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Language Management

To publish content in multiple languages, you first need to activate and enable the languages in your Paligo instance. Once the languages are available they have to be added to your publications and topics.

When you make a language available, it can be:

Tip

To use different dialects of a language, see Create Additional Languages.

To enable or disable a language, it must first be activated to appear in the Languages tab. The instruction below shows how the administrator makes a language available in your Paligo instance.

We strongly recommend that you activate each language dialect because they have different expressions and spelling. For example, if you are going to translate to American English (en-us) and British English (en-gb), you have to activate both dialects as these are two different versions of the same language. Otherwise, you will only have a generic English translation of your content.

Once a language is activated, you need to add it to your publications and topics to be able to use it with your content, see Add a Language to a Publication or Topic

Tip

If you have a requirement to use four-letter language codes from your translation provider requires it, you can change the default language code by clicking on the language to edit it, see Create Additional Languages.

For example, you can have a Chinese (simplified) language with ZH-CHS and a Chinese (traditional) with ZH-CHT.

Chinese (simplified) language box has ZH-CHS as the code.
Chinese (traditional) language box has ZH-CHT as the code.
  1. Log in to Paligo via a user account that has administrator permissions.

  2. Select the avatar in the top-right corner. User avatar. It shows the user's image and their name. Next to the name is a downward pointing arrow, which when selected, reveals a menu.

  3. Select Settings from the menu. Cog icon.

  4. Select the Languages tab. Translate_small.png

    Languages_Tab.jpg

    The languages tab shows all of the languages that are currently activated for your instance.

  5. Select Activate language in the upper right corner. New_Layout.jpg

  6. Select the language from the list (or type the characters in the search).

    If you do find the language or dialect that you want to activate, you can create it, see Create Additional Languages.

    activate-language.jpg
    Search field for searching for a language.
  7. Select Activate to add it to the Languages tab.

Tip

To be able to use the new language, see Enable or Disable a Language and Add a Language to a Publication or Topic.

Paligo has a range of available languages that you can activate as required. If you need a language or a dialect that is not included in the menu, you can add it manually, although these would need to comply with the ISO language codes (two-letter or four-letter codes).

Language box shows the language has been added to your Paligo instance.
Chinese (simplified) language box has ZH-CHS as the code.

To the left - a two-letter code. To the right - a four-letter code.

By default, Paligo uses a two-letter code for the language (shown in the top-right corner of the language box). To use a four-letter code, you have to create an additional language. Four-letter codes are used to distinguish different dialects of a language.

Chinese (simplified) language box has ZH-CHS as the code.
Chinese (traditional) language box has ZH-CHT as the code.

Four-letter codes are used to distinguish different dialects of a language. Above are two dialects of Chinese.

Note

Paligo strongly recommends that you add or activate a language for every dialect that you need for your content.

If you are going to translate to American English and British English, then you should create and activate English-US (en-us) and English-GB (en-gb), as these are two different dialects of the same language. Otherwise, you will only have a generic English with one translation for it.

To create an additional language:

  1. Log in to Paligo via a user account that has administrator permissions.

  2. Select the avatar in the top-right corner. User avatar. It shows the user's image and their name. Next to the name is a downward pointing arrow, which when selected, reveals a menu.

  3. Select Settings from the menu. Cog icon.

  4. Select the Languages tab.

    Languages_Tab.jpg
  5. Select Activate language in the upper right corner. New_Layout.jpg

  6. Select Create New in the lower left corner.

    activate-language.jpg
  7. Enter a Language name that will be visible in the Paligo interface.

    create-language-setting.jpg
  8. Enter the Language name (native).

    For example, if you are adding en-gb, you could enter British English.

  9. Enter the Language code that matches the language code used in your Translation Memory System.

    There are many online resources for finding ISO codes, so we recommend that you use a search engine to find the code you need or ask your translation agency.

  10. Define if the Language is right-to-left with the checkbox.

    • Check the box if the new language or dialect is a right-to-left language, such as Hebrew or Arabic.

    • Clear the box if the new language or dialect is a left-to-right language, such as British English.

  11. Enter an Alternative language code if your translation provider requires the use of another code than the entered language code.

    For example, if you have entered a two-letter code, but the translation provider wants you to use a four-letter code. Paligo does not recommend the use of alternative language codes. Instead, use the four-letter code as language code.

  12. Select Insert to add it to the Languages tab.

    The next step is to enable it, see Enable or Disable a Language.

To control which languages are available for use, you can enable or disable each language as required. If the language you want to enable is not available in the Languages tab, see Activate Languages.

You can deactivate any languages that are not being used in your content. This is just a matter of preference, there is no requirement to deactivate unused languages. If you want to use it in the future, you need to re-activate it, see Activate Languages.

Important

Paligo will not allow you to deactivate a language that is being used in your content. If you try to do this, Paligo displays an error message.

To learn how to remove a language from your content, see Remove a Language from a Publication or Topic.

  1. Log in to Paligo via a user account that has administrator permissions.

  2. Select the avatar in the top-right corner. User avatar. It shows the user's image and their name. Next to the name is a downward pointing arrow, which when selected, reveals a menu.

  3. Select Settings from the menu. Cog icon.

  4. Select the Languages tab. Translate_small.png

    Languages_Tab.jpg

    The languages tab shows all of the languages that are currently activated for your instance.

  5. Use the slider to activate or deactivate any of the available languages.

    language2.jpg

    Note

    You cannot deselect your default language or any other language that has already been used for writing content in your topics.

When you first create a publication or topic, you can choose what languages it should have. If you later decide that you need other languages too, you can add them.

When you edit a topic that has translations, there is an icon for each language in the top right corner. Select the icon to view the translation. If there are too many languages to show, an arrow icon is included, and you can select it to display a list of the other languages. You do not translate the content in the different language views of a topic. Those views are just for viewing the translations. To translate, you either send the topic to a translation agency as part of a translation package or use Paligo's built-in translation editor, see Working in Translation View.

If the content has not yet been translated, it is shown in the source language, even in the different language versions. Once it has been translated, the translated text is shown.

A topic is open in the Paligo editor. In the top-right, there are icons for each language and an arrow icon that provides access to more languages.

Tip

You can also add a language by Working in Translation View.

To add a language:

  1. Select the folder containing the content in Content Manager. Folder_small.jpg

    If the content is not in a folder, select the top-level folder Documents. Document_folder_small.png

    ContentManager.jpg

    This will open the Resource View.

  2. Select the Dotted menu ( ... ) for the publication or topic that you want to have extra languages.

  3. Select Translation and choose Add Languages. Add_languages_button_small.png

    The resources view of a folder. It shows a list of all the publications and topics inside the folder, with details about the status, author, last update time, and languages. At the end of each row there is an options button. One of the options buttons has been selected, revealing a menu that shows Translations and Add Languages have been selected.
  4. Check the box for each language that you want to add any of the languages that have been added to your Paligo instance.

    If you need a language that is not shown, an administrator will need to Language Management. You will then be able to add it to your topics and publications.

    Add languages dialog shows the current languages and a list of the languages that you can add. There is an Add languages recursively checkbox that is checked by default.

    Note

    The Add languages recursively option is checked by default. This feature automatically adds the languages to any reused or imported content that is inside your topic or publication. For example, if you have a topic that contains an informal topic, extra language is also added to the informal topic.

    Paligo may need to change the release state of topics, informal topics, and other components when it adds languages to them.

  5. Select OK to confirm your choices.

The languages are added to the publication or topic.

To remove a language from a publication or topic:

  1. Select the folder containing the content in Content Manager. Folder_small.jpg

    If the content is not in a folder, select the top-level folder Documents. Document_folder_small.png

    ContentManager.jpg

    This will open the Resource View.

  2. Select the Dotted menu ( ... ) for the publication or topic .

  3. Select Translation and choose Remove Languages. Remove.jpg

  4. Check the box for each language that you want to remove.

    If there are languages that you want to keep, leave their boxes unchecked.

    remove-languages-dialog.jpg
  5. Check the Remove translations not used by other projects box if you want Paligo to:

    • Remove the language from the selected publication or topic, but only for those text elements that are used exclusively here.

    • Leave the language in place for any text elements that are reused. These text elements may still need the translation when used in other publications and topics.

  6. Check the Remove languages recursively from linked and imported components box if you want Paligo to:

    • Remove the language from the selected publication or topic

    • Remove the language from all reused content inside the publication or topic, including content that is inserted as a component.

By default, your Paligo instance is set to use one source language and the content will be marked up with this language. This is usually English but can be set to a different language by customer support. This means that all topics and publications are marked up as English content.

Content in other languages is then a translation of the source language. The source language is also used for various other parts of the content, such as labels that are auto-generated (for example for Admonitions).

To check the source language of your Paligo instance:

  1. Log in to Paligo via a user account that has administrator permissions.

  2. Select the avatar in the top-right corner. User avatar. It shows the user's image and their name. Next to the name is a downward pointing arrow, which when selected, reveals a menu.

  3. Select Settings from the menu. Cog icon.

  4. Select the Languages tab. Translate_small.png

    Languages_Tab.jpg

    The languages tab shows all of the languages that are currently activated for your instance.

  5. Look for the language that has the "default" label. This is the source language for your Paligo instance.

    Default language shown on the Languages tab. A box contains the country flag, language name, and code for the language. There is a blue lozenge with the word "default" inside it in white.

To change the Source Language:

  1. Select Help in the top menu.

    TopMenu_Help_small.png
  2. Select Get Support.

  3. Create a Zendesk account (if you do not already have one).

  4. Raise a ticket to let us know what language you want as source language.