149 Replies
N O W  . b e

We would too have this built-in word counter

  • The Thor Melicher suggestion works for us
 

HEROWORDCOUNT is free + for Rise 360 and Storyline.

HeroWordCount

Here's what you do:

  1. Export your XLIFF file.
  2. Download and run the free app from the Microsoft Store:  
    https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/herowordcount/9ND6JRMKF74Q?hl=en-us&gl=us
  3. Select your files and then get the word count.
Lärbyrån Digicy

As Alejandra Seader wrote exporting to PDF is one option. One other would be to export an XLIFF for translation and opening it in a translation tool that handled XLIFF. We use smartcat.com. 

BUT be aware:

1. Some blocks have poetic standard texts that may be hidden in the course but are visible in translations, you need to check this and empty these texts in all states of the block.

2. The labels are not added to the export so you also need to count these words if your labels are not in any of the standard languages. There is a separate export for the label-texts in the label under settings/labels

I agree that a word-count would be useful but even more useful would be a word export similar to that from Storyline.

Andrew Miller

This is an older thread, but adding some translation industry insight for future visitors. 

There is no shortcut - you have to break down the course by content buckets. 

  • Editable Course Content = extract .xliff file (which is .xml based and designed for translation)
  • Uneditable Course Content = If you have images you need translated, estimate the number of words per image or use average
  • Audio/Video = If subtitles or closed captions are required, you can estimate 100-200 words per minute based on the speaking speed. Multiple speakers will trend higher. 
  • Onscreen Text = If you have audio/video with additional text that requires translation, you'll need to manually count or estimate.  
  • Labels/Screenreader - This can also be exported and counted from Articulate
  • Assets/Embedded Files - Download and count

On the translation production side we create a Bill of Materials for every course which is essentially a sitemap that documents word counts, audio/video duration and complexity. We run this via excel template and have a handful of formulas to estimate total localization effort. 

Hope this helps!