Translation + SVN + updating

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DavidLink
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 3:15 am

Translation + SVN + updating

Unread post by DavidLink »

Hi guys,

I've moved out of engineering and into tech support and would you believe, no one has been maintaining our documentation and now they want me to overhaul it and shift it so I have to maintain it.

I have 4-6 remote tech support staff who need to be able to contribute to the manual - I plan to use SVN for this.

I also need to maintain 3 translations of the manual, SDL trados studio is too much of a handful, and my spanish translator claims it removes too much context to make decent translations, I think he'd be better off translating in H&M natively.

So, my questions:

I'd need to update our H&M5 project to version 7, is this fairly straight forward?
I'd need 4 licenses of H&M7 pro, one for each editing staff.
Each translator would need a license for basic?

Editor workflow would be pretty simple, pull, contribute, push.
When a release of our software went out the engineers would only need to pull, update their bits, push, then compile.

The translator workflow would be for someone with a professional license to pull the master english, then each of the translated versions, then use the project synchronisation tool to update the translated copies, then to push the translated versions with any appropriate changes? Or would it be better to just give the translators professional licenses so they can pull, synch, translate and push?

More of a sales question, not sure if this is the right section?
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Tim Green
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Re: Translation + SVN + updating

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi David and welcome to the forum!
I'd need to update our H&M5 project to version 7, is this fairly straight forward?
Yes, not a problem. Help+Manual 7 reads HM5 projects directly. Just open and re-save and you're good to go.
I'd need 4 licenses of H&M7 pro, one for each editing staff.
Correct, that is necessary if they're remote because shared server licenses are currently LAN only.
Each translator would need a license for basic?
Also correct if the translation work is being done in Help+Manual. Basic can edit everything created with Pro or Server, it just can't create some of the features supported there, but the translators shouldn't be trying to do that. However, if you have a lot of documentation and consistency is important you should consider working with translators who use translation memory like SDL Trados (the market leader). Then the XML files are processed directly by Trados, which automatically creates a smart database of every sentence that has been translated and all your terminology. When you update a project you just send the translator the new version of the project. Trados scans all the content and automatically translates all unchanged sentences from the database. The human translator then processes the new and changed text, with additional support from the terminology database.

Configuration files for Trados and Across are included in \Templates\Translation in the Help+Manual program directory.
Editor workflow would be pretty simple, pull, contribute, push.
When a release of our software went out the engineers would only need to pull, update their bits, push, then compile.
No problem there. One point to remember is that the integrated SVN sync within Help+Manual is always a combined update/commit (pull + push). You can always do separate updates and commits externally in Tortoise, however. It's just something to bear in mind.
The translator workflow would be for someone with a professional license to pull the master english, then each of the translated versions, then use the project synchronisation tool to update the translated copies, then to push the translated versions with any appropriate changes? Or would it be better to just give the translators professional licenses so they can pull, synch, translate and push?
That is really up to you, but bear in mind that the translators won't be so experienced with Help+Manual. Letting them do the sync adds an additional potential error factor. If you do the sync in house it is done by people with more experience who can also check it before sending it off to the translators. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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