Translation Module in ClickHelp Rainbow Update — How I Use It
Do you know that ClickHelp has a new release — ClickHelp Rainbow? It solves the problems of translation management in technical writing. Before diving into technical writing, I used to be a translator, and now I often write technical documentation which is translated into other languages. This topic is very close to me. And, ClickHelp has literally heard my thoughts. The Rainbow update has everything to work with translations and create multi-language documentation sites!
First of all, a new role has appeared in the tool: Translator. It means that translators can work right in your help authoring tool, which is an amazing improvement of the cooperation of tech writers and translators. Very often the translation process looks like that: you send files to a translator, then you get them back, when you need to make some corrections, you inform the translator about that, then you get another version of the translation, and so on. Too complicated, isn’t that? Of course, some tech writers use a CAT service instead: it is a tool for translators, where content is divided into translation units which are translated step by step. The first model of cooperation I described is a nightmare. The second model is much better, but still, you have to use two separate tools to write docs and manage translations.
The biggest benefit that ClickHelp offers is that from now on, both processes can be located in the same tool! You can manage translation right in your documentation portal!
Who is going to translate your documentation? Any third-party translator or your own translator from your company. They will find the UI and the process very familiar, as the core of the process is very close to working in a CAT tool. Most translators already have experience like that. The content will be divided into translation units — that is super convenient. If one of the units changes, a translator won’t have to check the whole topic to find what exactly has changed.
Each translation topic has its own status. It means that if a source topic is updated and the translation needs updating as well, the translator will see it. It is great — translators can plan their workload.
What I paid attention to is the way the permission management is organized. Translators can only translate content. They cannot change it. As reviewers can only review content and leave comments. It is important for those tech writers who are not eager to give access to their portal to many users. No biggie. You decide who can do what in your portal.
Translators use their own dashboard — Translator dashboard. It is a list of translation documents in the form of a table. Each translation document has a status, translation progress, assignee, etc. Actually, a translator hardly needs more information. Most translation systems offer a form like that — just a list of files. In ClickHelp, you can group translation documents by project, assignee, language, etc. This allows you to see the progress of each group. As for me, I often work with several projects at a time, and deadlines are different, so I prefer to group docs by a project to check their readiness by a particular date.
I am the one who hates complicated and overloaded user interfaces. They made me crazy when I was a translator myself. What I saw in ClickHelp is that one can use a shortened version of their translation editor. Compare the full and the shortened versions. If I were a translator, I would definitely use the short one as often as possible.
The full version:
The short one:
What else I noticed. The translation editor compares the length of the source text and the translation. As for texts, it is not always important. But it is always challenging when a translator works on UI elements. And I guess this feature is useful when translating a Home Page Portal. Just imagine, you need to translate a phrase, but it is too long for a box or a button. This feature is not a must-have, but it may be useful for someone.
And finally, the detail that impressed me the most. Reader UI can be localized. The thing is that some elements of reader UI are not considered to be content, and they are not translated. These are, for instance, phrases like Login, Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down, etc. In ClickHelp, this problem has been solved, the Rainbow update offers out-of-the-box translations of such reader UI elements into seven languages (German, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese, Hindi, Russian). The vendor is going to expand this list, which is nice. At the moment, if you need a language that is not supported for reader UI, but you have content in it, readers will see the interface in English or in another language that you choose as the base one for the portal. So, I am waiting for more languages for the reader UI!
That was the Rainbow update by ClickHelp. I’ve been using this tool for a long time, and I think it’s their largest release. So many functions were added! I decided to tell you mainly about what impressed me as a former translator and as a technical writer who creates documentation for translation. If you want to have a look at the full list of changes, here it is ClickHelp June 2021 Rainbow Update Overview. I am fascinated by it. Great job!