Re: Need to translate Oracle desktop instruction manuals into Spanish, French, and Italian

[Tom Brophy <tom -at- TCRAFT -dot- COM>]

[cross-posting to winhelp and techwr-l]

Hi,

I'd like to comment on some of the responses in this thread ...

Ostensibly, Diane has a fairly simple requirement - she needs to get some docs translated. Unfortunately, the process is far from straightforward. Diane's questions essentially amount to what gets done by who and how. Let's start at the beginning.

> they have several manuals of desktop instructions -- in other 
> words, how to do the business processes of THIS COMPANY using 
> Oracle software.

What?
Diane's documents describe a company's business processes as implemented in an Oracle application. If her company aspires to a usable publications library, the documentation must accurately describe the software. The following issues come to mind:
1. Is the software internationalized?
2. Are all UI-visible strings isolated from code?
3. Is a glossary of terms used in the software available?
4. Does the layout of the US software allow for text expansion in the localized versions? The languages mentioned will typically expand on the US by ~25-30%.
4. What file format are the UI strings in?
Assuming Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and ANSI, localization of the software can begin. A No for any of the first three questions guarantees a high grief quotient for both the localizer and Diane's company. I'm not aware of any specific (commercially available) tools for localizing Oracle applications, so I'd imagine that any form resizing would have to be done using some part of the Oracle toolkit. 

Diane doesn't specify what format the documentation is in (Frame?) or how the doc is structured. Potential issues here are:
1. Does the DTP application support all of the proposed languages?
2. Are the toc and index generated by the application?
3. Does the application automatically handle updates to xrefs?
4. Does the doc use any unusual fonts?
5. Does the doc contain screenshots, illustrations or other art? What  graphic formats are used?
There are quite a few other potential pitfalls which can also raise the grief quotient all round.

Who?
I'd reccommend using a localization vendor. There is a considerable engineering impact in localizing an Oracle application. Freelance linguists, or small vendors are unlikely to have copies of Oracle lying around, and are even more unlikely to have the kit to run it. There is also the not inconsiderable issue of being able to install/use the software.

How?
> he also asked me to investigate translation software.  i'm 
> pretty sure we're not alloting a large amount of money for this 
> task.

It is generally accepted in the localization industry that, while the day of machine translation (MT) may come, it won't be coming any time Real Soon Now. Real MT packages don't come cheap; they need a lot of initial setup by a competent linguist; their output can require a lot of post-editing by a competent linguist.

Btw, Altavista uses a product called SysTrans, which is one of the high-end MT systems about. However, its output will still require quite an amount of post-editing. Check it out for the languages you're interested in: one useful test is to give some localized text, and get an English translation back from it; then, give it the English translation, and see what it gives you back for the localized equivalent. You don't mention what "a large amount of money" is by your company's standards, but MT systems will generaly fit most companys' description of "big bucks".

Bill Burns mentioned the glut of cheapo translation packages that are on the market. I have looked at the output of some of these, and I wouldn't be enormously confident that their output would meet a reasonable quality standard. 

Lisa Comeau mentioned the frailties of human translators. Point taken. Localization is a rather immature industry - you'll find that you will be promised quite a lot by the world and his mother, but that having said promises fulfilled is rather less common.

One area that you might consider, and which I don't think has been mentioned on the lists, is Computer Assisted Translation (CAT). CAT gives you some of the advantages of MT, in that it is a translation memory from which you can pluck previously translated sentences. This can give you substantial savings, particularly if you envisage updates to the docs. Trados is probably the CAT tool of choice, apart from being the one with which I'm most familiar :-)

Cheers,
Tom

// Tom Brophy,                                  Email: tom -at- tcraft -dot- com
// Translation Craft, 19A Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
// Phone:+353 1 2836336;  Mobile:+353 86 8295856;  Fax:+353 1 2783572


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