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All advice given to you so far has been excellent. I would ditto most of the
points make. Since I work for a translation company, let me share what we
often wish customers would do:
== if technical diagrams do have text layers which have to be
translated/localized, make sure that you have the source art format (e.g.
*.ai file) available for your translation company, and not just a derivative
bitmapped file, like jpeg. We frequently have to edit bitmaps in Photoshop
and do painstaking matching of backgrounds as new text is dropped in,
because our client does not know where the source art is located.
== Use numbers (if possible) in the diagrams, keyed to numbers in a table
below the illustrations. The table cells will grow in depth to expand for
text expansion. This is the easiest way.
== if you are using screen captures, use referenced graphics, all contained
in a subfolder. Then, if you have to take new screen captures in the
language, you have the option of using identical file names in an
identically named graphics folder. This should allow a translated file to
just "open up" with correct language specific screen captures, if your
translation vendor replaces English screen captures with target language
screen captures in the same location.
== if you ever have Arabic or another BiDi as a target language, and you
have some graphics (e.g. a profile of a face) that are used to direct
reader's attention to the "spine" between pages, be sure to have a version
of these photos/graphics which face the opposite direction. Arabic and
similar languages required reverseed page layout, and also have to reverse
the order of table columns.
A co-worker of mine just published a blog on 8 Steps to take to optimize
InDesign files for translation: http://bit.ly/gpiINDD
I hope this helps.
Maxwell Hoffmann
Director, Multilingual Document Globalization Practice
Globalization Partners International (GPI)
Direct: +1 503-336-5952 Mobile: +1 503-805-3719 US Toll Free: 866-272-5874
Global Fax: +1 202-478-0956
Adobe Community Expert: FrameMaker
-----Original Message-----
From:
techwr-l-bounces+mhoffmann=globalizationpartners -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mhoffmann=globalizationpartners -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot-
com] On Behalf Of Paul Hanson
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 9:54 AM
To: TECHWR-L list
Subject: Translation
If you do anything with translation of English documentation to another
language (the software and my manual are going to be translated into French,
Italian, German), this question is for you. Say you find a time machine and
you can take the knowledge you have now and go back in time to the day on
which you were told you would need to translate your manual (mine is 174
pages) and all of its graphics (mine has 569 links - using InDesign) to
those other languages. What would you tell yourself regarding capturing
graphics in a non-English language?
Paul Hanson
Software Technical Communications Specialist
CIVCO Medical Solutions
Direct Phone: 319-248-6608
WWW.CIVCO.COM
One Company. Many Solutions
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