The difference between simplified and traditional Chinese and how should one convert a traditional sentence into a simplified one?

Question

I'm wondering how is the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese?
For example think of the following sentence:

在StackExchange網站中建立遙感探測和攝影測量問答網站的這個提案，仍處在委託階段 ( commitment phase) 。

That has been written in pure Taiwanese version by a native who has studied in USA as the translation for the following:

a proposal for creating a remote sensing and photogrammetry Q&A site in StackExchange Network is in commitment phase now

• Now how can it be converted to a pure mainland Chinese version?

• I mean are the differences just in typing?

• Are there any difference in the vocabulary?

• Is there any service on the net which gets a traditional word (or a word typed in traditional Chinese) and then gives you its simplified version?

• Do I have to apply grammatical changes, too?

• Do simplified Chinese (People who are living a mainland China) understand traditional Chinese easily? What about vise versa?

• Which one is used wider in the world (traditional or Chinese)? (I mean for promotional purposes is it better to translate a passage into simplified or traditional to be understandable by more people?)

Answer 1

Now how can it be converted to a pure mainland Chinese version?

It's a big project. Best to find a professional translator who knows both well to do the job.

I mean are the differences just in typing?

No

Are there any difference in the vocabulary?

Yes. Quite a lot are different. Like software, in Taiwan it's 軟體 and in the mainland it's 软件. I'd like to show another example, the word cache in computer science. In Taiwan they adopt 快取 while in the mainland 缓存 is used. The two versions seem quite different at the first glance. One uses 快 fast, the other 缓 slow. But they describe the very same thing from two aspects. Both 快取 in simplified and 緩存 in traditional will be odd.

Is there any service on the net which gets a traditional word (or a word typed in traditional Chinese) and then gives you its simplified version?

Character-to-character is available, like from 體 to 体. But word-to-word is not that easy. 软体 is improper. Besides, there are cases that multiple traditional characters can be transformed into one simplified one.

Do I have to apply grammatical changes, too?

Grammars of both are almost the same in the written language, but I'm not sure about it.

Do simplified Chinese (People who are living a mainland China) understand traditional Chinese easily? What about vise versa?

The written language can be easily understood. The characters can be recognized easily though one may find it hard to write them by hand. I know little about the case vise versa since I'm from the mainland. Traditional characters are never forbidden though they cannot be used in the official documents like laws. We learn to recognize the traditional ones but not how to write in the school. I have read a lot of novels printed in traditional Chinese. Both of them can be widely seen in daily life, of course the simplified more than the traditional. Anyway both are precious legacies from our ancestors of the past thousands of years.

Which one is used wider in the world (traditional or Chinese)? (I mean for promotional purposes is it better to translate a passage into simplified or traditional to be understandable by more people?)

So far as I know, many softwares, webs and manuals provide both. But I myself find it okay to read only the traditional version.

Answer 2

How can it be converted to a pure mainland Chinese version?
Using Google Chrome, there is an extension for translating websites. In the past this used to be extremely popular, until English only speakers realized the translations were not only horrible, they were machine translations. For your case, you can use machine translation if you have either Simplified or Traditional Chinese because in essence they are the same, only the writing is different.

I mean are the differences just in typing?
The differences are just in typing. However, a few exceptions to this rule applies when you are talking about the different dialects of Chinese (Standard Madarin is the one all Chinese speakers know, Cantonese is slightly different, Taiwanese is also different).

Are there any difference in the vocabulary?
Vocabulary is basically the same. Slang wise, they will be different. There might be some slight variations in how common certain words are used, but overall, Mainlanders can communicate with those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even communicate among chinese speakers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore.

Is there any service on the net which gets a traditional word (or a word typed in traditional Chinese) and then gives you its simplified version?
Google Translate (the plug in) will quickly help translate from Simplified to Tradition. Granted, you have either one or the other as the source language.

Do I have to apply grammatical changes, too?
Grammar is the same. The only problem occurs when users use local slang.

Do simplified Chinese (People who are living a mainland China) understand traditional Chinese easily? What about vise versa?
Traditional Chinese is used only in Taiwan now. That being said, Taiwanese can read simplified, (maybe not as fast or fluent as reading traditional). You can use this Chinese SE as an example. There are many users on this site that use simplified/traditional/both.

Which one is used wider in the world (traditional or Chinese)? (I mean for promotional purposes is it better to translate a passage into simplified or traditional to be understandable by more people?)
In terms of promotion, it would be simplified. However, this is talking about marketing. I heard you want to promote on facebook. Is facebook blocked in China? Yes it is blocked, but it is so easy to get around to the point, no, it's not blocked to anyone who has a college degree. Is this a good marketing strategy? I won't comment on this because this starts to become irrelevant to Chinese SE.