Preview Links and Website Localization

In today's digital landscape, where websites serve as the gateway to global audiences, the process of content translation and localization plays a vital role. As organizations strive to reach diverse markets, they encounter the need for efficient and secure workflows that ensure high-quality translations while maintaining the integrity of the original content.

Preview links have been a valuable tool in this realm, offering a solution that promotes collaboration, enhances efficiency, and leads to impeccable final content.

Preview links are URLs that provide access to draft content on a website. They can be tokenized, allowing reviewers to access and review the content without giving away numerous logins to the content management system (CMS) and thereby opening up security risks.

What does tokenized mean? Well, say you have this webpage that you would like to translate into French (Canada).

• www.bakedgoodsallday.com/our-pastries-are-the-best

There are various ways that a CMS can store a translated page. A common method is to place translations into a subfolder denoted by the language code. The slug itself will likely be translated, so it would look something like this (see my article, Slug Fest, if you are not sure what a slug is):

• www.bakedgoodsallday.com/fr-ca/nos-pâtisseries-sont-les-meilleures

A token would be appended at the end of the URL to make it viewable on the web but not indexable by search engines. It would look something like this:

• www.bakedgoodsallday.com/fr-ca/nos-pâtisseries-sont-les-meilleures?asodiafjwaeofweakf

Although Frankenstein-esque, preview links are indispensable for translation purposes. They enable translators to view the content in context, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of its layout, structure, and overall visual appearance.

The translation process itself often takes place in a Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tool, which offers an array of features to support translators. CAT tools leverage translation memory and glossaries to promote consistency and accuracy across translated content.

However, while these tools excel in maintaining linguistic fidelity, they struggle to render the content perfectly in its final format during the translation process. When the translated content is synced or uploaded back into the CMS, it can give rise to layout issues, extraneous carriage returns, or text overruns onto images, etc.

This is where preview links prove invaluable.

They allow translators and reviewers to visually inspect the content and identify any potential discrepancies or formatting inconsistencies. By providing a quick overview of the translated content in its intended context, preview links enable stakeholders to spot minor errors or issues that may have been missed during the translation process. This step ensures that the final content meets the highest standards of quality, aligning with the original content and delivering a seamless user experience.

While some translation management systems (TMSs) offer the ability to render web content directly within the translation editor, the task of translating a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) environment can be quite demanding.

This is exactly why it is challenging to translate a PowerPoint slide directly in a .pptx file. Each text box contains text of a different font size, font color, or formatting style. The mental exertion to grasp the visual intricacies of the content is not trivial and can lead the translator away from focusing on the linguistic task of text translation.

CAT tools and TMSs should let the linguists focus on language tasks with rich flows of context, but not to the point of distraction.

By leveraging preview links, translators can navigate through the translated content as end-users would, gaining insights into the visual layout and design elements that contribute to the overall user experience. This greatly enhances the efficiency of the translation process and streamlines the collaboration between translators, reviewers and client-side content editors.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of working with preview links is that it spurs communication among stakeholders. Preview links are easy to share. And by providing a visual representation of the translated content, translators, reviewers, content editors and developers can spot areas that require attention and take action. They lead to a collaborative and iterative approach that brings the content closer to perfection.

Preview links play a pivotal role in the content localization process. They provide a secure and efficient method of sharing draft content with reviewers, promoting collaboration while safeguarding data integrity. If your company is embarking on a website localization project with an LSP, make sure the use of preview links during the QA phase is included in the project plan.