What is the impact of DITA on the efficiency of aerospace content localization workflows?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

DITA significantly impacts the efficiency of aerospace content localization workflows. The extensible and structured nature of DITA XML allows for streamlined localization processes, resulting in quicker turnaround times, reduced costs, and improved consistency. Here’s how DITA influences aerospace content localization efficiency:

1. Modular Content Reuse: In DITA, content is broken down into smaller, reusable modules called topics. This modular approach allows organizations to reuse content across different documents and languages. When a change is made to a topic in the source document, it automatically propagates to all instances in localized versions. This reduces the need to retranslate and recheck content, saving time and effort in the localization process.

Example:

Let’s consider an aerospace manual that contains safety instructions. In DITA, these safety instructions are individual topics. When localizing the manual for a new language, the localization team only needs to translate the safety topics, while the rest of the content remains the same. This modular content reuse ensures that the safety instructions are consistent across all languages.

<!-- Example of a DITA Safety Topic -->
<topic id="safety-instructions">
  <title>Safety Instructions</title>
  <body>
    <p>Follow these safety instructions carefully...</p>
    ...
  </body>
</topic>

2. Translation Management: DITA-aware content management systems (CMS) and translation management tools can seamlessly integrate with DITA workflows. This integration allows organizations to manage translation projects more efficiently. Content can be extracted, sent for translation, and then reimported into the DITA environment with ease. This ensures that translations are well-organized and synchronized with the source content.

3. Conditional Text and Language Attributes: DITA provides features like conditional text and language attributes, enabling the automatic inclusion or exclusion of content based on conditions like target language. This fine-grained control simplifies the localization process. Authors can prepare content for localization within the DITA source, specifying what should change when content is translated into different languages, without altering the source structure.

The impact of DITA on aerospace content localization is substantial, reducing time and costs while maintaining content consistency. By modularizing content, integrating translation tools, and employing conditional text and language attributes, DITA empowers aerospace organizations to manage localization workflows more efficiently than ever before.