Intended audience:
users, HTML coders, script developers, CSS coders, Web project managers, and anyone who wants to know how the translate attribute works in current browsers.
These tests check whether online machine translation systems recognize the HTML5 translate attribute when processing text for translation.
To see the test, click on the link in the left-most column. Because the results are for translation service rather than browsers, this page doesn't show details for the tests.
Any dependencies are shown in notes above the table, and notes below the table will usually provide any additional useful information, including an explanation of why a result was marked as 'partially successful'.
Key:
| pass | fail | partially successful |
The results in this section aren't about browsers. Instead they are for online translation services.
All online translation services tested recognised the translate attribute when it was set to no, and left the appropriate text untranslated.
Of the translation services tested, only Microsoft failed to recognize a translate flag set to yes inside another element with the translate flag set to no as a signal that that bit of text should be translated.
| Assertion | Microsoft | Yandex | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| translate no on html | When translate=no on the html element, no content will be translated by an online service. | yes | yes | yes |
| translate no on p | When translate=no on a p element, the content of that element will NOT be translated by an online service. | yes | yes | yes |
| translate yes on p | When translate=yes on a p element, the content of that element WILL be translated by an online service. | yes | yes | yes |
| translate null on p | When translate is set to the null string on a p element, the content of that element WILL be translated by an online service. | yes | yes | yes |
| translate no on span | When translate=no on a span element, the content of that element will NOT be translated by an online service. | yes | yes | yes |
| translate yes on span | When translate=yes on a span element in a context where translate has been set to no, the content of that element WILL be translated by an online service. | yes | no | yes |
Links: Section 3.2.3.4 • Related tests
The results in this section aren't about browsers. Instead they are for online translation services.
The HTML5 specification lists attribute values that should be translated if the translate attribute is not set to no. Here we only check a few of the more common scenarios. We check whether they are translated by default, and also whether they are not translated if the element they are on has translate=no.
The results are mixed.
Google always translates alt and title attributes (including situations where translation was not expected), but doesn't translate placeholder text. Nor does it change the lang attribute.
Microsoft doesn't translate alt, title or placeholder text, but it does change the lang attribute.
Yandex services pass all the tests.
| Assertion | Microsoft | Yandex | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| alt attribute | By default, the value of an alt attribute WILL be translated by an online translation service. | yes | no | yes |
| title attribute | By default, the value of a title attribute WILL be translated by an online translation service. | yes | no | yes |
| placeholder attribute | By default, the value of a placeholder attribute WILL be translated by an online translation service. | no | no | yes |
| lang attribute | By default, the value of a lang attribute WILL be converted by an online translation service to match the target language. | no | yes | yes |
| alt attribute, translate no | If the tag has translate=no, the value of an alt attribute will NOT be translated by an online translation service. | no | yes | yes |
| title attribute, translate no | If the tag has translate=no, the value of a title attribute will NOT be translated by an online translation service. | no | yes | yes |
| placeholder attribute, translate no | If the tag has translate=no, the value of a placeholder attribute will NOT be translated by an online translation service. | yes | yes | yes |
| lang attribute, translate no | If the tag has translate=no, the value of a lang attribute will NOT be converted by an online translation service. | yes | yes | yes |
Links: Section 3.2.3.4 • Related tests