Use Language-Specific Screen Replicas
When the app looks different in another language, a step can carry its own Screen Replica for that language, so learners see the screen they will actually use rather than the English one.
What is a language-specific Screen Replica?
It is a Screen Replica that appears only for learners taking the Lesson in one particular language. Text in a Lesson is translated field by field, but the screen itself is an image of an application, and that application may look different in another language.
When no language-specific Replica is set, the English Replica is reused for every language. That is usually the right outcome, and it is the default.
Note: In the Lesson Builder, while you are working in a language other than English, a step that has no language-specific Replica shows a Using English Fallback badge on its screen. That badge is how you tell the difference between a step that is deliberately reusing English and one nobody has looked at.
When is one worth building?
Use a language-specific screen |
Keep the English screen |
|---|---|
| The translated application has a different layout, so the elements are not where the English screen puts them. | The screen looks the same in every language, which is common for icon-driven and numeric screens. |
| The screen carries text baked into the image that cannot be translated as an element. | The screen's text sits in elements that translate cleanly. |
| Extracting and translating every text element on the screen would be more work than capturing the screen again in the target language. | Only a label or two differs and the elements handle it. |
Best practice: Do this by exception, not by default. Every language-specific screen is another asset to capture, maintain, and re-capture when the application changes, and its elements have to be tagged before the step will work. Reach for one when the translated screen genuinely differs, and let the fallback do its job everywhere else.
How do you assign one to a step?
Step |
Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Open the Lesson in the Lesson Builder. |
| 2 | Open the language dropdown in the top bar and choose the target language. The Lesson Builder reloads in that language. |
| 3 | Find the step you want. A step with no language-specific Replica shows the Using English Fallback badge. |
| 4 | In the row of controls under the step's screen, click Screen Library. |
| 5 | Choose the screen. The selected card takes a green outline. |
| 6 | Click Select For Spanish. The button is named for the language you are working in, so it reads Select For German in German. |
| 7 | The step now shows the screen you chose, and the Using English Fallback badge is gone. |
| 8 | Click Update to save. |
| 9 | Tag the elements on the new screen, then check the step's controls. See below. |
Note: The assignment is not saved until you click Update. Publish Version is unavailable while a Lesson has unsaved changes, and leaving the Lesson Builder raises an Unsaved Changes! prompt with Cancel, Don't Save, and Save.
Do the elements need tagging?
Yes. Assigning the screen is the first half of the job, not the whole of it.
A Lesson step does not point at a picture, it points at elements on that picture. The button a learner taps, the field they type into, and the prompt that highlights it are all attached to a tagged element. A language-specific screen is a different image with different elements, so the elements on it have to be tagged before the step can work.
Step |
Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | With the language-specific screen assigned, click Tag Elements in the row of controls under the step's screen, or click Edit to open the screen in the Replica Maker. |
| 2 | Tag the elements the step uses, the same ones you tagged on the English screen. |
| 3 | Return to the step and check its controls, so the step acts on the elements you just tagged. |
| 4 | Click Update, then preview the step in that language to confirm the prompt lands where you expect. |
Best practice: Budget for the tagging when you decide whether a step needs its own screen. A language-specific screen is not a swap, it is a small rebuild of that step for that language, and it is the reason to use these by exception rather than by habit.
What if the screen does not exist yet?
The same row of controls under the step's screen holds the other options.
Control |
What it does |
|---|---|
| Screen Library | Choose an existing Screen Replica for this language. |
| Upload Screen | Add a new screen for this step. |
| Edit | Open the screen in the Replica Maker. |
| Tag Elements | Work with the elements on the screen. |
To capture the screen in the target language first, run the application in that language and capture it the same way you captured the English screens, then convert it into a Replica. It arrives in the Screen Library like any other, ready to assign.
What else is language-specific?
Screens are not the only asset that varies by language. Lesson titles, descriptions, and thumbnails are all held per language, which is why a Lesson opened in a language it has not been translated into shows an empty title and an empty thumbnail well.
The Translations screen flags these as it finds them. A row carrying a Missing Non Text Asset warning has its own Fix link, which opens the Lesson Builder in that language, in a new tab, so you can supply what is missing.
Frequently asked questions
Does a language-specific screen change the English Lesson?
No. The assignment belongs to the language you were working in. English is untouched, and so is every other language.
Do you have to set one for every step?
No, and you should not. Set one only where the screen genuinely differs in that language. Every other step reuses the English screen.
How do you tell which steps are using English?
Work through the Lesson in the target language and look for the Using English Fallback badge on each step's screen.
Can the language-specific screen be a different size from the English one?
It can be assigned, so the size does not have to match. Whether it should differ is another question, since a screen with a different shape will present differently to a learner. Capture the target-language screen the way you captured the English one.
Do the step's prompts and hints carry over to the new screen?
The text does, because text is translated per language on the Translations screen. What the prompt points at does not, because that is an element on the screen. Tag the elements on the language-specific screen and check the step's controls afterward.
Where do language-specific screens come from?
The Screen Library, the same place as every other Screen Replica. Capture or upload the screen in the target language, convert it, then assign it to the step.
Where can you get help?
If you need help, start with your manager, then your Local Administrator. If additional assistance is needed, your Local Administrator can submit a support ticket to Skyllful.
Skyllful Knowledge Base | Content Developers, Instructional Designers