Adding Another Language to your XLSForm

Last updated: 15 Feb 2022

There are two methods to adding multiple languages to your form. You can either add and manage them directly through the online Project Dashboard or you can add them in an XLSForm and upload it to Kobo.

Here are detailed instructions on how you can add another language to your form:

• Create your form in the default language. This should be the language that the person responsible for designing the questionnaire is most comfortable with. When you are done, or when a portion of the form has been created, save it. You’ll be returned to the draft form’s project dashboard.

• Export the form to XLS.

• Open the file in Excel (Google Spreadsheet, Open Office Calc, etc will all work) (If you’re in Excel it’s possible you have to take the file out of Protected View first. See here.) Your spreadsheet will have three sheets (see the little tabs at the bottom): survey, choices, settings. Stay in the survey sheet for now.

• Find the column called label. This is where your original question labels are stored. Insert another column to the right of label. In the header (first row) of this new column, write label::language (code), for example label::Français (fr) or label::English (en).

You can change the size of your columns, add colors or change the font size, none of these will affect your form.

• Then, if you have hints in your form, the same needs to apply to the hint column, for example hint::Français (fr) or hint::English (en).

survey

type	name	label	relevant
text	full_name	What is your name?
select_one yesno	children_yesno	Do you have any children?
integer	children_count	How many children do you have?	${children_yesno} = ‘yes’

• Now add your translations for every row inside the label::language (code) column. When you are done, make sure you didn’t skip any questions (for every field that has text inside the label column there should be text inside the label::language (code) column). You can find the official 2-character language codes (subtags) here.

Tip: Copy-paste the original label column and then make changes to the translations so you don't leave anything blank by accident: It's better to have something showing in the wrong language than not having a blank question in some language. You can repeat this step and add as many languages as you like, each in their separate columns and with a different name inside label::language (code).

survey

type	name	label:English (en)	label::Français (fr)	relevant
text	full_name	What is your name?	Quel est votre nom?
select_one yesno	children_yesno	Do you have any children?	Avez-vous des enfants?
integer	children_count	How many children do you have?	Combien des enfants avez-vous?	${children_yesno} = ‘yes’

• Now switch to the choices sheet of your file, if you have one.

• In the choices sheet you have another column called label. Repeat steps 5 and 6. Make sure that you use the exact same spelling for label::language (code). For example, label::Francais (fr) and label::Français (fr) are not identical.

choices

list_name	name	label::English (en)	label::Français (fr)
yesno	yes	Yes	Oui
yesno	no	No	Non

• In the settings sheet, underneath form_title edit the text of your form’s title to something like “My form (English and French)” so you can easily identify it later.

settings

form_title
My form (English and French)

• Save your file and close Excel.

• Return to KoboToolbox and click on Replace with XLS, then upload your updated XLSForm. Choose the file you just finished editing and click OK.

• Open the form you just uploaded and click on Preview Form. At the top next to Choose Language click on the dropdown. It will have a default (your original language) as well as the new languages you just added.

Translating to Tamil, Nepali, Hindi, etc. scripts

When translating to non-Latin scripts, such as Tamil, Nepali, Hindi, etc, please make sure you do not use a so-called pseudo font. When writing in these languages make sure you only use the proper Unicode characters. To write proper Unicode characters you don’t have to install any particular fonts. Instead, you (or your translator) need to set your keyboard to use the respective script (Tamil, Nepali, etc.) and then write normally. The correct keyboard setting will produce the actual script letters in Unicode instead of some Latin phonetic equivalents. (This would also be the same way as writing these languages into an email, KoboToolbox, or any other Web application.

For help with adding the correct system keyboard, check this link (Windows only).

Pseudo fonts allow writing in these scripts and are commonly used in many countries, particularly in South Asia. But while they work on the computer that has a specific font installed, they will not work on any other computer that doesn’t use that particular font. That is because these fonts just disguise regular Latin characters and symbols and make them appear in a different shape. For example, when writing “Hello” with the Nepali pseudo font ‘Preeti’, it will look like this: हेल्लो. But what is really written there remains the letters H e l l o. For some people using these fonts which often use phonetic equivalents to English, may be easier. Another reason they are being used widely is that many computers used to not have support for these scripts and thus needed pseudo fonts as a “hack”. Either way, Unicode characters are the best way to go - and the only way for use in KoboToolbox.

Translating right-to-left scripts

When adding a language that uses right-to-left script it is important to use the correct language code, however even if the correct code is used, if the first question, hint, or note is written in a left-to-right script the form will automatically format the rest of the translation to a left-to-right format.