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Markdown Localization and Internationalization

Markdown (Wikipedia) is a lightweight markup language. It is used to write readme files or short technical documentation. Soluling localization tool and service support Markdown.

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.

Localization process

Soluling reads the original Markdown files (.md) and extracts the text elements. Soluling also provides an editor to translate the elements. Finally, when building, Soluling creates localized Markdown files. There is one output file (.md) for each language. Take a look at the following simple Markdown file.

Sample
====

This is a sample.

Line one.
Line two.

This is **bold**, *italic*, ***both*** and `code`.

## List

- One
- Two
- Three

You can find the file from <data-dir>\Samples\Markdown\Simple\Simple.md. The file has several text parts that need to be translated. If we translate the above file into Finnish, we will get:

Esimerkki
====

Tämä on esimerkki.

Rivi yksi.
Rivi kaksi.

Tämä on **lihavoitu**, *kursivoitu*, ***sekä*** että `koodi`.

## Lista

- Yksi
- Kaksi
- Kolme

The structure of the Finnish Markdown file is identical to the structure of the original English Markdown file; only the text in each element has been translated into Finnish. If you change the original Markdown files, you use Soluling to rescan the file. Soluling aligns the elements again to maintain unchanged elements, adds the new elements, and marks the modified elements. You only need to translate the new elements and check the modified elements.

Our next step is to go through the steps needed to make this happen using Soluling. Start by creating a new project for your Markodown document, for example Sport.md. The Project Wizard will first show the options sheet where you can configure what elements are localized.

Click Next to get to the languages sheet where you can select the original language and add the target languages. You can later add any number of languages to th project.

Select English as the original language and add one target language. In our sample, we chose Finnish. Click Next to finish the wizard. Soluling creates a project for the Markdown file, scans the file, and shows the elements in the editor.

Follow the general translation instructions to translate your project.

When you have translated the project, you can build the localized files. Click Home | Project | Build all to build the localized files. The Finnish markdown file will be created into fi subdirectory under the same name as the original file (e.g., fi\Sport.md),

Samples

GitHub and <data-dir>\Samples\Markdown contains following Markdown sample directories:

Configuring Markdown Localization

You can configure how to localize your Markdown file or data 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
• Options
• Output

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