Converting Courses from English to Spanish - Recommendations

Jul 23, 2020

Hi All! 

I'm looking to have a few Storyline courses converted from English to Spanish. They include text, voice-over, etc.

I'm wondering what approach everyone is taking (who isn't bilingual) and if anyone has recommendations for developers or dev firms who can complete these types of translation projects?

Thanks!
Dave

 

5 Replies
Judy Nollet

Hi, Dave,

I suggest you check out Transperfect (https://www.transperfect.com/). My main client uses them quite a bit. I can't speak to their pricing, because I'm never involved in that aspect. But I've been happy with how they handle Storyline files. 

FYI: It'll be up to you to decide how the voice-over should be handled. Your decision will likely depend on how the voice over is used in the the course (as well as your budget). For example:

  • Does the audio need to be re-recorded in Spanish? That requires translating the transcript, recording new audio, replacing the audio files in Storyline, and adjusting the timeline (since saying something in Spanish may take more or less time than saying it in English). 
  • Can the audio remain in English, with the Spanish transcript added to the Notes or displayed some other way on the screen? Obviously, that'd be a less expensive option, though not necessarily a good one (e.g., if the audio describes something happening on the screen). 
Allison LaMotte
Thor Melicher

Hi, Dave -

If you're looking for a 'do-it-yourself' approach, you can try HEROTRANSLATE and HEROVOICE TTS which utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) to make it possible. You'll need to set up an AWS account for them to work.

Being that you have two types of content, text and voice-over, you could do the following:

Start with the Translation First
Note: If you have your transcripts in the Notes section of your Storyline slides they will be translated, too.

1. From Storyline, export your content as a XLIFF file -
    Click File | Translations | Export as XLIFF (1.2 or 2.0)
2. Run the XLFF file through HEROTRANSLATE -
    Select Source Language, Language to Translate To, Storyline 360
3. Import the XLFF file back into Storyline -
    Click File | Translations | Import

Create the Voice-Over
HEROVOICE TTS utilizes Amazon Polly to do text to speech. This is the same engine that Storyline uses today, however, HEROVOICE TTS supports both Neural voices and the ability to use SSML tags to enhance the output.

1. From the translated Storyline course, copy the translated script into separate files (MS-Word or Text) to make it easier to import back into Storyline (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.)
2. Select the language of the transcript and then the voice you want.
3. Batch encode the files with HEROVOICE TTS.
4. Import each file on to their respective slide.

As with any machine language translation, you'll want to verify that the translation meets your needs.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/herotranslate/9njgfwghwvkb
https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9P7Q072TRWMJ