Translation import from Word loses formatting

Hi Charles, 

We don't share ETAs about features or fixes, so I apologize if the response felt redundant and repetitive, but as I'm sure you can imagine we're asked that question a fair bit. 

I reached out to a few team members and confirmed this isn't on our list for inclusion in the near future. It is considered a change in how our current Storyline and Word translation feature works, and would be a rewrite of the existing setup. So as you said, less a bug and more a change in functionality. 

If you have any other questions, let me know. Happy to share whatever I can. 

Wow, this news is really disappointing and really makes no sense to me.

You know the export to Word function maintains spacing, right? It's the import that loses it. I don't see how this is not a priority. This loss of formatting must affect all your users.

My client has a tendency to overload their screens with text and complex graphics, so this really is a problem. They are aware of it and moving forward, they're trying to break their content into smaller pieces.

Thanks, and please excuse me if I sound frustrated.

I'm checking in to see if there has been any progress on this spacing problem as it relates to the translation feature.

Because of the amount of time involved in fixing the Storyline files after importing from Word, my client took away that part of their projects from me. Instead, they are sending the English work files to their regions for translating directly into Storyline.

Not only was that a loss of income for me, the files are coming back somewhat messed up because their regional people don't know how to handle the program beyond a certain level, so I still get files sent to me for partial fixing before they can be published.

For their most recent project, I created the files anticipating the translation problems and tried to make things more 'fool-proof', but with differing character demands of other languages, screens that had links via hot spots or other programming still need correction. This is frustrating for both my client and for me.

I would like to know if these issues are still on the Articulate 'radar'. Perhaps it was fixed and I just don't know since the client chose another path for translating their files. I have not tested this feature using old files, so If you can, please tell me if this has been addressed.

Thank you, Chuck

When is this going to be fixed. At present this means everything needs to be done manually - which is not an option for 8 languages.

As I'm the original poster on this, I'd like to point out that the most recent reply has been stated and re-stated for more than 2 years! That must be some lengthy investigation.

To update you on my situation, it hasn't gotten any easier but I've learned to layout my screens to anticipate problems with formatting post-Word import. That's my process and it works fine provided I'm in fact the person handling the language imports.

But often, my client's global markets do it themselves which can result in problems that come back to me for resolution later. It really makes all involved kind of frustrated.

I don't understand why this has not been addressed in all this time. XLIFF format is not an option.

Hi Charles!

I've updated you in this discussion on this fix.

I know this is a dated discussion, but I wanted to share an update if others come across this discussion with a similar request! We released Enhanced Word Translation in Storyline 360 (Build 3.49.24347.0), making exporting and importing Word documents so much easier!

There are many benefits to this feature, but one is preserved formatting! The legacy Word translation method removed some text formatting, such as lists and paragraph spacing. The new Word translation method preserves all text formatting, so you don’t have to spend time and effort correcting it.

Lastly, to take advantage of this feature, make sure you've updated Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app!

I see that this is a very old conversation and was hoping there was a fix or workaround for this issue. We normally just muscle through, as I am sure many others do, but still see this come up regularly. With larger projects it can add hours to formatting efforts after import, and could to errors that could potentially get passed on to a client.

I have noted this with both Word and xliff export/import, using the latest version/updates.

Thanks,

Matthew

Five years later, still nothing. 

After spending several weeks on work and exported via Xliff and then imported translation, all formating is gone. 
Even in simple tool like Articulate Rise. 

If someone wondered if Articulate team is solving stuff, just google a bit and you will see that we get only "sorry to hear that..."
Very disappointing.