The value of DITA in localization
Two of the key reasons organizations cite for using DITA are:
- To contain localization (translation) costs
- To respond quickly to customers who need product documentation translated into the primary language spoken in their country or region
What the Toolkit provides for localization
Localizing DITA content consists of two steps:
- Translate the generated labels that appear in DITA output files.
For example, the "Contents" label that appears above the list of contents on the first page of a PDF2 output file, as shown in the following figure.
Another example would be the "Parent topic" and "Related topic" labels that appear in XHTML output files, as shown in the following figure.
The translation of these generated strings are controlled within the Toolkit build process.
- Translate the DITA content.
An example of DITA content is the string "You can save money by buying produce when it is season." string in the figures above.
The translation of the DITA content is done (usually handled by translation centers or done by individual translators) outside the Toolkit build process.
Supported languages
DITA and DITA Open Toolkit support the languages listed in the following table.
| Language | xml:lang value |
|---|---|
| Arabic | ar-eg |
| Belarusian | bg-bg |
| Bulgarian | be-by |
| Catalan | ca-es |
| Chinese (Simplified) | zh-cn |
| Chinese (Traditional) | zh-tw |
| Croatian | hr-hr |
| Czech | cs-cz |
| Danish | da-dk |
| Dutch | nl-nl |
| Dutch (Belgian) | nl-be |
| English (Canadian) | en-ca |
| English (UK) | en-gb |
| English (US) | en-us |
| Estonian | et-ee |
| Finnish | fi-fi |
| French | fr-fr |
| French (Belgian) | fr-be |
| French (Canadian) | fr-ca |
| French (Swiss) | fr-ch |
| German | de-de |
| German (Swiss) | de-ch |
| Greek | el-gr |
| Hebrew | he-il |
| Hungarian | hu-hu |
| Icelandic | is-is |
| Italian | it-it |
| Italian (Swiss) | it-ch |
| Japanese | ja-jp |
| Korean | ko-lr |
| Latvian | lv-lv |
| Lithuanian | lt-lt |
| Macedonian | mk-mk |
| Norwegian | no-no |
| Polish | pl-pl |
| Portuguese | pt-pt |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) | pt-br |
| Romanian | ro-ro |
| Russian | ru-ru |
| Serbian | sr-sp |
| Slovak | sk-sk |
| Slovenian | sl-si |
| Spanish | es-es |
| Swedish | sv-se |
| Thai | th-th |
| Turkish | tr-tr |
| Ukranian | uk-ua |