New Features added to Zingword
Stay up-to-date on all the latest stuff.
You can scroll down to read about the latest release and previous releases. Each release has a short video, and you can find all of those videos collected in one place here.
Latest release
We’ll have service outages Saturday the 17th, starting at 10pm CEST while the latest release is deployed and tested.
The latest release is mostly bug fixes. If you reported a bug and you don’t see it here, you can rest-assured that we will get to it in subsequent releases.
✨ Markdown modal version 2
It is clear that our biggest challenge in terms of community is going to be helping translators to communicate about themselves. In this line, we wanted to make sure that every translator publishing a profile understands the full potential of their Zingword profiles.
The new helper modal fires automatically the first time you enter the About Me field, and then it is available from the little link next to the field.
✨ Manage references menu link
Managing references happens on the translator dashboard. There were reports that it was hard to find, so we created a menu item as well so you can’t possibly miss it.
🛠️ Fix: API to mail sender
You may have missed mails or gotten mails that were incorrect. We had a small API issue with our mail sender, which is now fixed. As a consequence of this fix, you might get a mail or two that does not exactly correspond to what you did last in the application. The good thing is that we’re in beta, so we can get away with that. :P Thanks for hanging in there with us.
🛠️ Fix: Avatars are mandatory now
Can’t publish without a pic, peeps!
🛠️ Fix: Show locales on language select modals
We are showing localed now on language select modals — there were cases where you’d see “duplicate” language pairs, which were actually two pairs with different target locales.
🛠️ Fix: Identity verification selfie issues
There were some issues with the selfie identity verification where your selfie covered the “Send” button. That’s fixed, so selfie ID verification should be smoother now.
🛠️ Fix: Add new keyword easier to see
Some translators requested the ability to add new keywords, which we already had but wasn’t as visible as it should be. It’s now more visible.
🛠️ Fix: Spacing between bullets
We tweaked the spacing between bullets when translators use markdown formatting. Now it looks even more sexy.
🛠️ Fix: City issues
The way the type & select works for entering your location was preventing people from adding certain cities, like “Rome.” We changed the way this works and now all type & select fields are working more efficiently.
🛠️ Fix: Maintaining search criteria when you navigate away from search page
You may have noticed that navigating away from the search page caused your search criteria to disappear. As we pivot towards the client beta, we fixed this longstanding bug.
🛠️ Fix: Emails for logins not stored as case-sensitive
A translator caught a bug where if your email had a capital letter when you signed up, you had to type it in that way when you logged in again. Now, if emails are no longer case-sensitive, so if you enter your email in ALL CAPS by mistake, it’ll still work.
🛠️ Fix: Email displayed on email confirmation notice
When translators create their accounts, they can start working right away. The confirm your email notification rests at the top of the screen, reminding them to confirm their email. This notification now displays their email address, so translators can see if they typed it in wrong.
🛠️ Fix: Snap animation on profiles
We may change the animation strategy but we added a small snap animation on individual profile pages because this is coolf.
🛠️ Fix: Education area of continued professional development
When translators added multiple degrees from the same university, it would mash them all together within the same CPD card. Now, it displays them separately and neatly.
🛠️ Fix: Separating Terms & Conditions and Marketing Mails explainer pages into two separate pages
These agreements haven’t changed, we just separated them into two separate pages so there can be no confusion about what translators are accepting.
Previous updates
✨ Notifications on your dashboard and on your login avatar
The major feature for this release is a notifications system. You now have a badge on your profile avatar that tells you if you have notifications to read.
✨ Open graph and SEO on your profile links
We are still asking you to keep your profile a secret.
That being said, when we all start sharing our profiles, it now has a cool graphic asking to request a quote, and it says your name automatically. Which is really cool.
✨ Validation notification
The first notification you get tells you that we will validate your profile (eventually). This is a general notification, like “Hey, just so you know, this will happen eventually.”
Real validation dates will be rolled in when the kinks in the profile creation process are all worked out, which they almost are (see fixes below).
🛠️ Fix: “Complete these fields” misfiring
Some translators had stuff preventing them from editing or publishing their profiles, showing a modal telling them to complete these fields even when they were complete. Looking at you, Charlotte Coombe!
🛠️️Fix: Bullets and other formatting
Some translators had problems with bullets in their markdown formatting. Note that bullets in this area are like this by design — it’s cool, but you may need to adjust the type of content you write there to make it extra cool. Marion Bazzoli, you are now free to crush it with bullets and formatting!
🛠️️ Fix: LA / XM locale support
Fixed the issue where LA / XM was displaying some weird characters on published profiles and in the editor. Nora Torres, we love you!
🛠️️ Fix: Date picker for CPD
Date picker for CPD fixed — dates are now correct and the week has seven days (doh!). This one goes out to about 50 translators. :D
🛠️️ Fix: Percentage complete fix
Your profile completion percentage now reflects accurately what you have completed in your profile.
🛠️️ Fix: Immediately searchable after publishing
Some translators published and then couldn’t find themselves in a search. Now you can. As soon as you publish, you’re in the search (must reload the page though). We see you, Guido di Carlo!
🛠️️ Fix: Cannot enter city for your location
Now all that works and should work well.
✨ Superior styles for About Me and Subject Matter Highlights
The original Zingword profiles featured centered text in the About me and Subject Matter highlights sections, and you couldn’t make paragraphs or other styles. Overall, this didn’t support the amount of text translators wanted to include, nor did it help them better express themselves.
Now, translators have a flexible system called Markdown to create headings, bullets, and numbered lists within the Zingword design framework! Write all you want! Shout out to Catherine Christaki for letting us borrow her LinkedIn text to produce this demo graphic.
✨ Links support
We didn’t originally intend to support random links in profile texts, because these links could be malicious, but we’ve now added link support as one of our first new features!
Links can now be added to profile texts, either “naked” or added via Markdown to make pretty links. People browsing translator profiles can now follow these links, but they get a warning first that displays the link they are about to follow so they can decide if they will ultimately follow the link or not.
✨ Validation & Completion Indicators
We had some issues with form validation during profile creation — those issues are solved, and we have added small badges to the create menu that indicate where translators have something wrong in their profiles, and they also indicate how “complete” that section is so translators can work on filling up their % complete.
🛠️️ Diagnostic tools
Related to the validation fixes, we built some slim diagnostic tools to assist in customer support. When translators have issues, we can now work to detect and solve the issues.
🛠️️ Validation blocks to publishing
Some translators experienced issues with publishing which were triggered by the validation issues. That should be fixed, and if it isn’t fixed, it’s a good thing we have diagnostic tools!
🛠️️ Support for US Spanish locale (missing XM & LA)
We added support for US locales, though we need to do some more testing before we also add Latin American Universal Spanish locales. Goooooooooooo Spanish translators!
