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RE: User manual: cell merging vis a vis translation
Subject:RE: User manual: cell merging vis a vis translation From:<mbaker -at- analecta -dot- com> To:"'Julie Stickler'" <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>, "'Chris Morton'" <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Tue, 14 Feb 2017 11:02:27 -0500
In addition to the costs involved, you should not make the change anyway as it will reduce usability. It is easy to get sucked into thinking about the aesthetics of the page or the logic of the table as a whole, but the reader does not care about either of these things. They don't want the whole page or the whole table, they want one row. The look down the first column for the message they have seen and then across to the solution. If you combine the solution cells, then the solution is no longer parallel to the message, and the reader has more work to do to find their solution. Not a lot more work, perhaps, (though it could be a problem on mobile) but why give them more work at all?
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mbaker=analecta -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mbaker=analecta -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:51 AM
To: Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: User manual: cell merging vis a vis translation
In that case, your change shouldn't add additional costs. I suspect that the PM doesn't understand the translation process either, but was probably told at some point to avoid unneeded changes because they were expensive.
On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 10:45 AM, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
wrote:
> Thanks, Julie.
>
> Actually, this is a major revision, in that the device in question has
> enhanced capabilities. Referential material (new inserts and copy
> changes) appear throughout its ~150 pages. All told, I'd say perhaps
> one-sixth of the manual is new/edited content, with said content scattered throughout.
>
> So... how is the new manual not going to have to go through the entire
> translation process again?
>
> Also, I have nothing to do with that process, so the steps you shared
> mean nothing. Nor do I have access to the workflow, etc. I'm a
> freelancer only charged with updating the EN version of the InDesign
> file and related doc control PDF markups.
>
> Chris Morton
>
>
>
> â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
> â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring Click to
> <http://t.sidekickopen68.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nM
> JN7t5XYgdnqQxW7fsH3H4XrddKW1pNgV-56dMhqf2Q-c6C02?t=https%3A%
> 2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fpub%2Fchris-morton%2F2%2F166%
> 2F6ba&si=6020636811198464&pi=7743db10-2c41-4e85-f83a-e8c95aae5b48>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 10:38 AM, Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
> > Even if there are no text changes, the translation company will
> > charge
> for
> > having to reformat the page and re-generate the doc and/or Help system.
> I
> > really dug into this at my last company, because I just did not
> understand
> > some of the line items on our bills. Small changes end up being
> > fairly expensive if they're done alone, because of the translation workflow:
> >
> > - Pull everything out of the original source files into the
> > translation tool (This is the step that many people don't realize is
> > happening, your source files are not being used by the translators.
> > Tour text is being extracted, translated, and then the text is put back into your files.
> That
> > transform is a significant expense.)
> > - Compare the new files to the translation memory and identify changes.
> > - Translate any new content.
> > - Port all the translated strings back into the original source
> > format (Word, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Flare, etc.)
> > - Quality assurance that the transform worked properly.
> > - Additional desktop publishing tweaks due to the text strings in
> > the new language being different (page breaks, heading wraps, table
> > column
> sizing,
> > etc.)
> > - Files get shipped back to you.
> >
> >
> > If you can, save that change for a major version bump, when you have
> > more changes to absorb the engineering costs for the entire
> > conversion
> process.
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 10:06 AM, Chris Morton
> > <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > User manual has several pages of tabular stuff pertaining to UI
> > > error messages. Many of the items in the far right column are the
> > > exact same
> > > message: "Call <company> at <number> for service."
> > >
> > > I think such cellular repetition looks dumb, so I'm inclined to
> > > merge adjacent cells that convey the same thing.
> > >
> > > PM is upset, telling me that now PM will have to deal with 28
> > translations
> > > (all of which have to change anyway due to other new content).
> > >
> > > Pray tell, how in the world does merging such cellular items
> > > affect any translation, when "Call <company> at <number> for
> > > service" has
> previously
> > > been translated in all 28 languages?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Chris Morton
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
> > > â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring Click to
> > > <http://t.sidekickopen68.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9n
> > > M JN7t5XYgdnqQxW7fsH3H4XrddKW1pNgV-56dMhqf2Q-c6C02?t=https%3A%
> > > 2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fpub%2Fchris-morton%2F2%2F166%
> > > 2F6ba&si=6020636811198464&pi=ff3041db-6467-4c86-b383-bf5dc6f4582b>
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