Cloning vs Translating

Understand the difference between cloning and translating and when to use them

SparkLearn offers two features for creating new articles based on an existing source article: cloning and translating.

Cloning

Cloning creates a whole new copy of the article with no attachment back to the source. By default, the clone will be created in the same language as the source.

Since the clone is a separate article it will have to be managed on its own; the system will no longer associate the newly cloned article with the source article. System features specific to translating (i.e. exporting XLIFF of the original document) will not apply to the clone.

Cloning will also clone translations of the source article. The featured image from the source will be cloned to all articles as well. Consider deleting translations of a cloned article if you don’t intend to translate it again.

Create a Clone

1. Navigate to an article and click on the Clone tab
2. Select the Clone button to create a new article for review and publication
3. By default, the title of cloned articles will be appended with “- Cloned”
4. Cloned articles behave the same as articles created from scratch

Translating

Translating content creates a new version of an article in a different language and maintains a relationship to the original source. This relationship helps you keep different translations similar and allows for the use of external translations via XLF. Translations can also be created manually in the web interface.

Because translations are linked back to the source article, some fields (such as the Topic or Featured Image) either cannot be changed in a translation or will affect all translations of the article.

Which should I use?