What is the best way to toggle between different languages using the same help file?

[lukep847985]

Hi all,

I am currently working with my software architect to find the best way to toggle between different languages in the same help site using Responsive HTML. He did some research and found this Generating help in multiple locales using Adobe RoboHelp 10 | ADOBE GLOBALIZATION BLOG

I proposed using Conditional Tags in my Help content, and filter between En, De and ES. I assigned the different languages at topic level within each book (Book 1 contains EN, Book 2 German etc) for each different languages, i.e. Book/Topic - DE, Book, Topic - En etc. And then create Conditional Tags based on the languages. I outputted this and seems OK, but the filters are kind of ugly and I just wanted to know if there is a more effective way using Responsive HTML?

Thanks and kind regards,

Luke Pivac

[Germanedge Solutions GmbH]

Hi Luke,

in my output, I'm not using the same file, but two files with the same name in the respective language folder. The language parameter is provided by my software, so I'm still able to create a context-sensitive help leading to the same piece of information in every language. Maybe this would be sufficient for you, too.

What I have done is this:

In my project, I have a top level folder for every language (EN and DE).

Within these folders, I have identically named subfolders containing identically named topic-files. Each of the files is provided with a conditional tag describing its language.

I create a TOC for each language, containing only the folders and files from the respective language folder.

I create an HTML5 output for each language with the respective TOC, leading to the same directory.

In my SSL, this looks as follows: there is a folder for EN and for DE. In the folder EN (the same is true for DE, of course), there is the index.htm and the other RH-files, and there are my two language folders EN and DE. If you are using subfolders, all of those are also displayed in the DE folder, but they do not contain any html-files. The html-files are only output to the subfolders in EN. Vice versa this looks for the German output.

So you will have to set the language parameter twice, but if you don't use this structure, you'll find both languages in the search results.

Kind regards

Karin

[Willam van Weelden · Accepted solution]

So you have 2 separate outputs as described in the blog post?

Honestly, I wouldn't handle translation that way. I would add every language to it's own project and generate from there. Then add a button to the skin to switch between the outputs. It makes managing content easier and you don't have to juggle with the different languages in the project. When you send files for translation, you can simply send the entire project to the translator and let them send you a translated file back.

[Germanedge Solutions GmbH]

hmmm, when I started working with RH, having both languages in one project seemed the most logical thing to me. As I'm doing the translations myself, this is not a problem here. Another benefit of my way is that I can use the same image for both languages and in case of an update only have to update the image once. Also, I design the structure of my topic once and then it's just copy, move, translate. Sure, there are other ways like Resource Manager, but with my number of files, to me having all files for one topic in one project still seems nice. However, I'll think about your proposal a while, maybe it'll in fact turn out to be the better solution even for me. Thanks Willam

[lukep847985]

Thanks Karin, I look forward to it.

[lukep847985]

H William,

Thanks, this sounds simple and effective. I like it.

I just output to the responsive HTML output. Can you please tell me how do you "add a button to the skin to switch between outputs?

This sounds like a nice trick that I would like to implement.

Cheers,

Luke

[Willam van Weelden]

To add a button, you have to add some code to the Topic.slp. For the Azure Blue layout, you could:

1. Open Topic.slp in Notepad
2. Find <div class="functionholder">
3. Below the 'buttons', add a new link. For example: <div><a href="https://www.example.com">English</a></div>
4. Add some styling

Generate the output.

[Willam van Weelden]

Captiv8r​ just helped me remember that there is an easy way in RoboHelp 2017.

The new Indigo Layout allows you to specify custom links through the editor. You can add a text and a link and that's all. So you could simply add the links in the Indigo to switch between languages.