Freeze what must not change
This workflow is for maintainers, technical writers and SaaS documentation teams localizing one already approved Markdown page. It does not assemble new documentation from code or PDFs, publish a website automatically, or certify translation quality. Record the source revision, locale, assets, renderer and base path. Remove live credentials and confirm external AI processing is permitted before submitting source material.
Build a reference inventory with link extraction, then separately record code blocks, inline identifiers, commands, numeric values and warning sections. Extraction is an aid, not proof that every unusual Markdown construct was recognized. Agree which destinations remain shared and which may point to a localized page. Every intended exception needs an owner; do not let translation silently change an API version, a command flag or a required action.
Translate prose, then review the restored draft
Supply a source language when mixed-language text makes automatic detection ambiguous, and use an approved source-to-target glossary. The translator protects recognized code and link forms and restores them afterward. That protection is not a parser-level guarantee for every Markdown dialect. Relative destinations, reference definitions, escaped URLs and unusual fence forms need direct inspection. Search the complete draft for leftover placeholder tokens, missing sections and damaged syntax.
Use a target-language terminology audit to find unwanted variants, case differences and abbreviation issues. If optional contextual AI analysis was requested, check whether it actually ran or fell back to local rules. Neither mode proves correct meaning. A technical reviewer must compare the complete source and target, especially negation, prerequisites, parameter descriptions, table cells and caution text. Use text diff for literal protected passages and draft-to-approved changes; a large bilingual diff is not an accuracy score.
Reconcile references with the actual heading IDs
Compare source and target link and image inventories rather than merely counting links. A count can remain unchanged while a destination changes. Record approved localized destinations and preserve the context of relative images and cross-page paths. Static checking can identify recognized formatting, reference and fragment issues, but it sends no network requests and follows its own heading rules.
The critical failure is a preserved source fragment under a translated heading. Preserving the string does not create that ID. Use stable IDs only if the receiving system supports them; otherwise update both the heading-dependent reference and its destination. A checker can also flag custom IDs it does not understand. Resolve findings against the actual site renderer, including duplicate headings, Unicode slugs and cross-page anchors. Preview is useful for structure, but manually test navigation and assets in the receiving context. Do not label a URL available until a separate authorized availability check supports it.
Deliver editable source and a clearly labeled proof
Export only from the approved Markdown revision. Use the HTML converter for the chosen browser artifact or the report bundler for a PDF proof; they are alternatives, not a required round trip. A bundler can place source and target as separate sections, but does not produce synchronized side-by-side translation alignment. Preserve file order and label both versions.
Open the exact artifacts and inspect long code lines, tables, images and target-language glyphs. A preview may use different Markdown behavior from the export or the final site. Keep relative assets with their expected path or make an approved path adjustment, and never assume a PDF proves live-site navigation. Deliver Markdown, selected proof, glossary, source revision, link reconciliation, unresolved findings and reviewer approval. Store copies outside temporary output links. Generic authoring belongs in the documentation workflow; broader site typography and accessibility checks remain separate responsibilities.