SharePoint Site Collection Design: A Tutorial on Creating a Multilingual Environment

SharePoint is a powerful platform for building collaboration and content management solutions. It provides a wide range of features and functionalities that can be customized to meet the specific needs of an organization. One important aspect of SharePoint site collection design is creating a multilingual environment. In this tutorial, we will explore the key concepts and best practices for implementing multilingual features in SharePoint.

What is a Multilingual Environment?

In a multilingual environment, content is available in multiple languages, allowing users from different language backgrounds to access and interact with the same information. This is particularly important for organizations operating in global markets or with diverse user bases. SharePoint provides built-in support for creating multilingual sites, allowing you to create and manage content in multiple languages within a single site collection.

Setting Up the Multilingual Features

Before you can start creating a multilingual environment in SharePoint, you need to ensure that the necessary language packs are installed. Language packs provide the user interface translations for SharePoint. You can download and install the language packs from the Microsoft website.

Once the language packs are installed, you can enable the multilingual features in SharePoint. To do this, go to the site settings of your site collection and navigate to the "Language settings" section. Here, you can enable the "Variations" feature, which allows you to create and manage content in multiple languages.

Creating Variation Labels

Variation labels are used to define the languages that will be supported in your site collection. Each variation label represents a specific language, and you can create multiple labels to support different languages. To create a variation label, go to the site settings and navigate to the "Variation labels" section. Here, you can add a new label and specify the language and other settings for the label.

Once you have created the variation labels, SharePoint will automatically create the necessary variation sites for each label. These variation sites are used to store and manage the content in different languages. You can customize the variation sites to match the branding and design of your main site.

Creating Multilingual Pages

Once the multilingual features are enabled and the variation labels are created, you can start creating multilingual pages in SharePoint. Multilingual pages allow you to create and manage content in different languages within the same site collection.

To create a multilingual page, navigate to the site settings and select "Create new page" from the options. Here, you can select the variation label for the page and specify the language for the content. You can then add and edit the content of the page using the SharePoint page editor.

Translating Content

SharePoint provides a built-in translation management feature that allows you to easily translate the content from the source language to the target languages. When you create a multilingual page, SharePoint automatically creates a copy of the page for each target language. You can then use the translation management feature to update and translate the content of the page.

The translation management feature provides a user-friendly interface for managing the translation process. You can assign translators, track the progress of the translations, and review and approve the translated content. Once the translations are complete, SharePoint will automatically publish the translated pages to the variation sites.

Best Practices for Multilingual Site Collection Design

When designing a multilingual site collection in SharePoint, it is important to follow some best practices to ensure an effective and efficient implementation. Here are a few key best practices:

1. Plan your site structure

Before creating a multilingual site collection, carefully plan the structure of your sites and subsites. Consider the language requirements of your users and create a logical hierarchy that allows for easy navigation and content management.

2. Use variations for content translation

SharePoint variations are the recommended method for managing multilingual content. Use variation labels and variation sites to create and manage content in different languages. This allows for efficient content translation and ensures consistency across languages.

3. Provide language-specific navigation

To enhance the user experience, provide language-specific navigation menus and links. This allows users to easily switch between languages and find the content they are looking for. Consider using SharePoint's audience targeting feature to display language-specific navigation to the appropriate users.

4. Test and validate the translations

Before publishing the translated content, thoroughly test and validate the translations. Ensure that the content is accurately translated and that the formatting and layout are consistent across languages. It is also important to involve native speakers or professional translators in the validation process.

Conclusion

Creating a multilingual environment in SharePoint site collection design is essential for organizations operating in global markets or with diverse user bases. By enabling the multilingual features and following best practices, you can provide a seamless and localized experience to your users, regardless of their language preference.

Whether you are using SharePoint for project management, document management, or enterprise content management, incorporating multilingual features can greatly enhance the effectiveness and usability of your SharePoint solution.

By planning your site structure, using variations for content translation, providing language-specific navigation, and testing and validating the translations, you can ensure a successful implementation of a multilingual SharePoint site collection.