Re: Bloated Docs: Identifying What's Useful

[Katarina Bovin <office -at- abc-tech -dot- se>]

Dear All,


I am a Swedish technical translator currently studying to become a
technical communicator as well. I have done some tests recently to see if
translation tools can be useful in technical writing, and I think they can.


Let's say that we have inconsistent documentation and duplications to sort
out. Then do the following:


- In the translation tool, create a source and a target for the translation
memory. Normally you would use two different languages e.g. English
(source) and Swedish (target), but here we call them "Inconsistent English"
(source) and "Consistent English" (target).


- Open the documents in the translation tool and review/edit each sentence.

If you find sentences/phrases that have the same meaning, but different
wording for example "Be careful that you do not cause damage to the
bellows.", "Take care you do not tear the bellows." and "Carefulness must
be taken not to damage the bellows." in different places.

You decide to use "Be careful that you do not cause damage to the bellows."
consistently. So you enter this sentence in the target segment for all
these different source segments.


- The target document will now be your new source document, but consistent.


Note: this "translation" stays in the memory and can be used for
consequently documents.


If you do not change the text too much, and just choose the preferred
sentence, the translation cost would not be too high, if you already have
the translations stored in a TM (Translation Memory) to update the
documents in the translated versions.



This action might be complement to Wolfgang's excellent contribution (which
I have saved, thank you Wolfgang!).


For the indication of duplicated text, Alison is right, this can be done
easily in a translation tool (at least the one I am using, Trados Studio
2011).


PS. I have not tested this on a large scale, but in theory it should work.
However, it might be worth to check out what the translation tools can do
in the technical writing industry.


Please let me know about any issues that you might think can be solved in
the translation tool environment. I am new in the technical writing
industry, but have a great experience in the translation industry.



Best Regards,
Katarina Bovin



Phone: +46 737 522 424 | www.abc-tech.se



2012/2/24 Gregory P Sweet <gps03 -at- health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us>

>
> Doughty,
>
> Just a thought on reaching your not-local customers, you could use
> something like WebEx Beta  https://meetings.webex.com/collabs/auth to meet
> with them in real time and observe how they are using the software. The new
> WebEx product are kind of a hybrid between Facebook and WebEx that allow
> for easy sharing of asynchronous material and synchronous meetings. You can
> record your observations and take notes in the meeting as well.
> Conceptually, I would use it event with local folks.
>
> Cheers!
> -Greg
>
>
>
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