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Subject:Re: Manual Translation From:Coleman Yeaw <coleman -at- JAPANESE -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 19 Jun 1997 10:21:55 -0400
>We are currently having our international dealers translate the manuals
>since the cost of translation is entirely out of our budget.
There can be lots of hidden costs in this approach, not the least of which
you have already alluded to- hte necessity of fixing bad work. The loss of
control and (possibliy) ownership should also be considered by the
corporate penny pinchers. Still, the dealers are the ones who have to sell
the product, and that can produce a powerful incentive to do it right.
>We want to be able to bring the electronic files back to our corporate
>headquarters so that we can print the manuals here in case of a
>termination of our dealer agreement. This requires that we have the
>electronic files in a format that we can read.
I can only speak for Japanese, but just having the files will not be
enough. You will need a Japanese system, Japanese applications, and a
Japanese printer which can handle the fonts. If you werehaving trouble with
French, you will probably experience a completely new level of problems for
Japanese.
>How is everyone else doing this? Can we have them use a localized
>version of FrameMaker and ship us the files or are we going to have to
>bit the bullet and hire a translation company?
FrameMaker in Japanese is currently a problem, although Adobe's Japanese
web site refers to a new version coming out later this year. For one thing,
it does not obey common rules for Japanese page layout. I would avoid it
for the next few months at least. Word is fairly reliable- at least its
problems are well known. As to what approach to take, it depends on how
your contractswith your distributors treat doc localization. Typically,
the disributor is given broad freedom to do it any way they want. Since
they do not get paid for extra effor, it behooves them to do the easiest
way, whether that makes sense for you or not.
Generally, localization vendors can do a very good job if you are will ing
to be involved with the process. Especially in your case, where you are
dealing with a number of European languages, it relatively easy to find a
large vendor to do all those languages well. Generally, those firms are not
as strong in Asian languages. You may want to stick with your distributors
or find separate vendors if you do decide to do it yourselves.
If you have any Japanese specific problems, I would be happy to answer
questions, perhaps off the list.
Coleman Yeaw
Japanese Language Services, Inc.
Cambridge, MA
coleman -at- japanese -dot- com
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