Right to left languages? YES, it can be done in Rise

If you ever develop in Rise, sooner or later you will get tasked with the development of courses that will require translation later on. When it comes to such cases, there are certain languages that pose greater challenges than others, such as RTL (right-to-left) languages. These are typically Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew, to name a few. These languages not only use a different alphabet but also have an inverse writing system that is the opposite to English. Many authoring tools are not prepared to handle this type of text. This requires extra work and knowledge to ensure that the content of the original course is not altered during translation.

 

In the following article, we will share the steps we take to convert Rise courses to the RTL format. By doing so, we are able to upload the translated RTL courses to Rise, ensuring that the content remains unaffected, the course dynamics are preserved, and all activities can be carried out without any issues.

 

The first step is to extract/unzip the .zip file containing the course assets to obtain the following folder structure:

Then, we must go to “scormcontent\lib”, and create a file named “fix.css” inside:

After this step, we must open the file called “index.html” in a text editor (found in the “scormcontent” folder) and link it to the “fix.css” file, created previously:

This way, any changes we make in “fix.css” will automatically be reflected in the “index.html” file.

Some insights to keep in mind:

• Due to the natural behavior of CSS, it is important that the "fix.css" file is placed last in the links dropdown. As shown in the images above, there are 2 CSS files before this one.

• To identify which class needs to be modified, you can use the browser's development tool. This tool can be opened by pressing the F12 key or by right-clicking and selecting "Inspect element".

• With this method, the changes that can be implemented are only visual. In other words, it won't work if, for example, you want to add or remove text.

 

We hope that this step-by-step guide helps you convert Rise courses into any RTL language.

 

If you have any doubts or find yourself stuck in any step, please describe your issue in the comments so we can help you troubleshoot. Similarly, if you know of any simpler way to accomplish this, or have any other tips, we are eager to learn!