Translating or Localizing Objects Directly in Author-it

While all objects can be exported as XML and translated, some objects are just as easily translated directly in Author-it. These changes should be made in the Target Library, not the Source Library.

To translate these objects you need a good working understanding of Author-it, and a good understanding of the language you are translating into. A team consisting of an Author-it expert and a target language expert should be able to translate all the relevant templates in a couple of hours.

For example, the Hypertext Link Jump Template contains the text see and on page which is used for all Hypertext Link objects based on it. When this object is exported to XML and viewed in a browser it looks like:

For a translator not familiar with Author-it, and not aware of the many contexts that this object will be used in, this could easily be translated incorrectly. If we take French as an example, we would want this to be translated to voir and à la page. A translator not familiar with Author-it would probably need an explanation longer than the effort required to do this ourselves.

Media objects may also require localization - even though they contain no translatable text - as the page size may require adjusting. Most people in the US and Canada use Letter-sized paper (also known as US Letter), measuring 8.5" by 11". With a few exceptions, everybody else uses A4-sized paper, measuring 210mm by 297mm.

If we look at a scale representation of each page size side by side, you can quickly see Letter is wider, A4 is longer:

Once an object is translated, it also needs to be flagged as localized. While the rules defined in a translation job determine which objects are included in the exported XML, objects that are flagged as localized are not included. When an update is created and a modified object is accepted, this flag is removed until it has been retranslated.

This flag is set automatically when an object is translated via exporting and importing the XML. When localizing an object directly in the Target Library, you need to tell Author-it that it has been translated by flagging it as localized.