Managing Draft Translations means enabling languages on the article type, configuring the Translation Queue, and either assigning translators internally or integrating with an external service. The setup is one-time; daily operations focus on the queue.
- Enable additional languages on Knowledge
Setup, then Knowledge Settings, then Languages. Enable the languages your business supports (French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and so on). Each enabled language becomes available for Draft Translations.
- Configure the Translation Queue
Setup, then Translation Queue. Set whether translations are auto-routed (every Draft enters the queue) or manually assigned. Define data category filters if you want to limit which articles route to translators.
- Assign translators
Translators need the Manage Articles permission and access to the relevant data categories. For external vendors, expose the Knowledge Translation API and provide credentials.
- Trigger Draft Translations
When the master language article is published, Draft Translations are created automatically in each enabled language (if configured). Translators see them in the Translation Queue view.
- Translate and publish each language
Each translator opens a Draft Translation, replaces the master text with the translated version, and clicks Publish. The translated article goes live in its language; the previous version (if any) is archived.
- Monitor the queue
Build a dashboard tracking queue depth per language, oldest item age, and average publish time. Pure operational metrics; tune them based on your service-level commitments for content availability per region.
Every master-language Draft creates Draft Translations in all enabled languages. Default for most multi-language deployments.
Drafts only enter the queue when an admin assigns them. Use when only some articles need translation.
Programmatic access for translation vendors. Industry-standard for large multi-language operations.
Translators work inside Salesforce. Good for small teams with bilingual staff.
- Enabling a new language does not retroactively create Draft Translations for existing published articles. You need to manually trigger them or use the Knowledge Translation Queue Refresh tool.
- Translators need Knowledge User licenses just like authors. Cost scales with the number of translators; budget for licenses if you operate at scale.
- Outdated translations stay published until republished. The Outdated flag is informational; the live translated article is whatever was last published in that language, even if the master language has changed since.
- Some Knowledge customizations (custom Apex triggers, validation rules) need to handle the multi-language case explicitly. Trigger logic that fires on Knowledge__kav inserts will fire for every Draft Translation.