Need advice: workflow for translation of unfinished project

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Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Need advice: workflow for translation of unfinished project

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Here's the situation:
1. We have to translate an H+M help file that is not finished (because the software it documents is changing daily). This of course is insane, but it's our situation.
2. Our translator has Trados Studio

Do I
(a) Send the translator only the topics currently finished?
-- or --
(b) Send the entire H+M project?

I'm thinking it's (b) because by going this route, the translator's Trados Studio will have the help project's entire structure right from the start.

Also...
I'm not finding a way to set the "do not translate" XML switch. Is there an easy way to do this (e.g., by setting Topic Status to "Under Construction"?

Finally, is there a downside to sending the Zipped (hmxZ) project type?
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Tim Green
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Re: Need advice: workflow for translation of unfinished proj

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Dave,

First of all, you must send the uncompressed HMXP project folder. Trados needs access to all the individual XML files to be able to process the project.

There is no "do not translate" tag for entire topics, but you can mark individual text within topics for non-translation with the "protected" text formatting option (padlock icon in Write > Font). I would suggest using "under construction" because that is stored in the topic itself, not in the TOC file. Alternatively you could just put a note for the translator at the topic of the topic -- low-tech, but effective.

Ongoing writing and translation at the same time can be a little tricky and you need to be careful. You should definitely send the translator the entire project at the outset, so that they have the full structure. However, they shouldn't try to translate the TOC until the entire project is finished. Also, they shouldn't touch anything in the main .hmxp file either before the entire project is finished.

Individual topics can be sent as individual XML files as they become ready. Then the translator copies them into the Topics folder, overwriting the old or dummy versions, if they are there. In addition to the topic files you should ALSO send BOTH the current version of the TOC file(s) AND the current version of the .hmxp project file every time you send new or updated topic files. The translator should then overwrite the existing versions with those, so that the version of the project they have is always up to date when you send new files. Then they will also get the current versions of things like styles, context numbers and settings (all stored in the .hmxp file) and structural changes in the TOC (in the TOC file(s)).

The most tricky situation is when you change a topic that the translator has already worked on. You will need to communicate with them on that, and they will have to decide on how they are going to handle integrating the changes based on their own experience with Trados.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: Need advice: workflow for translation of unfinished proj

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Thanks. Your detailed workflow suggestions will definitely help - very much appreciated.
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