3.4 Text Replacement, Manage Languages, and Translations

3.4 Text Replacement, Manage Languages, and Translations

Quick Answer: Use Text Replacement first to change common UI labels, such as "Employee" to "Associate". If a label is not available there, Manage Languages can overwrite any UI label in any supported language, within limits. In translation projects, the customer provides the translations and the consultant configures them, always in the test instance first. Legacy foundation data is translated in the UI or by importing FoTranslation.

Two Kinds of Text

SAP distinguishes configuration labels that consultants or administrators create (field labels, templates, home page tiles, e-mail templates) from system texts delivered with the language packs. Configuration labels are translated where they were configured. System texts are changed with Text Replacement or, more technically, Manage Languages.

Text Replacement

The Text Replacement tool in Admin Center customizes selected UI labels across the suite:

• It uses two customizable language-pack keys: TEXT_REPLACEMENT_KEYS and ADMIN_TEXT_REPLACEMENT_KEYS.
• By default it shows the default language. Other supported languages are listed under Select Language, and each language offers a different list of replaceable labels. English has many more than most other languages.
• Custom labels override the defaults wherever the label appears.
• It performs text substitution only, without adjusting grammar, so careless use can create linguistic errors.

In THR80's exercise, variants of "employee" are replaced with "associate", so My Employee File becomes My Associate File after logging out and in.

Manage Languages

Manage Languages overwrites UI label values in any supported language. Typical reasons are matching system text to company terminology, or correcting grammar or key terms while waiting for an SAP fix.

Prerequisites: in Provisioning Company Settings, Language Packs and Enable Manage Languages tool; in RBP, the Text Replacement permission (Manage System Properties).

Working method from THR80:

1. Enable English Debug (Debugging section) and switch your language to it. The UI then shows the technical key, for example HOME_V4_ORGANIZATIONAL_UPDATES_Title.
2. For the target locale, choose Actions > Create Custom Translation, open it, search the key (case-sensitive), and choose Modify to enter your text.
3. For mass changes, download the default translation, edit the CSV (custom labels go in the second column; since 1H 2023 there is no third column), and upload it.
4. Allow up to 24 hours for changes to appear.

Custom translation files are audited automatically. Failed audits show in the To-Do column with the keys to remove. A custom language pack is deactivated by clearing its active checkbox. The Manage Translations tab adds translations for predefined items such as People Profile help texts. Administrators can also create extended AI locales, UI labels translated by generative AI, which work like built-in locales and are available in the mobile apps.

Translation Projects

SAP's rules for implementation translations:

• Finalize and test the configuration in the default language (English) before translation starts. Changes during translation make the workbook impossible to maintain.
• The customer provides the translations and tests them. SAP SuccessFactors does not provide translation services, and consultants should not translate for the customer.
• The consultant provides the translation workbook (from the SAP Partner Portal), lists every configured label in the English column, adds a column per language pack, and marks HTML in bold red so translators leave it intact.
• One consolidated file comes back by the due date. The consultant configures translations in the test instance before production.
• Minimize customization of system texts; heavy text replacement can slow the system.
• Check the language matrices: not every module or feature is supported in every language.
• Use a tool such as OpenOffice for CSV files, because Microsoft Excel can corrupt special characters.

Where labels are translated depends on their source. People Profile labels come from the Succession Data Model, Manage Business Configuration (the globe icon next to a label), the Picklist Center, or Configure People Profile. Language packs are enabled in Provisioning (Company Settings), and enabled languages then appear under Settings > Change Language.

Translating Foundation Data

Foundation object names and descriptions appear throughout the system, so they should display in the user's language.

• MDF foundation objects and other generic objects: translations are part of the object's import template.
• Legacy (XML) foundation objects: either use the Translations icon next to a translatable field in Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures, or, for mass work, export the generic object FoTranslation in Import and Export Data, fill the language columns (determined by the language packs active in Provisioning), and import it with UTF-8 encoding.

SAP warns that FO translation has no incremental upload: the latest file overwrites the previous one, so the consolidated file must contain every language. After import, the system displays foundation data in this order:

1. the user's logon language (Settings > Change Language)
2. otherwise the default language set in Provisioning (Company Settings > Default Language)
3. otherwise US English