While most elearning designers are used to the challenges of creating multiple versions of training courses in different languages, attempts to keep the look and feel of courses consistent and effective across different languages have often been hampered by a lack of authoring tool functionality. XLIFF allows organizations to create multi-lingual content at scale effectively.
Although courses needn’t be lost in translation, rolling them out across different languages has traditionally been a time-consuming and expensive process. Fortunately, XLIFF—Localization Interchange File Format—began to make matters much simpler after it first surfaced in 2002.
Designed by a non-profit group of experts dedicated to online standardization, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, XLIFF simplified the translation process.
XLIFF is your solution to the eLearning language barrier
The latest version of XLIFF, created in 2014 and supported by a vast number of services including Gomo authoring tool, solves the complex problem of creating multi-language elearning courses by supporting the creation of single courses containing as many languages that training providers choose.
Even with XLIFF being so accessible to translators, any character misplacement in the code itself—perhaps only a single character out of place—can cause errors within the authoring environment. The Gomo framework “validates” the XLIFF upon import, and rejects any files that don't replicate their original counterparts.
XLIFF is a revolutionary tool for learning designers, making their lives easier and cutting out the need for duplication. Through a quick wizard, L&D teams can select the default and secondary languages to be used within their learning courses.
Here’s how it works in Gomo:
- A course is created and the author selects the ‘master’ language (English, perhaps) and the other languages needed (French and German, for example)
- The course is built and the original text is entered in English
- XLIFF files containing the original text and assets from elearning courses are exported to translation experts
- Once the translators have applied their magic touch, the XLIFF files are re-imported to the course
- The course can now be viewed in the three languages by the author
- Authors can then ‘localise’ the course by replacing ‘English’ imagery, audio or video with French and German replacements
- Authors don’t have to waste time adjusting pages for different languages - because Gomo is responsive, text boxes adjust automatically to fit each language
- Learners then use the language selector to view the course in their own language
Each language variation is kept safely in the Gomo editor—you can easily switch language and edit them within Gomo. It’s not only L&D departments who benefit: learners have full accessibility, with a language selector giving them the opportunity to view their own content.
Beautiful courses for everyone
XLIFF is compatible with almost all languages, including right-to-left reading languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. This means you can focus on the quality of the training you deliver to your staff around the world, without having to worry about whether their different language requirements will look good on screen.
Thanks to XLIFF, a single course could be available in multiple languages, with a Chinese learner, for example, looking at content translated into Mandarin without losing any of the beautiful, responsive design elements offered by Gomo.
With Gomo, localization has never been easier or quicker—Gomo allows you to manage the entire translation process, so you can take your training to new and existing markets quickly and easily. You can build the knowledge and skills of learners in any region using any language without compromising the quality of learning they engage with.
