How do organizations ensure that content variants maintain consistency across languages in DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Organizations ensure that content variants maintain consistency across languages in DITA XML by following a set of best practices and employing key strategies. Consistency is crucial to provide a seamless experience for users and to maintain the integrity of content across different language versions.

Use Translation Memories (TMs)

One of the primary strategies is the use of translation memories (TMs). TMs store previously translated content, allowing organizations to reuse translations for identical or similar segments across languages. This ensures consistent terminology and phrasing, making content variants align more closely in different languages.

Implement Glossaries and Style Guides

Another approach is the use of glossaries and style guides. By creating and maintaining comprehensive glossaries of industry-specific terms and adhering to style guides that define writing conventions, organizations can standardize the language used in content variants. This minimizes linguistic discrepancies between languages.

Content Validation and Review

Regular content validation and review processes are essential to ensure content variants are up-to-date and aligned. Automated checks and continuous review cycles with subject matter experts help identify inconsistencies and inaccuracies. This proactive approach ensures that content is both accurate and consistent in all languages.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA allows organizations to maintain consistency across content variants:


<topic id="product_description">
  <title>Product Description</title>
  <body>
    <p prof="language=es">Este es el producto para el público hispanohablante.</p>
    <p>This is the product description for the general audience.</p>
  </body>
  <alerts>
    <check type="review" frequency="quarterly" />
    <check type="glossary" />
  </alerts>

In this example, organizations maintain consistency by applying language profiling attributes, ensuring regular quarterly reviews, and referencing glossaries to standardize terminology across content variants.