HOW DO I DO THINGS?

Here's a really quick run through of how to use LingoJam. Readysetgo:

Options

The options section lets you change the basic info for your translator.

• Name: This will appear as your translators title. The spaces in the name will be removed for the URL.
• Subtitle: This is a little tagline that will appear under your title.
• Language1 name: The name of your first language. This is generally English, but can be whatever you like.
• Language2 name: Tends to be what the translator is built for translating into (e.g. "Pig Latin"), though LingoJam allows translating in both directions (from lanuage1 to language 2 AND from language 2 to language 1).
• Description: An explanation of your translator that will help people find your translator and understand what it is about.
• Email: LingoJam doesn't have a login system. We instead give you a secure link with which you can edit your translator. Your email allows us to send you this link alond with any backups that you request.

Phrases

This section is comprised of two lists (like many of the following sections). In the first list, you place phrases from language 1, in the second list, you place the equivalent phrase for language 2. Phrases are the first to be swapped during translation.

Words

Similar to words. Place words from language 1 in the first column, and words from language 2 in the second. The words lists are swapped after the phrases.

Prefixes

This section allows you to exchange the start of words. If you put "s" in the first column, and "$" in the second column, the translator will look for all words that begin with "s" and make them instead begin with "$". So "smart" would become "$mart". Of course, the swaps work in reverse if you have enabled reverse translations and the user types in the language 2 box.

Suffixes

The suffixes sections allows you to swap suffixes! Genius. We could make all words that end in "o" instead end in "ooo" - so your translator would translate "go" into "gooo" and it would translate "bilbo" into "bilbooo". As usual, this works in reverse if you've enabled reverse translations and the user types in the language 2 box.

Intrawords

Intrawords (according to our definitions - feel free to suggest a better name!) are groups of letters that are within words. If you wanted to swap the "ea" in any words that contain it (for example, "heart", "create" etc.) you would put "ea" in the first column (language 1) and you would put "ae" in the second column (language 2).

Maybe you want to swap the leter 'a' for the number '4', so in the first column, you would put 'a' and in the second column you would put '4'. Remember that if you have enabled reverse translation, these rules also work in reverse when the user types into the language 2 box.

RegEx

Regex (short for 'regular expressions') basically lets you make your own rules. There is almost nothing that cannot be done with a proper knowledge of regular expressions. The syntax used by LingoJam is that of JavaScript (which is very similar to other types). Some examples are provided beneath the lists on the editor page. In the first column, you put a regex rule, such as "/rain/g" (note the 'g' which specifies that ALL matches will be replaced, not just the first) and in the second column, you put in what you would like all the matches to be replaced with, for example "cake". Now if the user types in "rainbow", it will be translated to "cakebow".
This is a super basic example of regex. If you want to learn how to use more complex rules, Google will help.

Note that currently you can only create regex replacement rules for FORWARD translations, so the regex always goes in the first column, and the string to replace it (which may include matched groups) goes in the second column.