Translation of on-screen menus

[Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>]

I'm writing a user manual for a patient monitor with a sorta kinda
Windows-like GUI. That is, there is a menu bar with drop-down menus.
Some of the menu selections open dialogs. In other words, the visual
metaphors are friendly and familiar, even if there aren't actual windows
you can close.

In the initial draft I included screen shots of the menus and dialogs in
the course of writing task-based procedures.

The client, in reviewing the draft, is concerned that the cost of
translation into something like ten target languages will be greatly
increased because of the need to generate substitute screen shots and
has suggested, as an alternative, that we mock up the menus and dialogs 
using text tables (the deliverable is in Word). The result would be 
logically equivalent to screen shots of the actual menus, but it would 
not be graphically identical.

What does the gathered usability jury say? Would this be a reasonable
compromise or would users find it confusing? One risk I foresee--and
that I'll mention in my response--is that the menus and dialogs as 
translated by the translation agency might not be identical to the menus 
and dialogs as translated ahead of time by the company for their 
on-screen display.

Thoughts? Any been-there-done-that stories, positive or negative?

Dick


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