Hi to all,

I’d like to share with you an experience/procedure I used when managing multilingual and multi-layered InDesign IDML file(s) using SDL Studio 2015. I will be happy to know your comments/suggestions.

Foreword

I have been requested to manage 12 InDesign IDML multilingual and multi-layered files in 10 different languages, and process/prepare them using SDL Studio.

What follows assumes that you have Adobe InDesign (CS6 or CC) and SDL Studio 2015 installed on your machine.

Structure of the original InDesign IDML file

When opening in Adobe InDesign one of the received IDML files, I had this 10 layers structure (excluding English):

And this layers structure applies to all individual 12 IDML files.

Procedure to manage files

1. First of all, working in InDesign, I locked and hidden all layers, leaving visible only the pertinent language (e.g., in this procedure, Portuguese), maintaining locked and hidden all other languages.
   
   
2. I saved new individual IDML files pertinent to the single language layer made visible, attaching to the file name the proper language ISO code (e.g. pt-PT) suffix.
   
   
3. At the end of step 1 I obtained 12 new IDML_pt-PT files.
   
   
4. I imported each new IDML_pt-PT file in SDL Studio filtering only the layer I made visible, unchecking the option File Types > Adobe InDesign CS4-CC IDML > Common > Extract content of hidden layers, to create a list of corresponding SDLXLIFF files (e.g. _Introduction_pt-PT.idml.sdlxliff).
   
   
5. At this point SDLXLIFF files can be opened and processed in SDL Studio Editor as usual.
   
   
6. When the translation has been completed, or when receiving back the SDLXLIFF translated files, you will be able to recreate (SHIFT+F12, or File > Save Target As) single language IDML files and the translation will be in their proper single language layer.
   
   
7. At this point, as it is supposed that you must deliver a final IDML file containing all 10 languages in their proper layers, you should open in Adobe InDesign the original “all languages” IDML file and the corresponding newly created single language IDML file.
   
   
8. Now it is a simple task of copy and paste between two InDesign documents simultaneously opened. Copy the content of the individual language translated document created in step 6, and paste it in the proper position of the pertinent layer of the final “all languages” and, obviously, save it.
   
   
9. Repeat steps 1–8 for all IDML files/languages and be careful, concentrate on what you are doing, and avoid distractions, because, as in this case, you must cope with dozens of files.

The process appears tricky (and in fact it is) and I will be happy if someone of you have a possible alternative.

Thank you for your attention and I hope this might help.