Translating documentation written in Confluence

[Shona Crease]

I'm looking into ways of updating our technical documentation methods. Our documentation is generally written in French then translated to English. Source documents are either Word or HTML, both of which I, and my CAT tools, understand.

If we were to move our documentation into a Confluence wiki, how could we manage translations? If we consider that the wiki is a monolingual source and that documentation is delivered as pdf, I suppose we simply export it as docx, say, have it translated to English and end up with an equivalent set of pdfs.

But what if we want to make the wiki available in parallel in two languages? I mean the content, not just the interface.

Thanks for any insights you can give me

[Bob Kennedy · Accepted solution]

We use the AppFusions Enterprise Translations Hub. Check it out: http://www.appfusions.com/display/LNGOTKC/Home. We're translating to 19 different languages. It is not free. 

Depends what you are trying to do–we are translation product documentation for a global audience using translation memory, machine translation, and human post-editing.

What you choose will likely depend on the quality demanded by your customers.

[Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]]

See this thread if you want Enterprise level translations, all managed, steered, post-edited, published - from Confluence. No exports or imports, and sanity among your site searches for each language, among much other. 

https://developers.atlassian.com/questions/9385432/what-is-the-recommended-approach-for-internationalizing-product-documentation-in-confluence 

[Jan-Peter Rusch]

Be sure, that when you use a translation plugin, to check the handling of attached images, drawings (Gliffy, Draw.IO),... We encountered some issues on swapping a drawing to another language changed the language inside the drawing for other languages, too.

[Shona Crease]

Thanks for the tip - I'll bear it in mind.

[Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]]

You are right Jan-Peter - that is a key requirement. Enterprise Translations Hub for Confluence also supports Gliffy translations natively within the plugin (for any gliffy image in a page) - and a slew of other macros, etc.

[Davin Studer]

There are two plugins that I know of for different languages. They are Scroll Translations and the Language Plugin. Thr first costs money and the second is free.

[Shona Crease]

Thank you for providing the missing link!

[Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]]

Here's a link for you! https://developers.atlassian.com/questions/9385432/what-is-the-recommended-approach-for-internationalizing-product-documentation-in-confluence info@appfusions.com if you would like to try it!

[Jonathan Simonoff]

Perhaps you could have two sets of pages for each "page" -- for example, have each page (in French) have a child page containing the English translation. Alternatively, you could have duplicate spaces, with a French and and English version of each space.

Another possibility, which might be harder to manage, would be to have both versions on the same page. You could use Expand macros to let the user choose which one to see, or use some JavaScript to read the browser language setting and display the appropriate one.

[Shona Crease]

PS Thanks for the blog series and guide on using Confluence for technical documentation. The only thing I realise is missing is handling translations.