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

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Preparing manufacturing content for translation in DITA involves following best practices to ensure a smooth and efficient localization process. Here are some key guidelines:

Use Structured Content

Start by authoring content using structured DITA elements. Structured content separates text from formatting, making it easier to manage and translate. DITA’s modular approach allows content to be divided into smaller reusable components, reducing translation costs and ensuring consistency across different languages.

Leverage Variables and Conditional Text

Utilize variables and conditional text in DITA documents to manage content variations based on language. Variables help insert language-specific elements like dates, units, and measurements, while conditional text tags enable the inclusion or exclusion of content for specific locales. This approach simplifies translation and localization efforts while maintaining a single source for content management.

Example:

Here’s an example of structured content in DITA prepared for translation:


<topic id="product_manual">
  <title>Product Manual</title>
  <body>
    <section conkeyref="lang=en">This section provides instructions in English.</section>
    <section conkeyref="lang=fr">Cette section fournit des instructions en français.</section>
  </body>

In this example, structured DITA content includes conditional text tags conkeyref for content variations based on language, ensuring that content is ready for translation and localization.