Articulate Localization: Using the AI Translation Glossary

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Glossaries allow you to control how Articulate Localization translates certain words and phrases. You can specify:

  • Words and phrases that require specific translations, such as product names, or user interface terms like “bag” or “cart”
  • Word and phrases that should never be translated, such as your company name

Glossaries are shared across your subscription and will automatically be used with translations initiated after the glossary is uploaded. Keep reading to learn how to use the glossary feature.

Creating Your Glossary

Creating a glossary requires a single CSV file with the source language word list in the first column and the corresponding translations for different target languages in subsequent columns. An Articulate 360 admin uploads the file via the Manage Subscription tab in the account management console. Read on for step-by-step instructions:

  1. Download our sample CSV file (also available on the Manage Subscription page) and open it in a spreadsheet tool like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. You can also create a new spreadsheet of your own with either of these tools.
  2. In the first row, type in the language codes for the languages you use—for example, “en-us” for American English and “fr-fr” for French (France). Start with the source language in the first column, then add the target languages in the following columns. (See a complete list of supported language codes below.)
  3. Populate the rows with your glossary terms for each language, one term per row.
    Here’s an example:
    Image   
  4. Download or save a copy of your spreadsheet in .csv format.
  • Google Sheets: File > Download > Comma Separate Values (.csv)
  • MS Excel: File > Export > Change File Type > CSV (Comma delimited)
  1. If you’re an Articulate 360 admin, you can launch the account management console and click Manage Subscription. If you’re not an admin, you’ll need to ask an admin to complete this and the following steps.
  2. Under the Localization section, expand Manage Settings. 
  3. Click Upload Glossary, select your CSV file, and click Open to upload the file.
  4. Processing your glossary might take a few minutes after you upload it. It will be available to use after the processing is done.

Glossary Creation Tips

Adding Languages

To add more target languages to your glossary, add a column to your spreadsheet with the correct language code in the first row for each language. The glossary .csv file can be up to 10MB. There are no limits to the length of an individual glossary item.

  • The following language codes are currently supported in any language pair combination:

DA (Danish)

NB (Norwegian Bokmål)

DE (German)

NL (Dutch)

EN-GB (British English)

PL (Polish)

EN-US (American English)

PT-PT (Portuguese)

ES (Spanish)

PT-PT (Portuguese (Brazilian))

FR-FR (French France)

RO (Romanian)

IT (Italian)

RU (Russian)

JA (Japanese)

SV (Swedish)

KO (Korean)

ZH-CN (Chinese Simplified)

  • The following language codes only support English (EN-US or EN-GB) as the source language:

AF (Afrikaans)

GA (Irish)

MK (Macedonian)

SW (Swahili)

AM (Amharic)

GU (Gujarati)

ML (Malayalam)

TA (Tamil)

AR (Arabic)

HA (Hausa)

MN (Mongolian)

TE (Telugu)

AZ (Azerbaijani)

HE (Hebrew)

MR (Marathi)

TH (Thai)

BN (Bengali)

HI (Hindi)

MS (Malay)

TL (Filipino)

BS (Bosnian)

HR (Croatian)

MT (Maltese)

UR (Urdu)

CA (Catalan)

HT (Haitian Creole)

PA (Punjabi)

UZ (Uzbek)

CY (Welsh)

HY (Armenian)

PS (Pashto)

VI (Vietnamese)

ES-MX (Mexican Spanish)

IS (Icelandic)

SI (Sinhala)

ZH-TW (Taiwanese Mandarin)

FA (Farsi (Persian))

KA (Georgian)

SO (Somali)

FA-AF (Dari)

KK (Kazakh)

SQ (Albanian)

FR-CA (French (Canada))

KN (Kannada)

SR (Serbian)

Tool Tip: Use our language lookup tool to see which target languages are supported for your source language and if the language pair supports glossary, formality, and right-to-left. 

Here’s how to use it:

    1. Launch the language lookup tool in a separate browser window.

    2. Select your source language from the Select a Source Language dropdown.

    3. A table displays all the supported target languages for the chosen source language with columns for glossary, formality, and right-to-left. A green checkmark in these columns means the corresponding target language supports it.

Adding Terms

  • Each term in your glossary must have its own row. The leftmost column should have the term in the source language. The translated term needed for each language should populate each of the subsequent labeled columns.
  • If any of your target languages only support English as the source language, the leftmost column must be EN (English).
  • Glossary terms are case-sensitive, so terms with meanings impacted by case must have their own rows—for example,  “Articulate” and “articulate” each need a row.

Setting Terms Not to Translate

  • To specify that a term should NOT be translated, use the same term for all languages.

Setting Terms to Ignore

  • If a term doesn’t need a specific translation for one or more target languages, you can just leave it blank for these languages. The AI translation will translate the term as a non-glossary word for these target languages. 

Migrating or Combining Existing Glossaries

To use an existing glossary, it has to be in the standard format defined above—that is, a single .csv file with the source language as the leftmost column and each target language defined in its own column.

Some third-party services provide glossaries as multiple files or spreadsheets. You can combine these manually by copying and pasting, or you can follow this guide.

Updating Your Glossary

Articulate Localization supports one glossary per subscription. Uploading a new glossary .csv file will replace the current glossary for everyone on your subscription.

To edit a glossary you have previously defined, download the existing file from the Manage Subscription page, update the glossary list, and re-upload the file. The new glossary will automatically be used with translations initiated after the upload. 

Deleting Your Glossary

If you no longer want to use a previously defined glossary, you can delete it from the Manage Subscription page. Deleting the glossary will remove it for everyone on your subscription. We recommend downloading a backup copy of any glossary before you delete it.