Localizing the Publishing Templates

While the localization process involves translating topic content, another important step is the process of localizing the external templates that are used to ensure the output is correct.

Location of Publishing Templates

When your target library and subsequent updates are created, files external to your Library (such as Word templates, HTML templates and linked graphics) are copied to sub folders under your Localization folder. These folders have names that are an abbreviated version of where the file was originally stored. This enables these files to be localized where necessary without making changes to the original files.

LM : External Template Locations

	Actual templates used when publishing from a Target library
	Copies of original source templates as they are when each update is created

Word Publishing Templates

Word publishing templates may contain regular text inside the autotext entries used by the headers and/or footers. If they do, this text will usually require translating. For example if an autotext entry contains the text Contents the text needs to be replaced with the translated equivalent - such as Inhalt in German, Contenu in French, or Contenido in Spanish. Likewise, an autotext may contain a company or product name that will require translating.

If using a different locale of MS Word you also need to ensure any fields used by your autotext entries are defined so that they resolve correctly. For example in the default authorit.dot the HeaderChapterOdd autotext uses a field that inserts the Heading 1 style. However using a German version of Word this style is called Überschrift 1. The field needs to reference the correct style.

If publishing to Asian languages, ensure Asian fonts are defined so the finished document displays correctly. If support for Asian languages is enabled through Microsoft Office Language Settings, a style can use both Latin and Asian fonts - ideal if your document contains a mixture of both English and Asian text. For example, a Japanese manual may still reference your product name in English. English characters use the Latin text font, and Asian characters use the Asian text font.

Word Style with Latin and Asian Text Fonts

HTML Templates

HTML pages use a charset property to alert most browsers that the page about to be viewed is to be displayed using a particular set of characters, or a character set, or a "charset". This charset is referenced in the <head> section of an HTML page.

Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

If a charset is not defined or is defined incorrectly, and you attempt to view a page in one language where your browser is set to appear in another, the result can be anything but pretty. For example if your browser was set to display Japanese characters by default, and you tried to view a page in English (or more correctly, Western European text), and the charset had not been defined, many characters would not be displayed and you'd see little boxes. Some text might pop up, some wouldn't... Not the results most people want to see.

Author-it examines the language defined in Author-it Administrator when determining which charset should be used. By default Author-it creates HTML pages using the ISO-8859-1 charset with the following exceptions:

Simplified Chinese uses gb2312
Traditional Chinese uses big5
Japanese uses shift_jis
Korean uses euc-kr
Russian uses koi8-r

You can override the charset by defining and using an HTML template that defines the charset (and specifying this html template under your media objects)

Important: If the Media object used by the Topic, Table of Contents, or Index is set to use an HTML template instead of the settings defined in the Media object, the HTML template defines the charset.

Custom Frameset - Contents Media

If using custom HTML templates, there may also be some translation required. For example, if the template contains text such as a copyright statement, this will require translation.