This blog post is Human-Centered Content: Written by humans for humans.

In today’s global business environment, delivering data insights in the right language is more than a convenience, it’s a necessity. Sigma’s localization and language translation features are designed to empower users across different regions to access dashboards and analytics in their native language, promoting better understanding and broader adoption. While tools like Tableau and Power BI offer varying degrees of multilingual support, from dynamic field label translations to locale-specific number and date formatting, Sigma is positioning itself as a flexible and user-friendly option for international teams. In this post, we’ll explore how Sigma handles localization, compare it with other popular BI platforms and share practical tips for building truly multilingual dashboards. 

Workbook-level Locale Management  

One interesting feature that Sigma is putting in the hands of its customers is the ability to easily localize and translate the content to the target market that will read the dashboards. This option goes far beyond the known localization configuration that most of the BI tools in the market today grants.  

Before further delving into the topic, there is an important difference to highlight here between localization and language translation. Language denotes the text displayed in the user interface, such as menus, buttons and messages. The locale, on the other hand, is a set of language-related user preference information like date formatting, currency and numbers.  

Usually, there are options like in the case of Tableau, where we can pick the locale at a workbook level. Tableau can match the locale settings of the operating system it sits on when the workbook localization is configured to automatic. Alternatively, it can also take a specific locale if so specified.  

By default, in the workbook settings panel in Sigma, there is a little link to manage the locales. Under that menu, we can add more languages. As of the date this blog is written, Sigma supports 17 languages. For more information, visit its localization page here.

Above: Localization setting in the workbook level in Sigma. In this sample, we added the French option.

These standard versions available by default from Sigma’s servers are tailored to change the translation of what Sigma calls standard texts (menu labels, modal texts, and so on). There is a small catch here to bear in mind: Given that, in this case, we are talking of localization settings, it is expected that the language chosen above will affect the format of dates and numbers besides menu labels, modal text, etc. However, Sigma acknowledges that there are still limitations in its localization because it does not support number and date formats. One way to work around this is by using the versatile column format option that allows us to set several different types of dates, numbers and build custom ones if necessary. 

Above: Sample of a dashboard with locale configuration set to French. Note the change from “Mexico” to “Mexique.” Also, the system message “Multiple values” is displayed as “Valeurs multiples.” 

Internationalization by Customized Translations 

But what about language translations? How can I translate my custom texts in the dashboard and not have to rebuild the whole workbook? There are some tricks suggested to deal with this topic on other platforms. For example: In Tableau, one option is duplicating the dimensions to add translated versions of the same column and manage them via calculated fields. Other developers suggest using different copies of the same sheet and switching the one displayed according to the selection of the user.   

While this solution may work for certain cases, it is not efficient in terms of work and time. In the end, somehow, we end up doing the same job twice or keeping duplicated copies of the data.  

Above: Options to add customized language translations to a dashboard in Sigma.  

Here, the development team behind Sigma came with a very clever solution that eases the process of expanding its available translations beyond the ones which are natively supported. Through the localization management panel, it is possible to add custom translations of the languages available. For each one of the languages the system supports, it is possible to download the whole (static and custom) content of the dashboard in a JSON file that contains all the key-value pairs.  

Here, I am purposely highlighting that it is the static content added by the developer to customize the dashboard. That means all titles and labels that are not dynamicly generated or pulled from the database. 

Above: Menu for downloading the French JSON file to translate the key-value pairs.  

After downloading the JSON file, users can translate and upload the file to the server for enabling the visualizations in that specific version or dialect. Important here is to respect the key-value format and only translate the values.  

Above: Sample of a JSON file. Source here. 

In some more advanced cases the entries in the JSON file may have markers for fields and style. This is because we can use markdown and dynamic text in our JSON values to support rich format text.The basic syntax is simple: [={formula-id}] 

Above: Markdown syntax to display bold titles along with dynamic texts. 

 Once the file has been translated, we can upload it and see the results by clicking on the preview option available. Now the whole interface has been translated to the destination language. Note that not only the system values associated with the selected localization in the configuration of the workbook changed, but also the content of the labels and even the legends. 

Above: A sample dashboard translated to French.  

Some important thoughts to keep in mind are that these examples explained above are scoped at the workbook level. Fortunately, these very same capabilities are available at the organization level and can be managed by the administrators. In such cases, the developers still have full command to customize the translation of their workbooks. This means they can can opt for either translating the strings that do not match keys in an organization-level translation file or all the custom text. 

All things considered, I think Sigma’s translation and localization features are ahead of what some big BI tools like Tableau offer. The fact that you can handle translations with simple JSON files gives Sigma a big plus for flexibility. It also shows they’re trying to stick to well-known practices as they keep building the platform. That said, Sigma is still a bit of a niche player, so we’ll have to wait and see what other features they’ve got up their sleeve. 

We hope this exploration of Sigma’s localization capabilities, along with our practical tips, empowers you to build more inclusive and effective dashboards. Stay tuned for more insights and best practices in our upcoming posts.