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Gabe Anderson

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Localization Guidelines

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 by gabe

21 Comments


It’s been a couple years since we introduced the Player Text Labels feature in Articulate Presenter. From simply changing the default words — perhaps you prefer “Contact Presenter” instead of the label “Email” — to a full-blown revamping of all text labels, the feature allows you to create exactly the experience you want for your users, no matter where in the world they are and what language they speak.

I’ve seen in our support cases and on the Articulate Community Forums lately a strong interest in creating localized versions of the Articulate Player for non-English audiences. So without further ado, here’s a quick guide on how to do this, along with a cheat sheet, of sorts, to aid in the process:

  1. Create your master Player Template by modifying as you desire, including any custom text labels you’d like to use (Articulate -> Player Template Builder -> File -> New).

    SNAG-2029.png

  2. Select File -> Save As and give your master template an appropriate name.
  3. Go to File -> New from existing -> My Master Template.
  4. Go to the Text Labels section and modify the Custom text column to correspond to the language you are currently defining — e.g., Spanish Template. If you have a localization department in your organization, it might help to send them the default Text Label Caption-to-Text Mapping spreadsheets available below.
  5. Select File -> Save As and save your new, localized version.
  6. Repeat Steps 3-5 above for each language-specific version of your Player Template you wish to create.

Note: If you’re creating a non-Western version of your Player Template, be sure to refer to these guidelines.

That’s it!

Of course, I assume that you will also have localized versions of your PowerPoint file to correspond to each Player Template you’ve created. So when you’re ready to publish the Spanish language version of your presentation or e-learning course, simply select Spanish Template from the Player template drop-down menu on the publish screen.

Text Label Caption-to-Text Mapping:

SNAG-2028.png Presenter Player Text Labels

SNAG-2028.png Quizmaker Player Text Labels

Posted in Articulate Presenter, Articulate Quizmaker

21 Responses to “Localization Guidelines”

I have a question. What should we do for comlex scripts and right to left languages? I just have some practices with html tags in xml file of QM but for support of DIR attribute, ther was no response. what should I do for solving my priblem?

ali karkhaneh  |  Posted at 04:44 am on June 3rd, 2007 |  #

Hi Ali- Unfortunately, it is a known issue that Presenter does not currently support the display of right-to-left languages. It is an issue we hope to address in the future.

gabe  |  Posted at 06:52 pm on June 4th, 2007 |  #

Thank you so much for the spreadsheet of text labels!

ID  |  Posted at 08:49 am on August 21st, 2007 |  #

You’re welcome, ID! Glad they’re helpful.

gabe  |  Posted at 10:50 am on August 22nd, 2007 |  #

Is there a site anywhere that has these xls files already translated into other languages? I need a Spanish version for a course I’m working on. I have the course text in Spanish, but getting all the labels translated would be a bit of a hassle; so if anyone knows where I could get pre-translated xls label files, that’d be awesome.

Paul  |  Posted at 03:34 pm on November 2nd, 2007 |  #

Hi Paul-

Good question – not that I know of, but someone in our community may be able to help you out or point you in the right direction.

You might also consider hiring a translation service; I’m sure if you do a Web search, you’ll find plenty of options.

gabe  |  Posted at 04:14 pm on November 2nd, 2007 |  #

Text blocks in Learning games cannot be entirely customized, I see. Or they can?

Lorentz  |  Posted at 04:03 am on April 15th, 2008 |  #

My question is same with Lorentz’s. Can we customize the text blocks for Learning games ? It will be a great support if this is possible. I hope for an answer soon. Thank you.

Arthemix  |  Posted at 09:16 am on May 3rd, 2008 |  #

Hi,
Does Articulate Quizmaker support Right To Left (RTL) Languages ?

Thanks.

R  |  Posted at 01:30 pm on May 24th, 2008 |  #

There are 3 other text labels appearing for me that do not appear in the Articulate spreadsheet provided above.

They are:
Flow: Engage Trap Title Notification
Flow: Engage Trap Message Please view all items on this page to continue.
Engage OK Button Text Close

steve  |  Posted at 04:16 pm on June 11th, 2008 |  #

Does Articulate Global have a service that translates from English to Simplified Chinese? Or do you have references to services?

karen  |  Posted at 04:12 pm on July 2nd, 2008 |  #

I hope I dont come across as advertising here, but I can help you out with English to Simplified Chinese translation, or other Asian languages for that matter. Drop us a mail at http://www.blooinc.com

Kelvin  |  Posted at 02:23 am on July 9th, 2008 |  #

Hello to everybody!
Can somebody explain me what to do with that “Text Label Caption-to-Text Mapping” .xls file? I will translate to thhe language i need, but what to do then? Export to .xml or other format? Where to put exported file?

Mikhail Gorbatov  |  Posted at 09:12 am on July 15th, 2008 |  #

The “No matching results” from the search tab cannot be changed by the text labels. Please help me with that.

Gilberto  |  Posted at 10:57 am on July 15th, 2008 |  #

And is it possible to add strings to this list? For example i didn’t find “true” and “false” strings and suppose there is no many others that are necessary for a quiz taker who don’t know the English language?

Mikhail Gorbatov  |  Posted at 10:58 am on July 15th, 2008 |  #

I want to know if there is a way that the user can select which language they would like to use and then articulate would load the appropriate xml files

petar Kraguljac  |  Posted at 06:58 pm on August 2nd, 2008 |  #

Dear ladies and gentleman,

I want to create Japanese presentations from our corporate templates.
I already set the language to NON-Western and also put the Custom Text on Japanese.
But still after I record and want to publish it, the Japanese character come out as funny signs. What else do I need to take care of.
I am using PowerPoint 2000 with an english windows xp on a normal laptop.

I am looking forward to your answer, since we are planning to buy a licence for our Japanese subsidiary.

Sincerely,

Michael

Michael Bart  |  Posted at 04:29 am on April 3rd, 2009 |  #

Hi Michael- I’d suggest that you submit a case so that we can help you more closely with this issue.

gabe  |  Posted at 09:12 am on April 3rd, 2009 |  #

I am trying to localize a program into French, and the only thing I can’t find is the “HELP” string appearing in the right upper corner of the screen. The Search and Attachment buttons are in the Player template, but not Help.
Help, please?

Walter Hartmann  |  Posted at 10:32 pm on February 12th, 2010 |  #

Hi Walter- it sounds like your “HELP” drop-down may be an Engage interaction. Is that right? You can edit the title in the Quizzes and Interactions dialog of Presenter ‘09 (click the box at the bottom of your Engage placeholder slide in PowerPoint).

More here: Interactions > Inserting as Tab

gabe  |  Posted at 09:22 am on February 15th, 2010 |  #

Thanks, Gabe. Worked like a charm.
Walter

Walter Hartmann  |  Posted at 05:30 pm on February 15th, 2010 |  #

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