How to Translate a Lectora Course: A Step-By-Step Guide

Nearly every course creator may have heard of Lectora, but knowing how to translate a Lectora course remains a mystery to many. You can’t have a conversation about eLearning content creation platforms without mentioning Lectora.

Like its counterparts, this authoring platform has one limitation: the absence of a translation feature. This shortcoming means that course creators cannot execute Lectora eLearning Localization within the application. So how can it be done? That’s what I’m about to show you.

What's Lectora?

Before we delve into how you can translate a Lectora course, you should know a thing or two about the platform. Lectora is a cloud-hosted learning management software that provides users with tools to create, design, publish, and distribute digital courses.

Now to the process of Lectora eLearning localization.

You can't Directly Translate your eLearning content into the platform

As we’ve mentioned earlier, the absence of a translation feature makes it impossible for course creators or managers to translate their Lectora projects internally. Since it can’t be done directly, how can it be done? Simple. By exporting the Lectora course in XLIFF. Why XLIFF?

Export your Lectora Course as an XLIFF for Reliable Translations

Firstly, XLIFF stands for XML localization Interchange File Format, and it’s a common tool used for exchanging information between different platforms, sources, or tools. Secondly, we recommend exporting your Lectora content in XLIFF because it will ensure Lectora eLearning localization without alteration of the formatting of the original document.

Export your Lectora Content as an XLIFF Document

As we’ve determined already, the first step to translating a Lectora course is to export in XLIFF. Now, let’s show you the process:

Launch the Lectora platform on your PC. There are two ways to go about this – visit Lectora online or launch the desktop app.
Open your course or eLearning content on the platform.
Go to the “Tools” section at the upper part of the interface.
Click “Translations” from the options that will display next.
Choose “Set the format to XLIFF.”
Next, you will determine the translation scope for the content. It could be a page, multiple pages, a chapter, multiple chapters, or the entire course. Choose according to your preference.

Click “Export” after choosing your translation scope.
Select the source language of the document.
Then click “OK” and save the file to your PC.

Tip: If you want to translate your Lectora course into multiple target languages, we advise that you save each file you export with the name of the target language for easy identification.

Export your Lectora Content as RTF

Alternatively, you can export your Lectora content as RTF (Rich text format). Let’s show you the process:

In the tools section, click “Translations.”
Select “RTF” instead of XLIFF.
Tick boxes for options to include page, chapter, button, image, and section names in the translation.
Then determine the translation scope for your article.
Choose the destination for the file you want to export and click “OK.”

Transfer the Exported File to your Translation Partner

Though you can’t translate the document on Lectora, you can do it on other platforms. You should have a reliable tool or language service provider that specializes in eLearning content localization. Fortunately, there are several you can choose from to purchase. After choosing your translation platform, do the following:

After signing in to your translation tool.
Click on “Upload document.”
Choose the exported file you got from Lectora.
After uploading the file, select the source language and target language for the file.
Here, you can decide to bring your translation team on board to assign (if you have one) or outsource it to an agency. The third option is to utilize machine translation if translation quality isn’t a priority.
When it’s finished, tap on “Confirm translation” and download the translated content.
Once complete, save the document to your PC.

Import the Translated XLIFF Document Back to Lectora

Now to the process of Lectora eLearning localization.

Just like in the exporting process, go back to the “Tools” on Lectora.
Select “Translations”.
Set the format to XLIFF, then “import.”
Bonus tip: tick the box for “expanding text boxes” to accommodate the changes in the text blocks designed for the original content.
Choose the document you downloaded from the translation tool.

Revision and QA

Using the Lectora ReviewLink to revise the content you’ve translated and determine if it meets quality checks. This is one of the essential stages in Lectora eLearning localization.

Publishing Content

If the document passes the revision and quality assurance stage, the only thing left to do is make it available to your audience. Simply click on “publish” after revising the document.

Best Practices to Translate a Lectora Course

Use language that’s easy to translate: To do this, use shorter sentences and simple words. Avoid idioms, euphemisms, jargon, and slang. Also, minimize the use of synonyms.
Translate your multimedia attachments: Course creators may want to get lazy and be tempted to focus on the core content, but for a wholesome learning experience, your worksheets, audio & video files, and subtitles shouldn’t be overlooked. Since they won’t be automatically translated with the main content, translate them as a separate file
Translate course strings: Fortunately, Lectora is capable of translating some course strings. To do this:

- Go to file ribbon.
- Select “Ribbon preferences.”
- Tap on “publish strings.”
- Then, export these strings in TXT format.
- Translate it on your language service provider’s platform.
- Import it back to Lectora.
- Repeat the process for each target language.

Translate the image texts in a separate file: The embedded texts in the image won’t be automatically translated with the rest of the course. You can extract these texts manually and export them in a different XLIFF file to translate them, use an image translation tool, or avoid using embedded texts in your images.