Multi-language Course Builder (Manual Translation)

Admin level access is needed in order to create and translate Playbook courses, for more information refer to the Access Levels for Playbook section within this article. To use our auto-translation feature, refer to our Multi-language Course Builder for Playbook (Auto-translation) article.

In this article:
Multi-Language Course Builder Best Practices
Translating a New Course

Multi-Language Course Builder Best Practices

The Multi-Language Course builder offers a great way to facilitate dual language training. Alchemy suggests the following best practices when translating training content to ensure its integrity. 

• Verify that the information is quality assured by a native speaker.
• Ensure the content is reviewed for dialectal variations, contextual sensitivity, and culturally insensitive or unsuitable terminology.
• Text will be translated in Playbook. Media added to the course, such as documents, videos, and images will need to be translated prior to upload. 

Translating a New Course

1. Navigate to Activities and select Courses. 
2. Select the "+" button to create a new course.
3. Select Alchemy Playbook.
   
4. Enter the course title (typed in the language of the course) and choose from the drop-down selection the Course language, click NEXT.
5. You are now ready to start adding content to your course.

   • After adding content, click NEXT.
     

     As a best practice, Alchemy recommends that you fully build out the entire course in the 'parent' language before performing translations.

6. To continue adding more content, click on ADD MORE, to select from the content options. 
7. After building the 'parent' language of your course, you are now ready to begin crafting your other language offerings of the course.
   • At the top-center of your screen click the Language dropdown selection. Then click Add Languages.
      

8. Select the languages you would like to manually translate. After making your selections, click NEXT. 
   

   This functionality supports text input in multiple languages, including Arabic right-to-left scripts.

9. An Add Translations messaging will appear. Select ADD THEM MYSELF.
   

10. Now that you have made your selections, correctly input the translated titles for the corresponding language(s). Once completed, click SAVE.
    

    Note: Arabic text in right‑to‑left (RTL) languages will automatically align right within the text box, ensuring proper display without additional settings. To use RTL scripts when building a course, make sure your RTL input source is set to Arabic. Typically located in your device’s Settings or System Preferences.

11. A successful save will produce a green ribbon message at the bottom-center of the screen with a note to review all text, photos and videos for accuracy. Be sure to refer to the Best Practices section of this article.
    
12. To switch to the new language, click the language selection in the top-center of your screen and click on the chevron next to the trash icon.
    
13. For each element of the course that was associated with the original language, you will see orange warning messages informing you that elements for translation may be missing. 
    
     
14. To correct these items, click the pencil icon to Edit that specific course element. To simplify your translation needs, and read the parent language side by side, Alchemy recommends you click on the translation symbol like you see below, and click on Add Them Myself.
     
15. You will repeat this step for every added element. After attending to missing translation elements, and a careful review - administrators will be able to save, close, and choose to publish their content. Simply choose which languages you wish to publish.
    • If your newly added language offering is missing content it will not allow you to publish that course.
      

Refer to our Adding Content to Previously Translated Course article for step-by-step instruction on translating newly added content using the auto translate and manual translate feature. 

For general information about building or publishing a Playbook course, please see How to Build a Playbook Course in Manager. To enable subtitles for your dual language course, refer to our article Using Dual Language Subtitles.