How to check a Storyline XLIFF translation before you import it
The translated file came back from the vendor. Here is what breaks on import, how to find it by hand, and how to find it in one drop.
How Storyline translation works
Storyline exports the course text as an XLIFF file (File → Localization → Export), in XLIFF 1.2 or 2.0. The translator fills in the target segments and sends it back. Storyline imports it (File → Localization → Import) and replaces the text on every slide. Nothing checks the file in between.
What goes wrong
- Untranslated segments. The target is empty, or still the source text, and the imported course shows English in the middle of a Spanish slide.
- Variable placeholders. A Storyline reference like %UserName% inside a segment gets translated, split or dropped, and the slide shows the literal placeholder or nothing at all.
- Text overflow. A translation substantially longer than its source clips inside a fixed text box.
- Structural damage. Tags removed or reordered by the translation tool, so the import fails or lands text on the wrong object.
The manual check
Open the XLIFF in a text editor or a CAT tool, search for empty target elements, then read every segment that contains a percent sign. For a course with 1,500 segments that is an afternoon, and it has to be repeated for every language.
Do it in StoryAudit
Translation Check needs only the XLIFF file. It is the one mode that does not need the .story at all. Drop it and get:
- Untranslated segments: empty targets, and targets that still match the source. Translation Check
- Variable-placeholder risk: any segment where a %variable% reference did not survive translation intact. Translation Check
- Likely overflow: translated segments substantially longer than their source, worth a look before they clip on a slide. Translation Check
- An optional machine-drafted first pass for whatever is still untranslated, using the on-device translation model built into Chrome or Edge, with nothing sent to a server. Every drafted segment is marked in the exported file itself (needs-review-translation in XLIFF 1.2, a note in 2.0), so any translation tool shows it as an unreviewed draft. A segment whose placeholder cannot be preserved with confidence is left in the source language rather than guessed at. Translation Check → generate draft translation
- Waive or restore findings with a reviewer name, date and reason, and export the report as text, PDF, CSV or email. Translation Check → findings
Nothing uploads; the file is read in your browser. No Storyline license needed.
See the checks on the bundled sample course, then run the XLIFF on your desk with a free trial.
Open the live demo →Vendors who don't take XLIFF
Course Docs exports a two-column translation template (source and translation) from the slide-by-slide contents, for vendors who work in spreadsheets. The XLIFF route is still the one that imports back cleanly, so use the template for review and the XLIFF for the round trip.