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nedwardk
Participating Frequently
April 14, 2011
Question

Localization process

  • April 14, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 989 views

Hello,

I'm having a little trouble understanding the simplest process for localization. I think I've figured out a way to do what I need to, but it seems so unweildy and complicated that I think there must be a simpler way.

I have an application that I am attempting to record tutorials for. The application is localized into several languages. I want to produce (with as little duplicated effort as possible) localized tutorial videos using captivate. I'm currently using captivate 5.

The process as I understand it from the help is:

1. Create a source language project

2. Export the captions - as best I can tell this has to be the .doc method (why doc!!?!?) as the XML method seems to export the entire project, not just want needs to be translated

3. Record the same segments for the localized program as were recorded in the source language. It says in the help not to automatically include objects, but I don't know what exactly that means. Where do I record these segments? As slides in the source project, or in a different project?

4. Next it says to import all objects from the source language version of the project. How? How do you import all the objects? via library? Or via exported XML?

When I try to import captions it seems I can only import captions on a project where the captions have been exported... Otherwise the import captions option is greyed out/disabled.. If that's the case, the steps in the instructions don't seem to work. If I create a seperate project for my localized version, I can't import all the captions from the original version. On the other hand, if I translate all the captions in the original version, then I no longer have my original version...

So it seems I can do all the required translations on one project, but it is essentially translated into just one language at at time. If I make a change I have to then manually switch it to each language, export/import etc, manually switch out the video on every slide publish, then switch to the next language... Seems crazy.

Can anyone help me out here with a clearer explanation of the process? My goal is to have one source language project, then somehow have other localized projects based off this source project. Is this possible?

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      2 replies

      Lilybiri
      Lilybiri
      Legend
      April 14, 2011

      Hello,

      I can feel your pain and having translated quite a lot of my projects do know that the work flow is not optimized at all (euphemistic not?). But I always worked with one language in the capture (English) and translated only the instruction slides and the captions with the Doc-workflow. You are right that you can only re-import in the same file from which you exported. Mostly I first saved the file under another name, exported the captions from that duplicate and re-imported them.

      Where did you find the instructions? Anyhow for Captivate 5 they seemed not to be correct, since you cannot import objects anymore, or it should be by using the XML instead of Word. I should first have to check that.

      As where you can change the workflow to include as little objects as possible, go to Preferences, Recording, Modes and you could deactivate some objects to be added automatically while capturing. Then you could import the new recorded backgrounds in the duplicate project to replace the backgrounds in the original language.

      Please, please, could you help my pleading for a better work flow by filling in a feature request? The link is in the main page of this forum.

      Lilybiri

      N
      nedwardkAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      April 14, 2011

      Oh also, whenever I try import 'from xml' I get an error message 'cannot import xml' with no explanation as to why...

      N
      nedwardkAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      April 14, 2011

      Oh it looks like you can only import the XML into the project it was exported from... So it's the same issue as with the .doc file. If I can only import

      into the same file, it means I can't keep a saved project for each translation. Surely that's not the way it's supposed to work?

      For each localized project I have to change the videos out to use the recordings of the localized interface of our application. If I have to manually do that every time theres any text changes (even just a single word) because I can't save localized versions of the project then this process becomes ridiculously tedious. I must be missing something here....!!

      Lilybiri
      Lilybiri
      Legend
      April 14, 2011

      Sorry if I was not clear enough. One example:

      • I create a project in Dutch, edit it completely and save ProjectDutch
      • I make a duplicate of that project  ProjectFrench
      • I export from this duplicate and translate the captions
      • I re-import in the duplicate
      • If you have to make new captures, try to have only the backgrounds by changing the Mode settings and capture in another project
      • Import the new backgrounds in the duplicate and replace the originals by the new backgrounds. Captions (translated) can be kept.

      Lilybiri

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