Storyline export for translation, Word or XLIFF

Send XLIFF when your translator works in a translation tool, and whenever the course has bulleted lists, numbered lists or custom paragraph spacing, which Articulate says a Word export can break. Send Word when people translate or review by hand and want a screenshot of each slide next to the text. Both exports sit under File > Localization > XLIFF/Word Translation in Storyline 360 and leave the same things behind: closed captions, trigger conditions, player text labels and variable names. For XLIFF, pick the version your translator's tool reads, 1.2 or 2.0, and import the result into a copy of the project.

Articulate says the enhanced Word export and import take seconds rather than minutes. Your trouble starts at import: a bullet list whose formatting comes back broken, a Next button still in English, a file your translator's tool may not open.

Should a Storyline translation go out as Word or XLIFF?

Send Word if a person will read the text and type the translation; anything a translation tool will carry goes as XLIFF. Articulate's guide calls XLIFF a format commonly used for translation services and computer programs, and the Word export an easily readable list for translating by hand, though it also calls Word great for machine translation.

If your translator's tool prefers Word, the single table option builds one table of the whole course for computer-aided translation. That option costs you context, because thumbnails and the single table are mutually exclusive, and by default each slide and layer gets its own table.

What does the Storyline export include and leave behind?

Storyline's export carries the text on your slides and layers. Articulate names 4 things the process does not handle: closed captions, trigger conditions, player text labels and variable names.

Variable values can be translated, but names cannot, so Articulate says to leave variable references in the exported file alone unless you also plan to translate the variable names by hand, and not to translate result slide variable references at all. A translated reference no longer matches its variable name.

The player is a separate job. Player buttons and messages live under Home > Player > Text Labels, where you can download a spreadsheet of every label and send it out to be translated. Your translator fills in the Custom Text column.

Articulate's note, written for courses that use 360° images, also says to leave variable references such as %count% and %total% as they are. Storyline writes a language code for screen readers into the published story.html based on the label language you choose.

Your closed captions travel on their own too, translated separately and imported back.

Neither Translating Courses nor Enhanced Word Translation says whether slide notes, question banks, text inside object states or alternative text end up in the file. The enhanced Word document labels object types such as text box, shape, button and marker, and that is as specific as the pages read for this guide get.

Do not guess. Export once, open the file, and search for a sentence you know sits in a slide note, a hover state and a question bank question. Whatever you cannot find, you translate by hand in Storyline.

Text baked into a picture is pixels, and neither guide says the export reads it. Articulate's own AI translation does not translate text within images or videos either, according to its FAQ updated 6 October 2026. Your screenshot of an LMS dashboard with English menus goes to a designer.

Which format details trip people up?

Why do lists and paragraph spacing break in a Word export?

Articulate does not say why. Its note on the subject, updated 16 January 2026, recommends XLIFF for any Storyline 360 course with bulleted lists, numbered lists or custom paragraph spacing, and says Word can break the formatting and spacing of those features.

Another Articulate page seems to point the other way. Enhanced Word Translation, updated 27 May 2026, says the legacy Word method removed formatting such as lists and paragraph spacing, and that the enhanced method, the default since the February 2021 update, preserves all text formatting. The 2 pages do not mention each other, and neither says which builds the warning covers.

If your translator can take XLIFF, follow the warning.

Formatting also decides how the Word table reads. As of June 2021, bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, superscript and subscript no longer split a sentence into separate rows, and Articulate says new projects use this by default in Storyline 360 build 3.53.25436.0 or later. If your translator applies those styles to the translation, Storyline keeps them on import.

A change of font, font size, font color, highlight color, hyperlink, shadow, character spacing or paragraph formatting still splits the text into separate rows. Put 1 hyperlinked word in the middle of a sentence and your translator gets that sentence in pieces.

Does your translator need XLIFF 1.2 or 2.0?

The one your translator's tool reads. Storyline 360 offers 1.2 or 2.0 and tells you to choose the version your translation service or program requires. XLIFF 1.2 and 2.0 are not interchangeable.

Conformant applications are NOT REQUIRED to support XLIFF 1.2 or previous Versions.

OASIS, "XLIFF Version 2.0", OASIS Standard, 5 August 2014, section 2

XLIFF 2.0 replaced XLIFF 1.2, an OASIS Standard dated 1 February 2008, and a 2.0 document cannot also conform to 1.2; a tool that wants both has to support them as separate features. memoQ's help for version 12.5 says XLIFF 1 and XLIFF 2 files are not compatible, and each goes through its own import filter.

None of the pages read for this guide describes what a translator's tool does with a version it cannot read. Going by OASIS and memoQ, the likeliest place to see a mismatch is your translator's tool, before the file ever comes back to you.

The same memoQ page names 2.1, released 13 February 2018, as the current XLIFF specification. Storyline's export list stops at 2.0. If your translator asks for 2.1, ask whether their tool opens 2.0 or 1.2, because as of 9 October 2026 the Storyline guide offers nothing newer.

What causes the "Unsupported XLIFF Version" error?

A Storyline update installed between export and import, on a file exported as XLIFF 1.0. Articulate's article, updated 16 January 2026, says Storyline 360 and Studio 360 have supported XLIFF 1.2 and 2.0, and dropped 1.0, since 29 August 2017; a 1.0 file exported before an update is refused when you import it.

The article does not mention a 1.2 versus 2.0 mismatch at all. If that mismatch causes trouble, the sources above suggest it would show up in the translator's tool, though none of them says so outright.

Articulate gives 2 fixes:

1. Your translator has translation memory. Export the project again as XLIFF 1.2 or 2.0 and run it through translation again. The strings were translated before, so the memory should return the same translations with no manual work. Import the new file.
2. No translation memory. Send Articulate support the project file and the translated XLIFF. Articulate support imports it and sends the updated project back for you to edit and publish.

Put the translation memory question in your first email to the translator.

What happens when you import the translation?

Import into a copy of your original project. Articulate's steps start by copying the original project file to hold the new language, opening that copy, and choosing File > Localization > XLIFF/Word Translation > Import; you pick the translated file, and Storyline shows a congratulations message when it is done.

Then read every slide. Articulate's last import step is a text fit review, because some languages use longer words and phrases and may need more room or a smaller font.

Articulate's guide does not say what the import does with a slide you changed after the export. It describes 1 clean round trip: export, translate, import.

Treat the source as frozen from the moment you export. If the source must change, export again; a translator with translation memory should return the translations for the text that did not change, the same mechanism Articulate describes for a re-export.

From an XLIFF job, expect an XLIFF back. memoQ, for example, can export only XLIFF from an XLIFF it received, not the original format. If an old project went out as a legacy.doc file, you can still edit it and import it, though Storyline no longer exports new DOC files.

If you used Articulate Localization to build a multi-language course, you cannot export or import XLIFF or Word in it; you would save each language as a separate project first and lose validation and multi-language management on those copies.

What should the note to your translator say?

The instructions Articulate gives translators, in one place, plus the gaps your test export found. Paste this into the email with the file and fill in the brackets.

Course: [course name], built in Articulate Storyline 360.
File: [Word (DOCX) / XLIFF 1.2 / XLIFF 2.0]. Source language: [English (US)]. Target language: [French (France)].
Please return the same format and version you received.

1. Word file only: edit the column titled Translation and nothing else.
2. Do not translate variable references, including on result slides.
3. Keep basic formatting (bold, italics, underline) where the source has it.
4. Player buttons and messages are in the separate label spreadsheet.
   Fill in the Custom Text column only and keep %count% and %total% as they are.
5. Closed captions are not part of this file and are translated separately.
6. Not confirmed to be in any file, sent as a list: text inside images, [slide notes / states / question banks, from the test export].
7. Flag any line that runs much longer than the source; it may not fit on the slide.

Lines 1 and 2 come from Articulate's translation guide, line 3 from its formatting rules, and line 4 from the text labels page. Only your test export can fill line 6.

What if the text runs longer or right to left?

Choosing Word or XLIFF does not settle longer text. Articulate's import steps end with a text fit check because some languages need more room or a smaller font. The pages read for this guide give no expansion percentage and do not say whether either format warns you before import.

The Word export does include a summary table with character and word counts, which tells your translator the size of the job.

Right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, Rise 360 courses and the workings of Articulate's built-in AI translation are outside what this page's sources cover. The full workflow, including right-to-left setup and a QA list per language, is in how to translate an Articulate Storyline or Rise course.

How do you send a Storyline file out for translation?

You need Storyline 360, the project file and a translator. For Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice will do, since the enhanced format is DOCX. For XLIFF, Articulate says many free and premium tools exist without naming one; your translator will already have theirs.

1. Freeze the source. Fix typos now; every later edit repeats in each language.
2. Pick the format from the table above. Any bulleted list, numbered list or custom paragraph spacing in the course is Articulate's cue to choose XLIFF.
3. Run a test export and search it for 1 slide note, 1 state's text, 1 question bank question and 1 alternative text. List what is missing.
4. Export for real from File > Localization > XLIFF/Word Translation. For XLIFF, set the source language and the version your translator named; for Word, choose thumbnails for a human reviewer or the single table for a translation tool.
5. Download the label spreadsheet from Home > Player > Text Labels.
6. Send the file, the label spreadsheet, the closed captions for separate translation and the note.
7. Import into a copy of the project, and import the translated captions.
8. Enter the labels in the Custom Text column and save them as a label set you can load into other courses.
9. Translate trigger conditions by hand and check text fit on every slide and layer.
10. Publish the copy as its own course. If you are choosing a SCORM version for your LMS at this point, SCORM 1.2 vs SCORM 2004 covers that decision.

These times are working estimates for a short course, not Articulate figures.

Which Word and XLIFF mistakes cost the most?

1. Sending Word for a course full of lists. Articulate warns Word can break them, and a broken list is a repair job in every language you send.
2. Letting variable references get translated. They stop matching their variable names.
3. Forgetting the player. Text labels and trigger conditions are in neither file.
4. Editing the source after the export. The guide does not say how the import treats it, so export again instead.
5. Translating with Articulate's AI first, then asking for an XLIFF. A multi-language course cannot export one; you would save each language as its own project first.

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Other questions about Storyline translation files

What is a Storyline translation file?

The Word document (DOCX) or XLIFF file, version 1.2 or 2.0, that Storyline 360 exports from File > Localization > XLIFF/Word Translation for a translator to work on.

Can Storyline 360 export XLIFF 2.1?

Not according to Articulate's translation guide as of 9 October 2026, which lists 1.2 and 2.0 only. memoQ's help names 2.1 as the current specification.

Does the Storyline export include closed captions?

No. Captions are translated separately and imported back into Storyline 360.

Can I import the translation into my original project?

Articulate's steps import into a copy of the original project file. Keep the original as your source language.