What we offer
With Userlane you can self-manage, update and translate your texts either
- within Userlane
- the Userlane Portal
- the Userlane Editor
- through a language export you can also work on offline and then import
Where to edit the language for each content type
| Portal | Editor | Language Export/Import | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guides | yes | yes | yes |
| Chapter Titles | yes | no | yes |
| Welcome Slide Text | yes | no | yes |
| Announcements | yes | no | yes |
| Tooltips | no | yes | yes |
| Default Texts | yes | no | yes |
Why use it
Showing content in the mother tongue of users increases engagement.
Good to know
- Userlane detects the user language based on a process. You can find more information on this here.
- We also support languages that are in the right-to-left format (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic). However, having well-suited formatting for right-to-left is not supported (e.g. text alignment of content blocks that are left-sided cannot get adjusted yet).
- When deleting a language, the content will be removed too. If you don’t need it anymore, you can deactivate it instead. Then you can always restore it later.
Add a new language
You can create a new language in the “Customize” - “Languages” section of the Portal.
The language name is displayed to identify the language.
The language key will be compared to the HTML and browser languages in order to automatically detect the language. It typically consists of the first two letters of the language name (e.g. English = EN).
The Copy-From option allows you to decide which language the texts of your new language should be copied from. This helps you to write in the correct translations later.
If you no longer require a language, you can archive it. Archived languages cannot be published for any content, but they can always be moved back to the current languages.
If you already have a Userlane account, you can check this out interactively:
- If you are based in Europe ⇨ Start this Guide to see how to manage multiple languages for your content.
- If you are based in the US ⇨ Start this Guide to see how to manage multiple languages for your content.
Import, translate, and export texts in different languages
To translate your content into different languages you can use our text import/export feature:
Download all your existing texts
Download texts for a specific chapter or Guide only,
update the texts for each language, and
upload the new file.
You can use excel (XLSX) or comma-separated values (CSV) formats for both export and import.
If you already have a Userlane account, you can check this out interactively:
- If you are based in Europe ⇨ Start this Guide to see how to import and export your texts.
- If you are based in the US ⇨ Start this Guide to see how to import and export your texts.
Important
- All instances of <missing element> in the text export that are replaced with info box content or localized links will be imported when uploaded back to Userlane, and will be populated to the relevant target languages for the relevant guide steps.
- If you change anything in the file (including the original language) the changes will be applied after you import the file (also to your original language)
- You can import languages by deleting the other "language" columns in the excel file after the export and before the import. You can identify the respective language based on the language code in the first row (eg. "en"). Please don't delete or change anything in the first 2 columns.
Publish a new language
After creating a language, you can work in this language and publish it.
Publish a language for all existing content in the “Customize” - “Languages” section via the dot menu next to the language you want to publish. Make sure that you have existing texts in this language, before generally publishing them here.
Publish a language for specific chapters or Guides only in the manage section using the options next to the respective Guide/chapter. This allows you to translate and publish your Guides in a new language step by step. Make sure to activate a language for the chapter and for the Guide to show the chapter title and subtitle and the Guide texts in this language.
- If you are based in Europe ⇨ Start this Guide to learn how to manage your languages in general and for specific content.
- If you are based in the US ⇨ Start this Guide.
Choose a fallback language
Let's say you created two languages: English and French. For every French and English-speaking end user we will match the corresponding language automatically. To cover every other language, like German or Spanish, you can define a general fallback solution for every chapter or Guide.
⇨ Start this Guide to see where to find the language settings.
Show the default language instead (Your Default Language). This option will show the text in the default language you defined in the “Customize” - “Language” section for all those users that don’t have a matching language.
Hide content for those users completely. For users without a matching language, this Guide will not appear in the Assistant.
Best Practice
- Be mindful to ensure texts are updated in all public languages before setting content live.
- Have a dedicated process and responsible for translations.
- Regularly export your texts after bigger changes, so you can better track your work.
