Use the locale function to categorize assets and Experiences

Technology has made the world seem a lot smaller, but it can be overwhelming to organize information across different countries and over many languages. The locale feature is here to help. Not only does it give Experiences the option to hold up to 20 language versions, it also allows you to categorize each asset by specific metadata. Adding a Locale to assets in your content library is the first step in localizing your Showpad instance, and works hand in hand with Content Profiles to help users only see content that’s relevant to them.

The locale function will assist in creating content profiles so your users see content relevant to their location, language, and area of expertise. For example, if certain users are launching a new product in another country, even if they don’t live there, they can automatically get relevant content delivered to their Showpad instance anywhere in the world. It will work hand in hand with your current system of organizing tags by location. Our dynamic content filtering feature combined with content profiles allows admins to no longer duplicate Experiences to serve the local needs.

 Key features

• Target relevant content to users based on language, region, area of expertise and more
• Easily make changes in bulk for users with matching content profiles
• No need to duplicate Experiences to work in different languages (excludes Selector)
• Country codes are ISO 3166
• Language codes are ISO 639

You need this to succeed

• Administrator access to Showpad
• A plan to organize content by region, language, or area of expertise

The quick way to awesomeness

• Access your Global library
• Edit locale information of assets in bulk or one at a time
• Click Apply

Do this step by step

1. Navigate to your library, where you will see the Assets & Experiences tab selected.
   
2. You can add locale information one of two ways. To edit an individual asset’s location and language settings, click on the asset. You will see a detailed asset pane on the right side of your screen. Hover over the Locale section and click the pencil.
   
3. Choose the languages and/or countries that apply to the piece of content. Showpad will remember the ones recently used, and will make recommendations to help speed things along for you. Click Save.
   
4. To edit assets in bulk, select the boxes of the assets you want to categorize. Then click Edit.
   
5. You will see a list of categories you can expand to edit in bulk. Choose the arrow for Locale. If one of the assets already has a language chosen, you can tick the box to apply that language to the others selected. You may also type in the name of the country or language you are looking for, and Showpad will fetch it for you.
   
6. Click Apply. You may make changes to your Locale categories at any time. If an asset is in the Global library, you will be notified that it may offer limited categorizing capabilities.

Going from tags to locale 

You may have already set up a process to categorize locations and languages by using tags. If you prefer, you can filter by the specific regional tags you already use, and update them in bulk to the Locale feature. 

Here's how:

1. Under the Assets and Experiences library, choose the Tags filter and select the tag(s) you’d like to replace with a locale. When you begin typing, suggested existing tags will appear to select. Please note that all Experiences except Selector support the Locale function.
   
2. Select the assets you would like to replace with a locale. You can mass select by choosing the box in the menu bar. Click Edit.
   
3. Under the Locale section of the asset editor, choose the language and/or country that corresponds to your tag. Click Apply.
   
4. You can bulk edit to remove the tag by repeating these steps and editing the tag instead of the locale. Now your users will be able to find assets by language and country instead of by tags alone.
   
   
   For more information and tips on organizing your library, see this article. Happy organizing!