Leveraging DITA’s support for multilingual content delivery is a valuable capability for construction organizations operating on a global scale or serving diverse linguistic audiences. DITA’s structured authoring approach and built-in support for localization make it well-suited for managing and delivering content in multiple languages efficiently.

Localization Attributes

DITA allows construction organizations to use localization attributes to specify the language of content elements within their documentation. This enables the creation of documents that can be easily translated and adapted for various linguistic markets. By applying xml:lang attributes at the appropriate level of granularity, organizations can maintain a single source of content while delivering it in multiple languages, ensuring consistency and reducing translation costs.

Content Reuse and Translation

Another advantage of DITA is its content reuse capabilities. Construction organizations can create a modular content structure, where reusable topics or segments of content are authored in the source language and then translated into target languages. Translators can work on these specific segments, ensuring linguistic accuracy and cultural relevance. When updates or revisions are needed, changes can be made in the source content, and the translation memory can be leveraged to update the translations automatically, promoting consistency across languages.

Example:

Here’s an example of how localization attributes can be used in DITA:

<section>
  <title xml_lang="en">Foundation Construction</title>
  <p xml_lang="en">In this phase, the foundation of the building is laid.</p>
  <p xml_lang="fr">Dans cette phase, les fondations du bâtiment sont posées.</p>

In this example, the xml:lang attribute specifies the language for both the English and French versions of the content, facilitating the localization process.