Flare Desktop enables you to create a well-constructed project. Customizing project structure, leveraging single-sourcing features, and preparing the project for translations all contribute to optimizing content. Open the full topic for details.
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Structuring a Project
How you structure a project for translation in Flare Desktop can vary, and how it is done does not impact the translator. In general, if the setup works in the source language, then it will work for translations.
While in the planning stages of your project, determine the best way to structure your project. Should you have a single project versus multiple? Should projects be separated or linked together? How much content will be shared? Flare Desktop can accommodate many different multilingual scenarios.
It is recommended to set up a separate project for each language for the following reasons:
- Lingo exports single language projects. It works well to keep translated files in their own project.
- A single project for each language enables you to maintain many outputs for that language.
- It is a convenient way to keep projects separated if more than one translator is employed.
- It is a simple and clean structure for shared content and single-sourcing.
Tip Communicate with your language service provider (LSP) or translator for advice on how to configure your Flare project with translation in mind.
Note Any way you structure your project, it is recommended to send the project's source files for translation, not the output files.
Single-Sourcing to Optimize Content
Using Flare Desktop’s single-sourcing features are beneficial when translating content. This includes, but is not limited to: topic-based authoring, snippets, variables, and conditions. Single-sourcing lets the source language project work for you.
- Writing content once, and reusing it across your project.
- Translating only the source files, regardless of how many times you reuse it.
- Producing multiple outputs. Usually the file names in a translated project remain in the source language. This enables you to create other output types using the translated files in the project without the assistance of a translator.
- Simplifying maintenance. With a translated project, making minor adjustments (e.g., product name, address) for a republish is easy.
- Promoting content quality control.
Tip Using Flare Desktop with other Madcap products such as Lingo and Capture streamlines the process even more because they are designed to optimize the translation workflow as a suite.
What’s Next?
Once you have established a plan, you can move forward with writing, single-sourcing, and preparing your project for translation. Although implementing best practices is not required, doing so might help by:
- Improving the overall translation experience.
- Cutting down on translation costs.
- Making the translation and localization easier for the translator.
- Streamlining your workflow.
- Creating the most efficient and effective multilingual project.
- Learning about common translation challenges and how to adjust for them.
