After you've submitted InDesign content for translation, you'll need to check on the status and apply the translations to your designs. You can monitor the translation progress and apply translations to InDesign from Smartling from the Translation Status page.
Check translation status and apply translations
To check translation status and to apply your translations, follow these steps:
- Open Adobe InDesign
- Open the InDesign file that was sent for translation.
- From the top navigation, click Window > Extensions > Smartling.
- Click the download file icon to open the Translation Status page.
Here you can find details about the translations for the file. The “Status” column shows the translation status. This column will show “Translated” when all translations are complete for a locale. - Once the language(s) are complete, select the checkbox next to the language and click Next.
- Next, you will see the translation log, which displays the download process for each file. Once the process is complete, you will see the message "File delivery finished, you can close plugin."
The translated file will be downloaded to the same location as the source file. For example, if the source file is saved in /users/username/Desktop, the translated file will also be saved to your desktop. The locale code will be appended to the file name e.g., MyFile-de-DE.indd
Adobe InDesign documents often require desktop publishing, where formatting and design elements are adjusted in the translated file to ensure a properly formatted final document in the target language.
Considerations
- Ideally, you should wait until the Translation Status shows that each language is Translated and all translations are published before applying translations.
- Applying translations before a language is fully completed may result in untranslated strings appearing in your InDesign document.
- Different languages require varying amounts of space, with most European languages typically taking up more space than English. If the translated text exceeds the text node bounds set in the original InDesign file, the plugin will not apply the translations, leading to untranslated content.
- Before requesting content for translation, consider pseudo-translating your file to identify text nodes that may need resizing to accommodate translations. Additionally, you can suggest that linguists shorten translations wherever possible. For instance, for English to French, use “2M” instead of “2 millions.”
How to cancel translations
Although it is not recommended without first consulting your translation provider, you can cancel translation within the Smartling dashboard if necessary.
- Navigate to the relevant translation job in Smartling. A direct link to the job can be found via the Translation Status page.
- Next, cancel the job.