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RE: Revisiting Frame vs. Word in light of new capabilities
Subject:RE: Revisiting Frame vs. Word in light of new capabilities From:"Bruce Evans" <bruce -dot- evans -at- sympatico -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sun, 27 Feb 2005 17:11:49 -0500
Not exactly on topic but a similar case of problems using the cheapest
translating service came with the indexing of the 1901 UK Census. The story
is that the British government originally planned to use prisoners to do the
job of reading the handwritten census and converting it to an printed index.
To save money, it was outsourced to an Indian company. The result was a
complete foul up. According to the translation company, the most common name
in the British census was "Ditto."
Bruce
==============================================
Bruce Evans M.D.
Family Physician and Technical Writer
Keep your words both soft and tender, because tomorrow you may have to eat
them.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-10309 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-10309 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On Behalf Of T.W. Smith
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 5:03 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Revisiting Frame vs. Word in light of new capabilities
It sounds like the trouble here is not really FrameMaker versus Word,
but how the translation is done.
Someone else mentioned management not liking a $300,000 estimate for a
6-month translation and instead invested $100,000 in having local
dealers do the translation, which resulted in books that were late,
three versions behind, and never used; this the $100,000 was less than
the $300,000, but the $100,000 was wasted and resulted in nothing
useful.
I sense that, in this case, we have the $100,000 decision.
If the translation company drives the software choice for your tech
pubs department, and if that is of supreme importance to management,
then I think you are stuck. I think the trick is to explain how
switching to a well-rounded and experienced translation company can
save you time and money while improving accuracy and not locking you
into tools. Of course, if the current translation vendor is run by the
cousin of your CEO, well, then, game over.
======
T.
Remember, this is online. Take everything with a mine of salt and a grin.
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