Project Synchronization and Translated Images

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Scott Lecky
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Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 8:39 pm

Project Synchronization and Translated Images

Unread post by Scott Lecky »

Good afternoon,

I would appreciate some advice if someone has some ideas.

Our original Help and Manual project was in English. I saved a copy of this file, modified all the images (many of them) to an ipp format (using Impict), and then sent the following to our Japanese translator:

- Project XML files (including table_of_contents and all Topics)
- Images XML files (ipp.xml)
- English version of images for a reference
- Compiled help file for a reference

The translator has taken a while to do the translation, and in the mean time I have been updating the English version for our upcoming release. I have now received back all the translated xml files (in Japanese). However I'm thinking ahead to future translation, and had a thought regarding future translation work. I had planned to import all the Japanese image translations and save the images files as PNGs and then edit the Japanese version of the manual and replace the 'English' images with the Japanese images. However if I then send the updated English manual XMLs for translation into Japanese, upon return to me the topic XMLs will be using the English version images again, and I will manually have to go through and update each topic to use Japanese images.

Looking for a solution to this problem I found out about the project synchronization feature of Help and Manual. After reading the help file and some forum posts I believe I can use the project synchronization feature and match up the internal IDs of the English and Japanese projects.

What I am unclear on though is if this will help me with the translated images problem. Can someone provide some insight on this?

Thank you,

Scott
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Tim Green
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Re: Project Synchronization and Translated Images

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Scott,

The easiest solution here is to insert the IPP images directly instead of converting them to PNG. This is absolutely possible and Help & Manual will handle the conversion to the appropriate output formats on publishing automatically. If file size in HTML is a possible issue then set your conversion options to convert true color images to JPEG and 256-color images to GIF, as true color PNGs are a lot larger. You can configure this in Project Explorer > Publishing Options > WebHelp/HTML Help > HTML Export Options.

Then you just need to have separate folders containing the versions of your IPP images for each language, along with the matching XML text files. When you switch languages you just need to change the project search path setting for the project in Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path to point to the appropriate folder for the language you are using. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Scott Lecky
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 8:39 pm

Re: Project Synchronization and Translated Images

Unread post by Scott Lecky »

Thank you Tim, I will give that a go.
Scott Lecky
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 8:39 pm

Re: Project Synchronization and Translated Images

Unread post by Scott Lecky »

Hi Tim,

One more question related to this. The manual contains images which contain text and some which do not. Is there a certain way I need to have the directory structure setup, or does it not matter?

Currently the structure is:

Installation_manual > English > Installation_Manual_ENG.hmxz (for the English manual)
Installation_manual > Japanese > Installation_Manual_JPN.hmxp (for the Japanese manual)
Installation_manual > Pictures > (for images that contain no text and are used in both manuals)
Installation_manual > Pictures > ENG (for ipp images with Japanese ipp.xml files)
Installation_manual > Pictures > JPN (for ipp images with Japanese ipp.xml files)

Will this existing structure work, or am I better to put the images in a sub-directory of the Language version of the manual? The problem I see with this is there may be a problem with the images that contain no text and are shared in each manual?

Scott
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Tim Green
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Location: Bruehl, Germany
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Re: Project Synchronization and Translated Images

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Scott,

That is not a problem at all. You just need to configure the project search path settings in each project accordingly. Include the folder for the common images in both paths and only the English or Japanese versions in the corresponding projects as appropriate.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Scott Lecky
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 8:39 pm

Re: Project Synchronization and Translated Images

Unread post by Scott Lecky »

Thank you Tim, I appreciate your help.
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