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RE: Revision tracking in translations of large manuals
Subject:RE: Revision tracking in translations of large manuals From:Andrew Becraft <AndrewB -at- ACCINT -dot- COM> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Mar 2000 10:30:27 -0500
Keith said "TM products work with Word, but not with Pagemaker, it seems."
Trados StoryCollector works with Pagemaker files to export PM files to a
format TM tools can use. This format is usually .RTF (i.e. MS Word) as you
indicated, but Trados has created several tools for handling most of the
other common documentation formats. For example, S-Tagger handles
Framemaker and Interleaf files, while TagEditor handles HTML and SGML files.
See http://www.trados.com for more information (I'm not affiliated with
Trados in any way -- just a user.)
Translation memory tools provide a relatively painless interface in which
the translator works, at the same time preventing them from introducing the
chronic problem of "my beautiful document got messed up by the translator."
Susan provided an excellent summary of how TM technology works.
If you are working with Asian-language files (your .co.jp address betrays
you!), there are additional TM-related issues to consider. E-mail me
off-list and we can discuss them.
Best,
Andrew Becraft
Technical Writer
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Wilkinson [mailto:Keith_Wilkinson -at- yokogawa -dot- co -dot- jp]
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2000 4:01 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Revision tracking in translations of large manuals
Thanks for your comments.
I understand that translation memory systems are good (1) with very
repetitive text, (2) provided they integrate with the software that the
document is stored in. TM products work with Word, but not with
Pagemaker, it seems.
If TM products are not used, then there's the issue of marking changes
in the original language version, to show *the translator* what needs to
be done.
It appears that such sidebar-type marking (linked to the changed text) is
not possible in PageMaker, for example.
There's also the issue of revision tracking in the translated document,
to show *the user* what has changed (either by sidebars or by a
change list).
(This shows which functions were added in which revision of the software.)
Again: It appears that such sidebar-type marking (linked to the changed
text) is not possible in PageMaker, for example.
I wonder to what extent such revision tracking is done -- with manuals
for large systems, for example) considering the popularity of ISO9000 etc... mailto:pf2k-wlkn -at- asahi-net -dot- or -dot- jp
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