Using XML Content Translation tool

Is it possible to use XML Content Translator tool to translate the texts in our HelpSmith project into other languages?

HelpSmith allows you to save your help project to the .HSMP format which stores topics, templates, and project settings as a collection of separate XML files.

This means that you can edit and translate a copy of the help project by using external text editors like Notepad++, Atom, and by using external translation tools including XML Content Translator.

... and external translation tools including XML Content Translator.

Can you provide more instructions for using this tool for translating a HelpSmith help project?

Create a copy of the original help project

You should create a copy of the help project that you want to translate.

Please note that both the original help project and the help project copy (which will translated) should be stored in the .HSMP format (i.e. as a collection of separate .XML files).

1. In HelpSmith, click File|Open to open your help project.
2. Click the File tab, and then click Save As.
3. Click the Unpacked XML Files button.
4. In the Save As dialog, specify the directory in which you want to store the help project copy that will be translated into a specific language.
5. Click Save.

Alternatively, to create a help project copy, you can copy the folder containing the project's files by using Windows Explorer, or another file manager program that you prefer.

If your help project is already stored in the .HSMP format, you can simply skip this step.

Remark: Please note that the XML-based .HSMP format is available in HelpSmith Ultimate and HelpSmith Terminal Server editions.

Can you provide more instructions for using this tool for translating a HelpSmith help project?

How to open a topic for translation in XML Content Translator

XML Content Translator program allows you to open an .XML file written in the original language, and the copy of that original file that will be translated into another language.

Thus, to translate a topic or any other .XML file of the help project, you can use the following instructions:

1. Launch the XML Content Translator program.
2. On the File menu, click Open.
3. In the Open dialog, find the .XML file of the topic in the original help project, then click Open.
   
4. In the Open dialog, find the .XML file of the same topic in the help project copy (that was created on the previous step).
   

Remark: You can find the .XML files of the topics in the Topics sub-folder which is contained within the folder with your .HSMP help project.

How to translate a topic in XML Content Translator

Using the XML Content Translator tool, you can translate the XML file which contains the content of a topic by using Google Translate (for automated translation), and also type and edit the translated texts manually.

Find the XML tags that contain the texts

1. On the Edit menu, click Find (or press Ctrl+F).
2. In the Find dialog, select Tag.
3. Specify the tag name that you want to find.

Remark: For example, you can find XML tags named "Text", "Link", etc.

Translate texts with an automated translation service like Google Translate.

Translate the selected text with Google Translate

XML Content Translator allows you to translate a line of text by using the Google Translate service.

1. In the header area, select the Source and Destination languages.
2. In the right side, right-click on the text line that you want to translate.
3. In the popup menu, click Translate with Google Translate.

Remark: If the original text contains space characters in the start/end of the text, the translated text may loose these spaces. To avoid this, you should restore the spaces manually, as explained below.

Edit the translated texts manually to improve quality.

Edit the translated text manually

You can also translate a text line by editing the text manually:

• In the bottom area, enter your version of the translated text.

Remark: This option allows you to improve the quality of the translation and also restore the space characters which can be lost as a result of the automatic translation.

Save the changes to the modified XML file

You should save the changes to the destination XML file as follows:

• On the File menu, click Save.

How to restore space characters

If original text contains space characters in the left and/or in the right side of the text, after the text is translated by using Google Translate, those spaces can be lost.

To restore these spaces, you can edit the translated text manually in the bottom side of the XML Content Translator window.