Translate structured fields

Tasting menus and set menus carry far more translatable text than any other record: a title, a subtitle, a description, several block titles, block contents and a footer note. This page covers translating them without losing the structure.

What is translatable on each type

Tasting menu

  • Subtitle and description.
  • The starters block title and its content.
  • The titles and contents of the numbered course blocks.
  • The footer note.

Set menu

  • Subtitle and description.
  • The starters block title and the titles of the numbered blocks.
  • The footer note.

The dishes offered inside a set menu's blocks are separate records from the set-menu dish pool, and are translated as items in their own right.

What is not translatable

The menu price, the pairing price and the dish selections are shared across languages. A translated tasting menu offers exactly the same courses at exactly the same price — which is what it must do.

Translate a tasting menu

  1. Open the menu record.
  2. Select the language tab.
  3. Translate the title and subtitle.
  4. Translate the description.
  5. Translate each block title, keeping them short.
  6. Translate each block's content, keeping the same number of lines as the source.
  7. Translate the footer note carefully — see below.
  8. Update.

Keep the block structure identical

The two menu designs lay out blocks in order. If the source has five blocks with three lines each and the translation has five blocks with one line each, the two languages look like two different menus.

Match the source structure: same number of blocks, same rough number of lines, same order.

A block whose title is empty is not rendered. Do not use an empty block in one language and a filled one in another.

The footer usually carries the conditions: VAT treatment, minimum diners, which services the menu runs on, whether drinks are included, and where allergen information can be requested.

Translate it as a statement of fact, not as marketing copy. A condition that is stated in one language and omitted in another is a real problem when a table disputes a bill.

Have someone check that every condition present in the source is present in each translation.

Course names

Course block titles are the shortest and most-read text on the menu. Two approaches, and both work if applied consistently:

  • Keep the original names — Snacks, Aperitivo, Postre — when they are part of the experience.
  • Translate them plainly — Starters, Main, Dessert.

What does not work is mixing: half the blocks in the source language and half translated.

Set menu dishes

The choices in a set menu are records in the dish pool, translated like any other item. Because one dish can be offered in several menus, translating it once serves every menu that offers it.

Translate the pool before translating the menus that use it, so the block choices read correctly as soon as the menu is published.

Verify

  • [ ] Every block that exists in the source exists in the translation.
  • [ ] Block titles are the same length and register.
  • [ ] Block contents have comparable line counts.
  • [ ] The footer note contains every condition from the source.
  • [ ] The menu price and pairing price are identical — they are shared.
  • [ ] Set-menu dish choices read correctly in each language.
  • [ ] Each language was read end to end on a phone.
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