What are the best practices for preparing agricultural content for translation in DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Preparing agricultural content for translation in DITA involves several best practices to ensure efficient and accurate localization. Effective planning and structuring of your content can significantly streamline the translation process and improve the quality of translated materials.

Modular Content

One of the key best practices is to structure your agricultural content in a modular way. Break down your documentation into smaller, reusable components or topics. This modular approach makes it easier to manage translations because you can translate individual topics independently, ensuring consistency and reducing redundancy. Here’s an example of a modular DITA topic:


<topic id="crop_cultivation">
  <title>Crop Cultivation</title>
  <body>
    <p>For successful crop cultivation, follow these steps:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>Prepare the soil.</li>
      <li>Plant the seeds.</li>
      <li>Water the crop regularly.</li>
    </ul>
  </body>

Terminology Consistency

Ensure consistency in terminology across your agricultural content. Maintain a glossary or terminology database with translations for key agricultural terms. Use terminology key references in your DITA topics to link to the appropriate translations. This helps avoid variations in terminology and ensures that translations are accurate and consistent.

Translation Management Tools

Consider using translation management tools that are compatible with DITA. These tools can help automate various aspects of the translation process, such as sending content to translators, tracking progress, and integrating translated content back into your DITA documents seamlessly. Integration with translation memory systems can also improve translation efficiency by reusing previously translated segments.