Localizing variant templates or objects

Objects inherit a number of settings from templates. When you publish, the output uses many of these settings. If you're working with localized content, these settings will require some level of localization.

When you're working in a single library with content translated into multiple languages, you'll use template variants for different languages and localize the required text strings, settings, and paths. The variant template will be used when you publish content for a selected language.

Once an object is translated, it needs to be flagged as localized in order to exclude it from future translation jobs. The rules defined in a translation job determine which objects are included in the exported XML, but objects that are flagged as localized are not included in the translation job. Normally, when an object is translated, this flag is set without user input by means of the XML export/import process. However, when you manually localize an object in the Library, you need to tell Author-it that the object has been translated. You do this by flagging it as localized.

Whether you localize a variant of a template or an object depends on how it is used. In most cases:

Templates: If the settings are used by more than one object, you'll localize a variant of the template. For example, the heading for the Table of Contents object that is used in all your books.

Objects: If the settings relate to a specific object, you'll localize the settings in the object variant. For example, the heading of a specific book.

Let's look at some examples of when you'll update a template variant or an object variant. In each of these objects there are specific settings that you can modify for publishing localized content.