Translating mutliple projects and repository

[waldemar.hersacher]

I'm going to setup our documentation with H&M. I'm experienced in creating single language projects as normal projects and modular projects with build time and run time merging for HTML, Web help and PDF.

My new task now is to setup the documentation for translation and having common topics in a H&M repository. The common topics will be used in various projects. All the nesseccary steps are in the documentation but there are some questions left.
I have the Professional version so I would use the Sync tool to create the sibling copy of the project.

I'm right that this will also work with the H&M repository and it would be the first project to create with the Sync tool?

The help states that the translator will just need the Basic version to translate the project. Is this also true for the H&M repository?

I will first create the H&M repository and a projectA. Next I create a sibling copy of the H&M repository and the projectA and send it to the translator. When I'm getting it back I need to update the H&M repository and the project with the Sync tool togehter with the new projectB and send it again to the translator. Is that unsderstanding of the working procedure correct?

[Tim Green]

Hi Waldemar,

I haven't come across this question before but as far as I can see this is not yet entirely supported, although it shouldn't be too much trouble to change it. You can edit repository projects with the Basic version, but you don't have an option to select them. You need to manually enter *.hmxr in the selection box in the Open dialog to be able to see them, but then you can open and edit them.

However, the Synch tool cannot currently process repository projects. I'm going to check with our developers what the current status is with this. I'll post here again (or they will) as soon as possible.

[waldemar.hersacher]

Hi Tim,

I planned to use the following folder structure with naming all languages according to the codes of ISO 639-1.
Docs is the root folder for the doumentation.
docs\de is the German master.
docs\sv will be he first sibling.

Under each language the naming and relative location of folders and files will be identical.

Docs\de\Common is the folder of the repository.
Docs\de\ProjectA is the first project.

I investigated some information and found the following:
In the registry the Repository manager stores the name and absolut path to each repository. This way I could name the repositories according to the language like Repository_de and set the location to ...\Docs\de\Common\Repository.hmxr. Here an absolut path is used because there is no root to link to.
I associated ProjectA with the repository. In the project file ...\Docs\de\ProjectA\ProjectA.hmxp I found the line:

Code: Select all

    <repository name="Repository_de" href="..\Common\Repository.hmxr"/>

Here an relative path is used.
I created a topic New_Topic and added a snippet from the repository to it. In the topic file I found the line:

Code: Select all

<snippet src="Repository_de::COM_Technical_Support" inline="false"/>

At this point I expected that COM_Technical_Support will be found from the topic file New_topic using the name of the repository, looking it up in the project file and using the href from it. This lead me to replace Repository_de with Repository in the project file and the topic file. But this will lead to an invalid link.

The workaround is to replace in the topic files each occurence of Repository_de with e. g. Repository_sv. The correct way to resolve the path to the repository is to use the relative path from the project file.

[waldemar.hersacher]

Hi Tim,

I played around a lot more.

Instead of using a repository for the snippets I can also use a normal project. This will allow to synchronize normally.

Next I applied a skin to the HTML output. The style settings of the repository are replaced by the skin.

I created a PDF and it doesn't use the repository styles. It used the project styles.

I use only Normal as style and have set print same as screen.
Project: Verdana
Repository: Times New Roman
Skin: Viner Hand ITC

I will send an archive containing all sources and outputs for your investigation. The files and folder ending with _skin are exported using the skin, the others are without skin.

I used 6.2.0 Build 2555 for the test.

[Tim Green]

Hi Waldemar,

There are just a couple of misunderstandings here: Skins can't be linked to repositories but it would also be completely unnecessary. Styles are optional in skins (we intentionally don't save styles in any skins we produce ourselves) and if you save the skin without styles the styles come from the projects themselves -- or from the repository, if the project is linked to a repository.

If you use the repository only for styles and have a separate project for snippets you also don't need to link the snippets project to a repository at all. Snippets only import their styles if the snippets are stored in a repository (because the repository styles are also linked). If you import a snippet from a normal project it's just like copying and pasting text into the project before publishing, and so the styles from the project and/or the linked repository are used on the snippets as well, exactly the same as all the other topics in the project.

[waldemar.hersacher]

Styles are optional in skins

I can only remove the styles from the skin only when saving it from a project. When saving a skin from a skin into another folder and a new name will not show the dialog to remove the styles.
When I created the skin some years ago the dialog wasn't exisitng or I didn't remember it now.

If you use the repository only for styles and have a separate project for snippets you also don't need to link the snippets project to a repository at all.

I did that so the author of the snippet will use the exakt same styles which will be available in the project. Additionally he will see how it will look in the document.

[Tim Green]

Hi Waldemar,

I can only remove the styles from the skin only when saving it from a project. When saving a skin from a skin into another folder and a new name will not show the dialog to remove the styles.

Ah, now I see what you mean. Yes, that's true -- using Save As... in a project that is already a skin just makes a copy of the skin. You can remove styles from an existing skin manually: Change the extension of the skin file to .zip and unzip it to an empty folder. Then open the project.hmxp file in a text or code editor and locate the <styleclasses> ... </styleclasses> block and delete it. Then zip up the contents of the folder again and change its name back to .hmskin.