Handover files for translation

[Rob Davis]

HI
We are using H&M to produce single-sourced Help (.chm) and documentation (.pdf). We need to hand over files to a partner who wishes to translate (only) the documentation to another language for their own market. They will probably not be using H&M (Although I will suggest it as an option), and I am looking for the best way to give them the material.

So far, the only passable solution I have found is to put the .pdf through AcrobatX and produce a Word output. This is compete, but is just page-by-page. Headers and footers are not separate, all formatting is local, no styles, etc. etc. It is not a satisfactory solution.

Questions:
1. If I output .rtf, how do I package the files so they get the graphics as well - whenever I output .rtf, I get only the text.
2. Can I provide a set of HTML files in such a way that they can pulish a document from them?
3. What other suggestions?

Thanks

[Tim Green]

Hi Rob,

So far, the only passable solution I have found is to put the .pdf through AcrobatX and produce a Word output. This is compete, but is just page-by-page. Headers and footers are not separate, all formatting is local, no styles, etc. etc. It is not a satisfactory solution.

Please don't do this! Help & Manual is explicitly designed to make translation and updating translations a smooth and easy process and exporting to PDF or Word and re-importing will nullify that and create huge amounts of completely unnecessary extra work for you. The options are described in detail in this chapter of the help. Please check it out first, then post here again if anything is unclear.

[Rob Davis]

Hi Tim
I hear you - and I have read the section on translation - more than once.
This is a sore subject at the moment - I have just tried an unsuccessful proposal for a company-wide policy on translations. We have VARs abroad who are basically 'country representatives', and hence are one-per-country - they do not have any form of contact with each other. Each have their own views on running their territories - this extends beyond language requirements, and is even more of a problem with version policies. Large foreign projects often perpetuate old releases with their own custom features, meaning lots of additional support load for our programmers and no common base for documentation!
Some older versions of our larger packages have their WinForms-based GUIs fully translated. Some also have their own skins for the products. I asked a question in the forum long ago about whether there was a limit on the number of text variables because I was researching importing the text string files from the GUI and using them in the Help file - but then saw that there was no realistic chance of approval for translation of the Help file itself at present.
I was informed that current policy is that we do not plan on providing translated documentation (or translated Help). We need to support VAR requests for text files, which they may individually translate, without our involvement.
Current requests are all focused on just translating the User Guides, which are edited using H&M. Our latest product actually does have a single-source Help and Manual - just like your name! - but for the older products these are separate files. I have recently had to deal with requests for text files from three different VARs using three different versions and three different target languages - absolutely no commonality between them, so no chance to pitch for some form of unified effort.
So, at least for the present, I fear that I will have to accede to requests for editable files. But watch this space - I am stubborn and will keep trying for a policy.
Rob

[Tim Green]

Hi Rob,

I can understand your situation... I'm afraid there's not a lot Help & Manual can do there really. I would just advise against using PDF as your source -- even RTF is better than that. Extracting any kind of meaningful data from PDF is like trying to unscramble eggs, because all a PDF really is,is the raw data that gets sent to a printer stored in a file. A PDF viewer is really just a printer driver that prints to a computer screen instead of a physical printer. The data it contains has almost nothing to do with the source. In essence, it is just a list of commands telling the printer where to print dots.