"The Localization View"

The Localization View is the visual centerpiece of the Localization feature set within articy:draft X. It is accessible in all areas that offer localizable objects or properties (Flow, Entities, Locations, Documents, Template design).



Open the Localization View by clicking the selector icon 1 in the upper right corner of the screen.



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The Reference language 2 will in most cases be set to the primary language, but it can be set to any secondary language as well via the drop-down selection. The content for the Reference language is shown in the Reference language column 3.
Current 4 is the language that you want to monitor at this moment. It can be changed via the drop-down and its content is displayed in the Current language column 5.
The Object.Property column 6 shows all localizable objects and their properties. Separate objects are emphasized by alternating background colors and indentation 7. Each block is one object with all its corresponding properties.

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Each object starts with the object type in icon form and the object’s name in its top line 8. Next are the object’s properties 9. The amount and type of properties depends on the object type. Here it is a Dialogue Fragment with its properties for preview text (called menu text in the Flow view), stage directions, and its main text property, as in the dialogue line itself.

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To focus on the properties that have content empty properties can be hidden from view, by toggling the “Show empty properties” button. Empty properties of the Reference language shown (default setting) 10 and hidden 11.
If there are properties that are not supposed to be localized or that are never used in your project, they can be deactivated right from the Localization settings to not clutter the localization view, or any exports at a later stage.



The Sorting option 12 is only available in the Flow’s Localization View. It handles in what way the branching flow structure is sorted and displayed in this linear representation.




There are three options to choose from: In “Depth first” 13 the algorithm will create the longest possible branch of connected nodes, before going to the next branch. The “Breadth first” 14 option always lists all options of a branching point before following a branch further. “Shortest” is a mix between breadth and depth and sorts shorter branches before longer ones. It depends on the layout of the Flow and personal preference which option might be most suitable for you.

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One thing that is not easy to visualize is the non-linearity of a Flow in the linear representation of the Localization View. To improve the overview, occurrences where the following object is not a direct neighbor of the previous one, are marked with an orange dashed line 15.

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Depth 16 controls what is shown in the Localization View. It is always based on the layer you are currently submerged into. It has the options “Only the current object” – depth limit 0, “Current object and immediate children” – depth limit 1, and “Everything from the current object” which displays everything that can be reached hierarchically from the current object (default setting).
The Translate button 17 is by default not visible. It is only shown if you connect your DeepL credentials with articy:draft. If you have a DeepL account and have it connected, you can easily translate selected properties of the content shown in the localization view. Check out the the DeepL translation entry for information on the setup.
With the Filter 18 you can quickly find what you need. Check for a certain term to make sure it was consistently translated or filter for a specific property type.
The Voice-over 19 column holds the voice-over files belonging to the respective lines’ object properties. The column is only visible if the current language was marked as a VO language in the language settings. The voice over line is tied to the current language. The column can be filled manually by dragging and dropping files from the project’s assets or it can be populated with the VO export / import. UPDATE LINK. It is not possible to drop a VO file if the corresponding property type has VO set to inactive in the Localization settings. In this case the field will be marked by a criss-cross pattern 20
With the Status columns for current language and VO 21 you can mark if an entry is In Progress, Final, or Outdated. This can be set manually within articy:draft or via the Localization and VO exports / imports UPDATE LINK.If you make a change to the Primary language, entries for secondary languages that have the status Final will automatically be set to Outdated, to signal that an update to the localizations might also be necessary.
In the Remarks 22 column, you can leave remarks for team members, or reminders for yourself.


To listen to a VO sample, hover over the waveform and click the Play button 23 that appears in the lower right corner. Another click pauses the playback. Move the playhead 24 to any position on the wave form by left clicking. Highlight a section of the file, which then will be played in a loop, with left click, hold and drag 25.