unfoldingWord® Translation Notes are open-licensed exegetical notes that provide historical, cultural, and linguistic information for translators. It provides translators and checkers with pertinent, just-in-time information to help them make the best possible translation decisions.
The first two options require you to clone the repository to your computer first. You may do this on the command line or using a program such as SmartGit. After making changes to the files you will need to commit and push your changes to the server and then create a Pull Request to merge them to the `master` branch.
Alternately, you may [download the master branch as a zip file](https://git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_tn/archive/master.zip) and extract that locally. After editing you would need to use the upload file feature in DCS to get your changes ready for a Pull Request.
When you are done editing, click Save and then select "Use Text CSV Format" on the pop up dialogue. Note that even though it says CSV, it will use tab characters as the field separators.
**Note:** Other spreadsheet editors **should not** be used because they will add or remove quotation marks which will affect the notes negatively.
### Editing in a Text Editor
You may also use a regular text editor to make changes to the files.
**Note:** You must be careful not to delete or add any tab characters when editing with this method.
If you only need to change a word or two, this may be the quickest way to make your change. See the [protected branch workflow](https://help.door43.org/en/knowledgebase/15-door43-content-service/docs/46-protected-branch-workflow) document for step by step instructions.
**Note:** You must be careful not to delete any tab characters when editing with this method.
The UTN are structured as TSV files to simplify importing and exporting into various formats for translation and presentation. This enables the tNs to be keyed to the original Greek and Hebrew text instead of only a Gateway Language translation.
A Tab Separated Value (TSV) file is like a Comma Separated Value file except that the tab character is what divides the values instead of a comma. This makes it easier to include prose text in the files because many languages require the use of commas, single quotes, and double quotes in their sentences and paragraphs.
The UTN are structured as one file per book of the bible and encoded in TSV format, for example, `01-GEN.tsv`. The columns are `Book`, `Chapter`, `Verse`, `ID`, `SupportReference`, `OrigQuote`, `Occurrence`, `GLQuote`, and `OccurrenceNote`.
* An [RC link](http://resource-container.readthedocs.io/en/latest/linking.html) can resolve to a specific note like this: `rc://en/tn/help/tit/01/01/swi9`.
* For certain notes, this field represents the display text for notes that do not relate to a specific word or phrase in the text. There are two such cases in the tN:
*`OccurrenceNote` - The Markdown formatted note itself. For example, `Paul speaks of God's message as if it were an object that could be visibly shown to people. Alternate translation: "He caused me to understand his message" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor]])`
* The text should be Markdown formatted, which means the following are also acceptable:
* Plaintext - if you have no need for extra markup, just use plain text in this column
* HTML - if you prefer to use inline HTML for markup, that works because it is supported in Markdown
To learn the philosophy of how to translate these notes please see the [Translate the translationNotes](http://gl-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/gl_translation.html#gltranslation-transtn) article in the [Gateway Language Manual](http://gl-manual.readthedocs.io/).
### tN Translation Notes
Here are some important technical *notes* to keep in mind as you translate tN:
* Only the `OccurrenceNote` column needs to be translated
* Remember: the `GLQuote` column *is not required* to be filled out. Only use this field if it is helpful during the translation process. The software that processes the tNs will use alignment data to identify which words in your GL translation the individual notes refer to.
The section above on [Editing the tNs](https://git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_tn#editing-the-utn) may give you ideas on what software to use. Of course, you can also convert the TSV files into another format, do the translation, and then convert them back to TSV files (just ensure the IDs are preserved if you do this). Follow [Translate Content Online](https://help.door43.org/en/knowledgebase/15-door43-content-service/docs/41-translate-content-online) to get a copy of this repository to begin your work.
As a translator of UTN into a GL, you may need to [add new notes](http://gl-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/gl_translation.html#may-i-add-a-note-that-would-help-with-translation-in-my-language). Follow these steps to do this:
2. Fill out each field for the row according to the [UTN TSV Column Description](https://git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_tn#utn-tsv-column-description) above, taking note of these instructions:
* Choose a new `ID` for this note, which must unique among the notes in the verse.
* If you don't know Greek, put the GL text that the note refers to in the `GLQuote` field. Have a reviewer who knows Greek and your GL come back and add the approprate text from the UGNT that the note refers to.
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