Platform access level: Org Admins. Translation instructions is part of organization-level Settings, so only Org Admins can open it. Managers have access to everything else in Arist, including their own team's settings, but not to organization-level Settings pages like this one.
When Arist translates a course, your product names, your acronyms, and the industry terms your organization has agreed on are translated along with the rest of the text unless you say otherwise. Translation instructions are where you settle that once for each language, so your reviewers stop sending back the same corrections course after course.
1. Finding the Translation instructions page
Open Settings and choose Translation instructions in the sidebar, just below System messages.
The heading counts the instructions your organization has saved, so it reads zero until you add the first one.
Each saved instruction gets a row listing its language and the opening of its text. Select the row to open the full text. Translations still run while the page is empty, and Arist translates without a glossary.
Note: Translation instructions is still rolling out, so it may not be in your Settings sidebar yet. If you do not see it, ask your Arist Customer Success contact.
2. Writing an instruction for a language
Choose Create new to open the Create a new instruction panel. Both of its fields are required.
Open the Language dropdown and choose which language this guidance is for. It reads Select a language until you pick one.
Write your terminology rules for that language in the Instructions box, as plain sentences, the way you would brief a new translator.
Choose Create instruction.
There is no character limit on the Instructions box, so a glossary your team already maintains can go in whole.
Cover the wording only someone inside your organization would know:
Terms that stay as they are: Name the product names, brand names, and acronyms that must never be translated.
Terms with an agreed translation: Give the exact word your organization has settled on, so every translation uses that one rather than a synonym.
Terms to avoid: List any wording your organization does not want used, and say what to use instead.
Formality: Say whether the formal or the informal form of address is right for your learners, in every language that distinguishes the two.
Tip: Write your first instruction for the language you translate into most, then translate one short course and read it. What comes back shows you which terms need a rule.
3. Choosing between one language and every language
The Language dropdown lists Default (all languages) first, above the individual languages. Choose it for guidance that applies whatever language a course is going into, such as a product name that must never be translated.
The two kinds add together. When Arist translates into a language, it reads your default text first and then the text saved for that specific language, and both reach the translation. A term you protect once in the default stays protected everywhere, so each language's own instruction only has to carry what is particular to it.
Each language holds one instruction, and the default counts as one of them. If you pick a language that already has an instruction, the panel tells you that an instruction for that language already exists, so edit the existing one instead.
4. Knowing where your instructions reach
Once saved, an instruction applies on its own, and the writers and managers running translations do not need access to this page. Your terminology reaches two places:
The lesson text: Everything Arist translates in the course itself follows your rules.
The text inside generated images: Images that get regenerated during a translation follow the same glossary, so a diagram's labels match the words in the lesson beside it.
Content guidelines shape a translation too. They carry the voice, tone, and wording Arist applies to everything it writes, and they are the general layer, while your per-language translation instructions are the more specific one and win wherever the two disagree. Setting Up Content Guidelines covers that side, and Translating an Existing Course covers running a translation.
5. Updating or removing an instruction
To change what an instruction says, select its row, or open the menu at the end of the row and choose Edit. Rewrite the text, then choose Save. The language is fixed, so delete an instruction saved against the wrong language and create it again.
To remove one, open the same row menu and choose Delete, then confirm. Deleting frees that language up, so you can create a fresh instruction for it.
Either change reaches the next translation your teams run. Courses already translated keep the wording they were given. When a term has been wrong for a while, fix the instruction and re-translate the courses that carry the old wording.
Important: Save your terminology before your teams translate in bulk. A rule added afterwards shapes the next translation rather than the twenty already delivered, and re-translating a course learners have already started interrupts them.
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Note: Need help at any point? Reach out to your Arist Customer Success contact, or email [email protected].