Call for expert advice

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Nicolas Wicke
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Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:58 am

Call for expert advice

Unread post by Nicolas Wicke »

Hello Tim,

As I've already mentioned before, we're in the midst of completely reorganising our help documentation system.
Over the past few months, I've learned a lot about Webhelp, CHM, modular projects, etc. mainly thanks to you guys :).

The majority of the help documentation for our software suite is now contained in a single modular project (referring to the separate projects), with conditional builds PDF (lowest priority), CHM and Webhelp (high priority).

Now I have to wrap my mind around the translation of the documentation.
Up until now, we translated by creating copies of topics within the project. So a single project would e.g. contain three times the 'Introduction' topic: one for Dutch (native), one for French and one for English. Each of these topics is then assigned to a conditional build NL, EN, FR. When publishing (until recently mostly as PDF), I then chose the specific build and presto: PDF in the correct language.

However, when moving the system to Webhelp and CHM, it soon became clear to me that our translation method (already existing when I started the job), was far from ideal and very difficult to maintain, highlight changes, etc.

So now I would like to move to the best practice for maintaining our main help project, taking into account the translator's work (currently a single translator within our organisation, with a licensed H&M seat).

In a few days we will both attend a roadshow of SDL Trados, mainly because the need for a translation memory tool is becoming high for the translator (for other translation purposes than the H&M documentation). I know however that there's also a more than decent link between H&M and SDL Trados, so we'll definitely need to have a closer look at that too.
On the other hand, I've read in the H&M Help that the best way for translation in the Professional version is by using the Project Synchronisation tool.

What would you suggest we do? Or can you refer to best practice documentation on the subject (other than the Translating-part in the H&M Help; I've mostly read that).

Thanks a bunch!

Regards,
Nicolas
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Tim Green
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Re: Call for expert advice

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Nicolas,
Up until now, we translated by creating copies of topics within the project. So a single project would e.g. contain three times the 'Introduction' topic: one for Dutch (native), one for French and one for English.
As you've already discovered, that approach may seem logical at first but it rapidly becomes very difficult to manage. It is much better to have separate copies of your project for the different languages. This is also important for the project settings, when you start getting into languages that are less compatible with each other technically. The original language is the master project and that is what gets updated and edited, the translations then follow the changes in the original.

If you are looking into getting into Trados that is by far the best choice, but be aware that it will take a while for the translators to get up to speed with it if it is new to them. Trados is a complex system and it takes time to learn. The benefits of good translation memory are enormous, however: You don't have any problems with updating, because all translations automatically go into your project translation database. When you send an updated version of the project to the translator all the known unchanged sentences are translated automatically by Trados -- even if the sentences are in different places. The translator doesn't need to do anything: They just run it through Trados and it translates everything known and highlights what is new and changed for the human translator to process. And the translator also gets optimal support while doing the manual work, in the form of the automated terminology database that helps to keep everything consistent, and the translation database that can automatically translate known phrases and partially translate similar sentences etc.

If you use Help & Manual as the translation editor you can get similar results but it is more work. Then you also create copies of the main project for translation, but the updating process is more complex. When the original master project is updated you need to run the Project Synchronizer to compare the new original with the old translation. The translation project is then updated for the translator to work on: New topics are added, deleted topics are removed, moved topics are moved and changed topics are marked as changed, with the new original topic text inserted in a single block above the old translated text, separated by a dividing line. (The translator must then find the changes, because the comparison is of two different languages it can't identify the actual changes, it just knows that the topic has been edited since the translation.)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Nicolas Wicke
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Re: Call for expert advice

Unread post by Nicolas Wicke »

Thank you very much, Tim.

I think we'll indeed start by focusing on SDL Trados for now.
Our translator already took a course for Trados last year (although we haven't moved to purchase yet), we'll both attend the SDL Trados roadshow next Thursday and most likely we'll request a custom demo by one of the reps. No doubt he will know about H&M and maybe he'll be able to provide some additional tips.

I'll start by preparing the projects and pulling the existing translations for separate projects. This will probably be one of the more important actions in the optimisation of the project structure for translation.

Thanks again and best regards,

Nicolas
John Johann
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Re: Call for expert advice

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi,
We're currently looking at H&M for our in application and user manual help and going on from that to be able to re-use the content for other documentation. The current system is built on XML with various localisation languages all included in a single file.

Looking at the manual and here in the forum, the advice is to keep languages separate with a master file and siblings for the various languages.

How practicable do users find this?

Are there families of languages where you would say it is O.K. to keep the languages in a single file (and if not, why exactly)?

How do you best keep track of changes -- build tags (V1, Vn)?

Thanks
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Tim Green
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Re: Call for expert advice

Unread post by Tim Green »

John Johann wrote:Are there families of languages where you would say it is O.K. to keep the languages in a single file (and if not, why exactly)?
It is not ever practical to have multiple languages in a single project. There would be zero benefits to doing it like that, only disadvantages. Quite apart from the practical nightmares of trying to manage all the different versions in a single project, all your other versions would be unavailable while translators were working on each single language.
How do you best keep track of changes -- build tags (V1, Vn)?
If you are using Help+Manual as the translation editor you can use the built-in project synchronizer to generate the new version for the translator to work on when you update your original. If you are using translation memory like Trados that isn't necessary: You just send the updated original to the translator. All the sentences that are unchanged will then get translated automatically from the translation memory and the translator will then work on the changed and new content.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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