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RE: User manual: cell merging vis a vis translation
Subject:RE: User manual: cell merging vis a vis translation From:"Tammy Van Boening" <tammyvb -at- spectrumwritingllc -dot- com> To:"'Julie Stickler'" <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 14 Feb 2017 12:45:31 -0700
This is why lurking on this list is so invaluable. Thank you Julie, Robert, et. al. I am being asked to dive into the world of translation for the first time ever and this type of information is invaluable.
TVB
Tammy Van Boening
Owner/Principal
Spectrum Writing, LLC
www.spectrumwritingllc.com
TammyVB *AT* spectrumwritingllc *DOT* com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+tammyvb=spectrumwritingllc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+tammyvb=spectrumwritingllc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 8:38 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: User manual: cell merging vis a vis translation
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
>
>
>
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Julie Stickler
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