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HTML Localization and Internationalization

HTML (Wikipedia) is the most popular markup language. Soluling Desktop and Soluling Cloud support HTML files (.htm, .html).

• Static pages
• Localization process
• Encoding
• Web applications
• Samples
• Configuring HTML localization

The end of the document contains links to get the full source code of the samples. After reading this document, we recommend reading a tutorial about how to use Soluling.

Static pages

The simplest form of HTML is a static page. It only contains static elements, such as HTML and CSS. Localization of such a page is similar to data file localization or document localization. Soluling reads the original HTML file and extracts the text of the elements and the values of the localizable attributes, such as title and alt. Inline formatting, such as bold text and links inside a paragraph, stays inside the strings so that the translator can translate whole sentences. When building, Soluling creates a localized HTML file for each language. The localized file has the same structure and markup as the original, but the text has been translated.

The HTML options sheet specifies what elements and attributes are scanned and how the localized HTML file is created. For example, you can choose whether images and scripts are localized.

Localization process

You can localize an HTML file either in Soluling Desktop or in Soluling Cloud.

Desktop process

1. Start Soluling and create a new project for your HTML file.
2. The Project Wizard appears, showing the Languages page. Select the original language and the target languages, and click Finish to complete the wizard. Soluling scans the file, extracts the strings, and creates a new project for the file.
3. If you want to change what is scanned, select the file in the project tree, right-click, and choose Options. Change the settings on the HTML options sheet, click OK, and rescan the project.
4. Translate the project.
5. Choose Home | Build All to build the localized HTML files. By default, Soluling creates them in language-specific subdirectories, for example, fi\Sport.htm.

When you change the original HTML file, open the Soluling project and choose Home | Scan. Soluling keeps the existing translations, and you only translate the text that was added or changed.

Cloud process

With Soluling Cloud, you localize the HTML file in your browser: upload the file, translate it in Translate, and download the localized files. You need a Soluling account. See the available Cloud plans.

Create a project

1. Sign in at www.soluling.com and open Cloud > Dashboard for Projects, Users and Terminology.
2. Click Add a new project, then Select files and pick your HTML file (e.g., Sport.htm), or drag and drop the file onto the page. Click Create.
3. On the next page, check the project's Name. It defaults to the file's name.
4. Set the Original language to the language of your page, for example, English.
5. Under Target languages, check the languages you want to translate to, for example, Finnish and German.
6. Check that the Source type is HTML file (.htm, .html).
7. Click Create. The project appears on the dashboard, and its status changes to Ready once the file has been processed.

Translate the project

Click the project's green Translate button on the dashboard. Translate opens the project, and you can type the translations into the grid. Machine translation suggestions, translation memory, and spell checking are available there. You do not have to finish every language before moving on to the next step.

Inline formatting, such as bold text and links, is shown as protected tags.

Get the localized files

1. In Translate's top bar, click the project's name. It opens the project's Manage page, the same page that the project's Manage button on the dashboard opens.
2. If you have translated something since the localized files were last built, the page says Localized files need to be built. Click Build localized files and wait until it finishes.
3. The Files section lists the HTML file with a download button for each target language. Download the localized files.

Update the project

When you change the original HTML file, upload it again, translate what is new or changed, and download the localized files again. On the dashboard, click the project's Update file button (the upload arrow), select the new file or drop it onto the page, and click Update. Existing translations are kept, so you only translate the text that was added or changed.

If you want to change the HTML options, for example, to localize images or scripts, create the project in Soluling Desktop, where you can set the options, and upload it to Soluling Cloud. See the Cloud tutorial.

Encoding

Modern HTML pages use UTF-8, so there is no issue with the character encoding. However, legacy pages use various encodings, such as ANSI code pages or ISO code pages. Most pages contain a meta tag that specifies the encoding used. By default, Soluling reads this tag to get the encoding used. To enable this, make sure the Read encoding from attributes check box is checked. If there is no encoding attribute, then Soluling tries to detect the encoding used. To enable this, make sure the Detect encoding check box is checked.

If the encoding is detected wrongly, you can manually set the original encoding on the File sheet.

Use UTF-8 in the localized files, especially if you localize to languages, such as Japanese or Russian, whose characters do not exist in the code page of the original file. Set the encoding of the localized files on the Output sheet.

Web applications

Web applications use scripts in addition to HTML. The scripts are either client-side scripts, which use JavaScript or TypeScript, or server-side scripts, which use languages and frameworks such as ASP.NET, PHP, Python, and Ruby. Learn more about web applications.

Samples

GitHub and <data-dir>\Samples\HTML contain the following samples:

Most samples contain the Soluling project, and the localized files are in the fi subdirectory. Html.sln is a Visual Studio solution that contains the web application samples.

Configuring HTML localization

You can configure how to localize your HTML file by selecting the item in the project tree, right-clicking, and choosing the Options menu. A source dialog appears that lets you edit the options. This source uses the following option sheets.

• File
• HTML options
• Script tags
• Output
• Output options

Read more about other document files such as DITA, Help+Manual, HTML, HTML Help, LaTeX, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, RTF, and PDF files.