations of: All of this is controlled via the "Display Language" section in the "options" panel just underneath the Quicktime movie. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show examples of what this section looks like for a Polish speaker with an English translation and an English speaker with no available translations respectively. As with all the other choices listed in the "options" panel, whichever language is your current choice is displayed in bold (see Figure 1, which shows the selected display language as "English"). Clicking on one of the non-bold choices will change the display language. As well as telling you which languages are available as translations for the current speaker, the "Display Language" section also shows which language the speaker actually talks in, this is indicated with a small speaker icon (see Figure 7).
When you choose a different display language, the page changes to show various details in your chosen language, and to make sure that other links point to pages in that language as well. Below we discuss each translation or language-specific feature in turn: Story TitlesThe most obvious change is that the Explorer on the left and the story title in the centre of the page both change to be in your chosen language. (see Figure 8 and Figure 9 for examples of Polish and English versions)
TranscriptsThe "Read" link next to "Transcript" in the "options" panel always takes you to the transcript in your current display language. To view transcripts in a different language, you should choose a different display language from the options panel and then choose "Read" from the "options" panel if you are not already viewing the transcript. (See Figure 10 for examples of Italian and English versions of this.)
BiographiesThe Biographies heading on the right hand "Related Resources" panel can be clicked to expand and provide links to biographies for the current speaker and for their listener(s) (see Figure 11 (biographies.tiff)). As with the transcripts, these biographies will always be in the current display language. To view biographies in a different language you should choose a different display language from the options panel available on the main story page. See Figure 12 for examples of Italian and English versions of this.
Language Specific External LinksThe External Links heading on the right hand "Related Resources" panel (see Figure 13) can be clicked to expand and provide a list of links to external sites that are appropriate for both the speaker in general and specifically to the current story. The links presented here are always to sites that are written in the current display language (see Figure 14), however there is a sub heading that can be clicked to expand and show any links to sites in other languages (see Figure 15). The links to sites that aren't in your current display language have the language that they are displayed in next to them.
SubtitlesWhen you choose a new display language, the Peoples Archive site will show the most appropriate subtitles for that language. For example if you were to choose English as a display language for a speaker who tells their life story in French the site will show English subtitles, however if you chose Français as the display language for the same speaker then the site would switch the subtitles off. You can always change this using the "Subtitles" section of the "options" panel (see Setting Defaults later in this guide to change this behaviour permanently). Choosing a display language is very similar to choosing what subtitles you want in the way that the site responds and remembers your choice. This means that choosing a different display language causes the page to reload and go back to the "Click to play" poster and your choice for a given story stays with you as you browse through the rest of that speakers life story. Like your choice of subtitles, the navigational tools, such as the next and previous buttons (see Figure 5) or the explorer (see Figure 6) will retain this choice as long as you are browsing within that speaker, but as soon as you start to view the stories of another speaker (who may have different language options) the web-site will revert to whatever defaults you have set (see Setting Defaults later in this guide for more information on setting a useful default). Setting DefaultsThe Peoples Archive site is set up to use English as the display language for all speakers and to use the most appropriate subtitle for when they are viewed in English. This means that if the speaker tells their life story in English there will be no subtitles present, however if they speak in another language the movies will be displayed with English subtitles. The My Archive (see Figure 16) section of the site allows you to change this default behaviour to something else.
On the left hand "my items" panel of "my archive" there is a "Change language and subtitle preferences" heading (see Figure 17) Clicking this shows you a simple form with two headings; Default Language Setting and Default Subtitle Setting. (see Figure 18)
For Default Language Setting you can choose a specific language which means that the site will always set the display language for a speaker to your chosen language if it is available for that speaker. You can also choose to have the site always use the language that the speaker tells their life story in as the display language. For Default Subtitle Setting you can choose a specific language which means that the site will always set the subtitles for a speaker to use your chosen language if there are subtitles available in that language for the speaker. You can also choose to have the site always use the appropriate subtitle for the current display language or you can simply choose to never have any subtitles on by default. These settings are how the site determines what language and subtitles to display when you visit a new speaker, either by visiting the site for the first time, or by browsing the site and you can always override these settings with the choices available in the "options" panel. |
