How are translation memory tools integrated with DITA for food service technical documentation?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Integrating translation memory tools with DITA for food service technical documentation can significantly enhance the efficiency and consistency of the translation process. Translation memory tools, often referred to as TM tools, are software applications designed to store and manage previously translated content. Here’s how they can be effectively integrated with DITA:

Content Segmentation

One of the key steps in integrating TM tools with DITA is breaking down the content into smaller, reusable segments. In DITA, this often involves dividing the content into topics, sections, or even individual sentences or phrases. Each segment is treated as a translation unit by the TM tool. When translators work on a new document, the tool checks if any segments match previously translated content in the memory. This allows for the reuse of existing translations, saving time and maintaining consistency.

TM Tool Integration

DITA XML supports the integration of TM tools through standardized mechanisms like the XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) standard. XLIFF is designed to facilitate the exchange of translatable content between different systems, including DITA and TM tools. Translatable content is marked up in DITA, and XLIFF files are generated for translation. Once translations are completed, the XLIFF files are imported back into DITA, and the translated content is automatically merged into the original documents, ensuring that the translated content is correctly placed within the structured DITA framework.

Example:

Here’s an example illustrating the integration of a TM tool with DITA for food service technical documentation:


<topic id="recipe_spaghetti">
  <title>Spaghetti Carbonara</title>
  <body>
    <section id="ingredients">
      <title>Ingredients</title>
      <p>This is a DITA segment containing ingredient descriptions, which is marked for translation.

    </section>
    <section id="instructions">
      <title>Instructions</title>
      <p>This is a DITA segment containing cooking instructions, which is marked for translation.

    </section>
  </body>

In this example, DITA content is segmented into ingredients and instructions, which are marked for translation. When integrated with a TM tool using XLIFF, translators can work on these segments separately, and the translated content is seamlessly incorporated back into the DITA document.