How is content localization and translation managed in DITA for educational content?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Managing content localization and translation in DITA for educational content is essential for delivering materials to diverse audiences worldwide. DITA offers several mechanisms and best practices to streamline the localization process and ensure that educational content is effectively translated and adapted for different languages and regions.

Modular Content Structure

In DITA, content is organized into modular topics that can be reused across various documents. This modular structure simplifies the localization process. When translating educational content, you can focus on translating individual topics without the need to retranslate entire documents. This approach enhances efficiency, minimizes costs, and ensures consistency in terminology and style throughout the localized materials.

Attributes for Localization

DITA allows you to use attributes to store language-specific information within your content. For instance, you can define the language of a specific piece of content using the xml:lang attribute. This attribute helps translation management systems identify the language of the content, making it easier to select the appropriate translation resources and linguists for each target language. Here’s an example of how xml:lang can be used within a DITA topic:


<topic id="chapter1">
  <title xml_lang="en-US">Chapter 1: Introduction</title>
  <body xml_lang="en-US">
    <p>This is the introduction to the topic.</p>
  </body>
  <body xml_lang="fr-FR">
    <p>C'est l'introduction au sujet.</p>
  </body>
</topic>

In this example, the xml:lang attribute is used to specify that the content is in both English (en-US) and French (fr-FR), enabling effective localization of the same topic for different language audiences.