Quick editing of text using XML import/Export
With the growing popularity of Adobe Captivate in the e-learning community across the globe, there comes the need of easy scalability.
A demo created in one language should be easily converted to another. Instead of redoing the project from scratch, CA3 and later versions provide a feature called XML Import /Export to effectively address conversion from one language to another.
A three step procedure could solve the problem:
1. Export English demo to XML by File->Export->To XML.
2. Replace the text to the desired localized text in the XML file.
3. Import the updates XML file by File->Import->From XML.
Adobe Captivate uses XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) version 1.2 for this feature and UTF -16 encoding.To know more about XLIFF, you could visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLIFF
Note that each object /text has a one to one correspondence in the XML file. If we have deleted the object in our project, and import the original XML file, it will not add a new object. Similarly, if we have added removed a XML tag for an object, no changes would be made to the Captivate file when the XML is imported.
For a simple text caption, the following information is exported to the XML.
<group cp:datatype="x-object" extype="69" id="10124" restype="x-cp-items">
<group cp:datatype="x-object" extype="19" id="10184" restype="x-cp-text-caption">
<group cp:datatype="x-rtf" datatype="rtf">
<group cp:datatype="x-paragraph" css-style="text-align:center">
<trans-unit id="10184-19-1">
<source>
<g css-style="font-family:'Arial, nil';color:#0000FF;font-size:12.0pt" ctype="x-cp-font" id="10184-19-1-1">Type caption text here</g>
</source>
</trans-unit>
</group>
The user can not only change the text but also change the style, font, color and size.
The Import/Export XML can also be used to change font, size and color of the following:
- Text captions
- Text Animations
- Rollover captions
- Default text and correct entries in Text entry box.
- Success/Failure/Hint captions and button text for all interactive objects.
- Text buttons
- Slide notes
- Text and rollover captions in rollover slidelet.
- Quiz buttons and feedback captions
- Project info
- project start and end text messages for password and expiry messages
Apart from changing text form one language to another, it can be used to effectively edit the above from a single file.
Comments
I'm translating quite a lot of simulations, assessments, but mostly prefer for captions the Export Captions (to a WORD-document). I understand now that working with the XML offers more than this workflow in one file, but editing is less easy. Just a question about the Word-files (import/export): why is this limited to Word2003, will it be adapted for Word2007?
Posted by: Lieve Weymeis | May 12, 2009 6:54 PM
Hi, I am trying to do exaclty what you describe above right now as we have a client who is inquiring about the possibility of localizing several Captivate course we built for them in English to Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese. I can paste the localized text into the Captivate textbox directly and it displays fine in English, Hebrew, or Arabic. Chinese does not seem to work at all. If I use either the export to XML or the "Project Captions and Closed Captions..." options when I import the localized text back into the project I see question marks (???? ?? ???) instead of the localized text. If I use a Western lanuage such as German in the export/import process then I see the proper text. Why is the text displaying correctly in Hebrew and Arabic when pasted directly into the textbox in Captivate, but not rendering when imported through the export/import process?
Posted by: Ian | May 13, 2009 2:32 AM
Ian the reason you are gettin ??? is because the font family is not set right in the xml file. make sure you set it to a arabic font and then import the xml. it should hopefully work fine
Posted by: amjad | May 24, 2009 3:03 PM
I am working on a pre localization assesment for a client and experiencing similar issues to Lieve's. Import seems to work only for Win-1252 character set. Anything out of this turn into question marks even though font updates properly. I tested with CCJK as well as eastren EU characters and none seem to work. This really limits the abilities of this export/import issue.
Unfortunately there is not much information on the web regarding this issue.
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