---
title: "Start a translation"
description: "Create a translation of a book in Galley. It copies the chapters and story bible, sets the new language, and opens each chapter beside the original."
source: https://usegalley.com/docs/start-a-translation
---
# Start a translation

A translation is its own book, linked to the original. It starts with the same chapters and story bible,
and you write it paragraph by paragraph with the original beside you.

*Galley editor on a French translation of A Scandal in Bohemia, with the English original read-only in the left half and the French being typed on the page on the right.*

A chapter of a translation: the original on the left, read-only, and the translation on the right.

## How to do it

1. **Open the original’s Metadata.** Open the book you want to translate and go to
**Metadata**.
2. **Choose Create translation.** Under **Editions & translations**, click
**Create translation**.
3. **Name it and pick the language.** Give the translation a title and choose the language you’re
translating into.
4. **Create it and open a chapter.** Click **Create translation**. Open
any chapter and the original is on the left, with your translation on the right.

## What comes across

- **The structure.** Every chapter and part, in order, with empty pages for you to write into.
- **The story bible.** Characters, places, glossary, references, world-building, research, the style
sheet and the timeline, so you can translate names and terms once.
- **The language.** The quote marks you type become the new language’s, the print PDF hyphenates by its
rules, and the EPUB is tagged with it.

It has its own cover, ISBN, blurb and book design, so a German translation can be justified and hyphenated while the
English stays ragged right.

## From the dashboard instead

You can also start one from **New book** on the dashboard: choose **From existing**,
pick the book, and choose **Translation**. It’s the same thing.

## Good to know

- On the dashboard, translations sit under the original as a small row you can click.
- If the new language uses a different script, the typeface list changes to faces that can set it.
- Giving a separate translator access to the book isn’t built yet.

## Next

Everything about series, editions and translations is in
[series, editions & translations](https://usegalley.com/docs/series-and-translations). If you’re doing it yourself, there’s
advice in [translating your own novel](https://usegalley.com/blog/translating-your-own-novel).

[PreviousSeries, editions & translations](https://usegalley.com/docs/series-and-translations) [NextThe editor](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor)

## Go on, write a page in it.

Opens straight into a book. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.

[Open the demo](https://demo.usegalley.com) [See what €199 gets you](https://usegalley.com/buy?from=site)