Workiva Support Center

Note: This feature isn't available for all solutions. If you have questions about availability, reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

You can import and export a specific file type used by a translation management system (TMS) between Workiva and the external TMS. By using this process, you can preserve numeric linking, layout, and formatting. Using this feature requires knowledge of translation management systems (TMS) and XLIFF.

If you want to learn how to translate text through a machine translation, read Translate text and documents using machine translations.

Note: Manually edited XLIFF files outside of TMS isn't supported.

Manage language projects

A language project contains all of the imported translations of a specific language. We recommend having one language project for each language.

Note: Only document owners can add and edit language projects.

Create a language project

To create a language project:

1. Open the External tab in the Language Translation panel.
2. Click on the plus sign .
   

3. Add in the project’s details such as the project name, target language, and formats. You can also choose to exclude tables and section names from translation or include XBRL.

   Tip: You may want to check mark these options if you already have translated tables. Tables will still be in the preview in their original language. Remember to replace line items when you’ve converted to a new live document.

4. As an optional step, you can open Advanced locale options to add in any additional details such as custom language codes, formatting, and units.
5. Click Create to finish.
   

Add a locale code (optional)

When you’re creating a language project, you have the option to add a locale code in the advanced settings. If you require a specific regional code or your regional language variance isn’t provided in the dropdown locale list, add your language code here.
It’s important that you make sure that your settings are correct when you create your project. Check with your translator for specific codes to use.

At Workiva, our locale code format is language code_REGIONAL CODE (e.g. en_US for United States’ English language).

Edit a language project

After you create a language project, you can change any of its details.

To edit:

1. Open the External tab in the Language Translation panel.
2. Go to the language project that you want to edit and click on its three dots.
3. Select Manage language project.
   
4. Make any changes and click Save changes.

Delete a language project

You can delete a language project along with its previous translations.

Note: Deleting a language project will prevent imports that are associated with the project.

To delete:

1. Open the External tab in the Language Translation panel.
2. Go to the language project that you want to edit and click on its three dots.
3. Select Delete language project.
   
    
4. Click Delete to confirm.

Prepare for translation

You can prepare your entire report or specific sections to be translated. When you export, the exported file type is an XLIFF file type that can be given to a TMS.

Export for translation

Note: Only section owners can export for translation.

To export:

1. Open the External tab in the Language Translation panel.
2. Select the Prepare for translation icon.
   
3. Select a language project in the dropdown.
4. Choose any sections that you want to export.
5. Once you’re done, click Export.

6. On export, a XLIFF file will be automatically downloaded to your computer for you to send off for translation.

   Note: Make sure that your translator provides you with a .XLIFF 1.2 file. This will allow you to easily import your translation back into Workiva.

   
    

Note: The content in text links will be sent for translation. However, text links will be removed when you receive your translated XLIFF file. Only numeric links will be maintained across translations.

In Prepare for translation, you can select to export Document-level content. We recommend exporting this at least once in your process to make sure that you've covered everything.

For Requires translation?, a row will be marked as Yes if there's been text content changes, text formatting changes, or adding a chart. Some examples of what will be marked as No are: design and layout changes, and adding a table without text.

Import a translation

Once you have your translations ready, you can import them back into Workiva.

Note: Only document owners and section owners can import translations.

To import:

1. Open the External tab in the Language Translation panel.
2. Select the Import icon.
   
3. Choose a file to import.
   
4. Click Import.

In each preview, you can open, export to PDF, or delete them. These previews aren’t editable. If you want to make edits, convert to a new live document. When you look at your previews, you may notice layout changes after translation. This is because of the variances of languages. You can address these changes once you’ve converted it to a new live document.

Note: After a translation preview document has been converted to a new live document, subsequent translation imports won't automatically show up in the live document.

On a language project, you can see the most recent translation or click on View previous translations to see previous translation previews. As you send sections for translation, we will combine them together in each updated preview.

Below is an example of how adding translations will look like:

1. In here, you're starting out with your English report that's going to be translated to French.
   
2. The first section has been sent out for translation, and reimported into Workiva.
   
3. Another section has been translated and imported to this report, resulting in all previously translated sections showing in the updated preview.

Update translation previews

In the event that there are design or layout changes made on your original language document, you can manually update a translation preview to the latest version. To update, select sections or the entire document within Prepare for translation and click Update.

Preview translations

When you import a translation, Workiva generates a preview that shows the cumulative translations for a specific language project.

As you translate sections and reimport them into Workiva, you build your translated document over time. Each preview shows the latest translation for each section. If a section has not changed since the previous translation, Workiva stitches that translation into the new preview. If the section has changed, which is indicated by the Yes in the Required translation? column during the Prepare for translation step, the previous translation isn't stitched into the preview.

Each import creates a new preview. Earlier previews remain available so you can view previous translations. Sections that have not changed appear in the latest preview through stitching, while sections with updated content appear only in earlier previews until they are translated again.

Note: Text and numeric links won’t appear in the preview. However, numeric values will still remain. When converting to live, you’ll be able to see those numeric links. Text links are still removed on conversion to a live document.

Delete a translation preview

You can delete a translation preview if you don't want it in your language project.

Note: When you delete a preview, you’re not deleting the previous translation's upload. Workiva keeps all of your imported translations and will use those when generating a new preview.

To delete a translation preview:

1. Go to the translation preview that you want to delete and click on its three dots.
2. Select Delete translation preview.
   

Convert to a new live document

Note: You must have the Copy Manager role to convert to live documents.

By converting to a live document, you can edit it to make final changes to your report. Any XBRL tagging that you want to include in the new live document should be completed prior to sending your final XLIFF out for translation, even if there are no content changes.

Note: XBRL on text links will be disconnect in the conversion process. You will need to reconnect XBRL on text links after converting. 

To convert:

1. Click on the option menu from a preview, and select Open translation preview.
   
2. In the toolbar, select Save As.
3. Select Convert to new document from the drop down.
   
4. Rename your document’s name if needed. If you need to make changes to your settings later on, you can do it in Manage language project.
5. Click Convert.
   

Make sure to check your formatting and layout after translation, because things might’ve changed due to language variances.

The new live document will not receive translation updates. You’ll need to manually update.
To manually update, you can copy and paste newly translated sections into your new live document and remove your out of date section. Alternatively, you may manually copy and paste text content between your updated translation preview and new live document if you only need to update a portion of your section.

Note: From the translation preview section outline, use the Copy option and paste the content into a live document to ensure numeric links are carried over correctly.

User permissions

Depending on your permissions, you’ll have the ability to do certain actions. Make sure that you have the correct permissions assigned.

Translation tips

• If you're translating to an APAC language, keep in mind that you'll need to adjust your fonts. To learn more, read Multinational Companies Expanding to APAC.
• The format of new dates added will change. You may edit the default value format styles for dates. To learn more on value format styles, read Use style guides for documents.
• View our community post to learn more about external translating in Workiva.

Related article:

• XBRL in report translations FAQs