Once you have created content in one language, you might want to translate it into one or more different languages. The Developer provides functionality that facilitates this aspect of the localization process. 

Localization requires two main tasks; translating the textual content and re-recording the topics in the localized version of the target application. Text translation is usually handled by exporting the content to an XLIFF or Microsoft Word format, and sending the exported content to a localization company for translation. Topic re-recording is usually done in-house by authors or editors with Developer recording experience.

This Developer localization flow involves six main steps:

• Create a duplicate of the existing content to be translated. When duplicating, enable the option to also duplicate the glossaries.
   
• Use the Localization process to export the content to an XLIFF or DOCX (Microsoft Word) translation package, depending on the requirements of your localization company.
   
• Using the XLIFF or DOCX output, translate custom Developer text, including custom bubble text, web page text, link tooltips and alternative text, glossary terms, questions, and roles.
   
• Use the Localization process to import the translated XLIFF or DOCX files back into the Library, creating content outlines for each language.
   
• Re-record each topic to update screenshots, actions, and object names and apply the appropriate template for the target language to update template text. This task can be performed while the content is out for translation.
   
  Note: The Localization import also sets the language property for the imported documents to the target language if you choose to overwrite the existing content.
   
• Translate external content, such as package files and graphics, and relink these documents to the translated Developer content, if necessary; update glossary links.

Create a Duplicate

To begin the localization process, you must first create a duplicate of the content to be translated. You do this using the Copy command and the Duplicate (selection and related) option of the Paste Special command. This creates new copies of the entire selection and all related documents and updates the links so that the new parent documents link to the new child documents. The resulting documents serve as placeholders that are overwritten with the translated content. Therefore, you need to create one duplicate of the original content for each language into which you plan to translate. For example, to translate English content into French, German, and Japanese, you need to create three separate duplicates of the original content. Note the following when creating a duplicate of the content.

When duplicating content, you can choose to include or not include duplicate copies of the glossaries and style sheets linked to the selected content.

• Glossaries: It is important to select the Duplicate Glossaries option to include glossaries for translation and break the link to the original glossary. The default setting for glossaries is to create a duplicate.
   
• Style sheets: If you leave the Duplicate Style Sheets option unchecked, the duplicated content links to the style sheets linked to the original source content; allowing you to maintain a master style sheet for all related content. You can create language styles variations in the master style sheet if you need to use another font to display the text correctly in the localized language. There is no limitation to the number of language styles that you can add to a style sheet.
   
  If you prefer to have separate style sheets for each language, you can create a duplicate when you duplicate the content. The default setting for style sheets is not to create a duplicate, with the purpose of linking all content to a single style sheet.
   
  Note: A warning appears during export when you have multiple style sheets with the same name linked to the exported content.

For simplicity in managing translations, especially those involving multiple languages, it is recommended that you create the duplicate for each target language in a separate, clearly identified Library folder. For the example above, if the English content were an outline titled "Document Basics" stored in a folder of the same name, you might create the folders "Document Basics - FR", "Document Basics - DE", and "Document Basics - JA" and paste one duplicate outline into each folder.

Re-record Topics

A crucial aspect of localizing content is capturing the screenshots and actions of each topic in the target language. To do this, you can use the re-record option in the Topic Editor, which allows you to easily re-create the same series of actions in the new language using the original topic as a guide. You must also update the template bubble text in the topic by selecting the appropriate template for the target language from the Properties toolpane. This provides a localized version of the automatically generated text portions of a topic.

Note: The Developer provides a standard set of Default and Microsoft templates for all supported languages. Therefore, you do not need to translate template text unless you use a custom template or translate your content into an unsupported language.

Translate Custom Text

In addition to recorded topic steps, your content may also include custom text, such as bubble text, modules and sections titles for organizational headings, questions, attachment tooltips, and web pages to provide additional information. The text you produce while modifying your content in this way must also be translated for localization. The Developer provides a Localization export and import flow to assist in the translation of this custom text.

You can export this custom text in Word (DOCX) format for manual translation or XLIFF format for use in professional translation software that supports this format. The export results in a single file that contains a listing of all custom text in the source language that needs to be translated, divided into individual translation units, along with processing information required to ensure that each unit of text is imported correctly. During translation, you add translated text to the Word or XLIFF file so that the file includes the translated text in the target language in parallel with the original source text. After completing the translation, you then import the modified file back into the Developer, using the Import Localization command. During import, the documents that were originally exported in the source language are overwritten with the translated text provided in the Word or XLIFF file, and the Language property of these documents is updated to match the target language.

Warning! Because the import process overwrites the text in the original documents, you MUST make a duplicate of the content to be translated before exporting it for localization; otherwise, you overwrite the content in the original source language.

For a detailed discussion of this process, see Export Content for Localization and Import Localized Content.

Translate External Content and Update Glossary Links

The third type of content to translate is external material such as package and URL attachments. For example, you might link to an Excel spreadsheet or an external web site from a topic frame, or you might include an embedded graphic in a web page. Such external content is not included in the Localization export/import flow and must be translated separately. After translating such package files, graphics, and so on, you might need to update links in your translated content to ensure that they point to the appropriate targets. For example, if you translate the name of a file in a package, you must ensure that all links in the translated content are updated to reflect the new package file name.

Tip: Renaming a package does not break the link to content; renaming linked package items does break the link. To avoid having to update links to package files in translated content, you should apply a language-neutral naming convention for package items and only change the name of the package itself. You can then differentiate package files of the same name based on the name of the package in which they are contained, which can be translated without breaking any links.

After all text in your content has been translated, you should update glossary links in the translated documents. Because glossary documents are included in the duplication process and the Localization export/import flow, the appropriate glossary, including translated terms and tooltips and updated definition links, are already be assigned to each translated document. However, the links themselves are not preserved during the localization process so as to allow flexibility in the treatment of glossaries.

Note that, aside from glossary links, the only links that might need to be updated in the translated content are those to package files, which are identified, in part, by file name. For other document types, which are identified solely on the basis of Document ID, links are updated automatically when you duplicate the selected content and related documents. Therefore, as stated above, duplication should always be the first step in the localization process.

 Multi-user Considerations

• You can use the State workflow property as a means of tracking the various stages of a localization project. For example, you could create State values that identify the typical events that occur such as Released for Translation, Sent to Translation, Translation Review, Translation Complete, and so on.

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