dScribe lets you document your assets in multiple languages. Every definition, report, dataset, or other asset can have a separate version of its name, description, and other documentation per language — and dScribe can auto-translate them for you with AI.
This is useful if your organization works across regions or if different teams prefer reading documentation in their own language.
Not to be confused with the interface language of dScribe itself (buttons, menus, labels). The dScribe interface is currently available in English, French, and Dutch. That setting is independent from the languages you use to document your assets — you can document in any language you've enabled, regardless of what your interface is set to.
Setting up content languages
By default, every dScribe organization starts with English as the only content language. Administrators can add more languages and choose which one is the default.
To configure languages, go to Company Settings > Localization. From there you can:
Add additional available languages that your users can translate content into.
Set the default language — the language new assets are created in.
Good to know: Adding a language doesn't translate your existing content automatically — it just makes that language available. Translations are created per asset, either manually or with AI.
Translating an asset
Once your organization has more than one content language enabled, a language button appears in the header of every asset's detail page, next to the validation status and owner.
Click the language button to switch the content view to another language.
Auto-translating with AI
Rather than writing each translation from scratch, you can have dScribe translate the content for you. AI translation covers the asset's name and documentation — producing a starting point in your target language in seconds.
Always reviewable: AI translations are never final. After auto-translating, you can edit any field manually to refine wording, fix domain-specific terminology, or align with your organization's style — just like you would on the original asset.
Translating custom property values
Custom properties of type dropdown (for example a "Business Domain" property with values like Sales, Customer, or Production) can also be translated. When a user views an asset in French, they'll see Ventes; in Dutch, Verkoop.
Translations for dropdown values are managed in the admin portal when you edit the property. Each option has a field per active language.
Optional: Translating dropdown values is up to you. Some organizations prefer to keep property labels consistent across languages — for example, leaving domain names like "Sales" in English everywhere so they stay aligned with internal naming conventions. Leave the translation fields blank and the original value will be shown in every language.
User language preferences
Each user can choose which language they want to see content in, as well as which language the dScribe interface should be in. Both settings live in the user's profile settings.
If a user picks a content language for which an asset has no translation, dScribe falls back to the asset's default-language content so nothing appears empty.
A note from the development team
Currently, translated versions of an asset are loosely coupled. When you create a new translation, all properties from the source language (documentation, custom property values, validation status, and so on) are copied over as a starting point. From that moment on, the translated version lives independently.
This means that if you change a property on the original later — for example, updating the validation status or editing a custom property — the change is not automatically propagated to the translated versions. You would need to update them separately.
We're listening: We may revisit this behaviour based on your feedback. If you'd prefer translations to stay tightly synchronized with the source, let us know via the in-app chat — we'd love to hear how your team works with translated content.
Have a question or can't find what you're looking for? Use the chat icon inside the catalog to reach the dScribe support team.