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Translations and BluePrinting

To manage translations in the Content Manager, you need to have a basic understanding of your translation BluePrint, how authorization affects the scope of a translation and how the Content Manager handles localization. This section provides some background information on how translating is set up in the Content Manager.

Translation BluePrint
Before you start initiating translations it is a good idea to have a sound understanding of the Translation BluePrint used by your organization. A BluePrint is a hierarchy of Publications which defines how content is shared and reused. The Translation BluePrint models your localization and translation strategy—the structure defined by your BluePrint drives translations and dictates the translation flow. It defines from which source languages to which target languages you can translate, and which Publications contain content in a source language (Source Publications) and which Publications can receive translated content (Target Publications).
The BluePrint Viewer provides a visualization of the Parent-Child relationships within a BluePrint and the BluePrint relationship between items. Select an item in the Content Manager Explorer and choose BluePrinting > BluePrint Hierarchy in the context menu to view the BluePrint. The following image shows a BluePrint displayed in the Tree View of the Content Manager Explorer and in the BluePrint Viewer:
Translation BluePrint configuration
The configuration of the BluePrint determines which translations are possible: in other words, from which source to target languages you can translate to and from. A Publication containing content in a source language is referred to as a Source Publication, and a Publication which can receive translated content a Target Publication. For example, in the following BluePrint configured for translation (based on the example shown above), you can translate from English to German, Dutch, and French, and from German to Austrian German:
Authorization
When you log on to the Content Manager Explorer, the only Publications in the BluePrint visible to you are the ones for which you have access permissions (as set by the system administrator). To be able to initiate translations, you must have access permissions to at least one or more configured Target Publications; these are Publications which can receive translated content. If you have access permissions to configured Source Publications as well as Target Publications, you can initiate translations from one language to several targets. The scope of a translation initiated from a Source Publication is therefore potentially larger than one initiated from a Target Publication which will always have just one target (itself). For example, in the BluePrint above:
  • If you have access to the English Publication, you can initiate translations from English to German, Dutch, and French provided you have access to these Publications as well
  • If you have access to the German Publication, you can initiate translations from English to German. You can also translate from German to Austrian German, provided you also have access to this Publication
  • If you have access to the Austrian German Publication, you can initiate translations from German to Austrian German
Localization
The localization process (the process of translating content into different languages) is handled automatically by Translation Manager when you send content for translation to the translation management system.
When you send a Content Manager item for translation, the Content Manager localizes and checks out the item in the Target Publication before sending it to the translation management system. When the translation management system sends the translated item back, the item is localized (if not done so already) and replaced by the translation. The item is then checked in and is now a local copy, or localized version of a shared item.