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ADocs
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February 25, 2010
Answered

Translation question

  • February 25, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1097 views

I have a number of 50+ page FM8 manuals that require translating into multi-european languages.

After making several enquiries I find the actual text translation costs are pretty reasonable, however the cost for reformating the translated pages back into FM is more or less doubling the cost.

My question is: Are there any applications out there that will accept FM output (say MIF file) and present the text content for modification (translation) whilst maintaining the MIF Tags, so that I can reopen the MIF in FM without having to reformat the entire document?

Hope this is making sense!

Mike

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer susmur

    The quality of the results depends on a number of factors:

    • The quality of your FrameMaker input. Things to avoid are: format overrides, embedded graphics, source language graphics and target language graphics are very different in size, your layout doesn't leave room for text expansion.
    • Correct import options in the CAT tool. For example, you can get rid of manual page breaks or line breaks during the import if these breaks will likely be in a different position in the translated version.
    • Handling of tags during the translation. The translator should make sure that tags are in the correct position. Technical staff at the translation agency should check whether this has been done. CAT tools normally provide QA functions to do this.
    • Not necessarily a formatting issue, but important anyway: You and your translator should agree on a style guide at least for toc and index entries.

    We recently had a 400 pages manual translated. One of the agencies we asked for a quote estimated 5 working days for DTP. I did the DTP myself. It took me 2 hours.

    We use Transit when we do translations in-house and our files always come out nicely. But we also had Trados-translated files from agencies, and the layout results weren't any worse.

    Susanne

    1 reply

    S
    susmur
    Inspiring
    February 25, 2010

    Yes, this makes perfect sense. That's what every reasonable translation memory tool (also called CAT tool) does (Trados, Transit, memoQ, across, ...). Some of these tools accept MIF. They import the MIF files and separate text from layout. The translator only works on the text. When the translation is finished, it is exported. On export, translated text and layout information are merged again.

    Susanne

    A
    ADocsAuthor
    Known Participant
    February 25, 2010

    Thanks for the information Susanne. Do you have any views as to which of these provide the best results (i.e. the application that requires the least fine tuning to obtain the final FM output). I've just had a look at some comparison sites but as I have no experience in this field most of the specs went over my head!

    Thanks again.... Mike

    S
    susmurCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    February 25, 2010

    The quality of the results depends on a number of factors:

    • The quality of your FrameMaker input. Things to avoid are: format overrides, embedded graphics, source language graphics and target language graphics are very different in size, your layout doesn't leave room for text expansion.
    • Correct import options in the CAT tool. For example, you can get rid of manual page breaks or line breaks during the import if these breaks will likely be in a different position in the translated version.
    • Handling of tags during the translation. The translator should make sure that tags are in the correct position. Technical staff at the translation agency should check whether this has been done. CAT tools normally provide QA functions to do this.
    • Not necessarily a formatting issue, but important anyway: You and your translator should agree on a style guide at least for toc and index entries.

    We recently had a 400 pages manual translated. One of the agencies we asked for a quote estimated 5 working days for DTP. I did the DTP myself. It took me 2 hours.

    We use Transit when we do translations in-house and our files always come out nicely. But we also had Trados-translated files from agencies, and the layout results weren't any worse.

    Susanne

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