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Subject:Screen text and manuals From:wanda <wanda -dot- jane -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:36:21 -0700
A bit late, but a follow-up on the question of whether to include the
complete screen text in the manual, when the screen text includes
additional characters (... and : were the examples).
We have screen text with those bits in it, and more, we tag all our
screen text with a character tag (using FrameMaker), and that sets it up
for translations (up to 27 languages). When the translators encounter
that particular tag, they use a database provided by the interface
translators. If we do not match exactly, they wonder, rightly so since
we are notoriously inconsistent with our tagging (the pressure of time
means we're working faster than we should if quality were job #1).
Just another perspective. You can say, well the translators should be
able to figure that out, but we're a huge corporation and we try so hard
to be rigid and unbending, it provides a sense that we're being
consistent, even if it's consistently bad.
wanda
--
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD), Meditations
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