Localizing Robohelp 7 Project

The output files that contain the actual content of the TOC, index, and glossary are the whtdata...xml, whidata...xml, and whgdata...xml files.

What font are you using in your WebHelp skin? I would try Arial--that at least should display roman special characters. If you're already using Arial, try switching to Arial Unicode MS.

To edit your skin font, switch to Project Set-up in the Project Manager pod, double-click the skin name, and click the Font button in the dialog. (I'm sorry if I don't have quite as many answers for WebHelp--most of my prior localization experience is using FlashHelp output.)

Hi Ben,
I looked at some of the output files in the whxdata folder and some do look like they are not using the correct characters. For example:
whgdata0.xml, whidata0.xml, whidx.xml, whtdata1.xml ....I'm sure there are more. What next?

Also, as far as the Korean, I did open the source files, selected the topic and changes to Arial Unicode MS; the characters showed up in topic. I then followed the other steps in the control panel but don't have a cd. I guess I need to get from our IT department.

Thanks Ben,
It is the compiled output, where the special characters are wrong. The
The hhc, hhk and glo files are fine. It is just the output. I am looking at some files in the whxdata folder and they seem to be okay. Are there specific files I should be looking at?

Thanks for all your help. I need it.

By the way, changing your text editor font shouldn't affect the output--it will just allow you to see whether the characters are really corrupted or not.

For the Korean problem, go to this page and see item 10.

With the European languages, are the special characters corrupted in the WebHelp output? If this is the case, I'd first check the .hhk, .hhc, and .glo files you got back using a text editor. See if the characters are corrupted there. You may need to change the font of the editor to Arial Unicode MS or other Unicode typeface.

If things are okay there, go into the output folders and look for the whxdata folder. Open some of the files there in a text editor and see how they look--are the characters corrupted there?

Post back with results, and we'll go from there.

Hi Ben,

I received the .hhk, .hhc, and .glo translated files back for French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and German. They compile fine. However, the special characters for these languages are not showing up correctly. The text in the topics that was originally translated are fine. It's just the toc, index, and glossary. I expected to get these files back and all would be fine...but guess not. Any help on why this is happening?

Also, I compile the Korean and it shows all boxes. Do you know what I should do hear?

I am kind of panicking as we have a deadline.

quote:

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Typically, though they would have to translate these files correct? The only other way would be to send the list of words and then copy them into the file.

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Right, and that could get tedious. If your TOC is long, then it would definitely take less work for you to just submit it to the translators and have them do it.

Whether the tags are a problem is up to the translators. Our in-house translation group has a system with filters that they can set up to pull strings out of different kinds of files. We were able to get the text we needed out of the files we're discussing. It just took a little extra work on the translation group's part before they started translating.

Good luck, and post back if you run into any problems.

Okay. I get if. I did notice the tags. If I explain it like you did do and provide an example do you think that would be a problem? I don't want to do the toc for each language if I don't have to although we will see....

Typically, though they would have to translate these files correct? The only other way would be to send the list of words and then copy them into the file.

AT the very least I will send the hhk and glo files.
We are doing Chinese and Korean. I sure don't want to have to mess with toc on that one..

Thanks for all your time Ben.

You may want to check with the translators first to make sure that they'll pull the right text out of the TOC and index files because they're inside tags. For example, in the HHC file, you have lines that look like this:

<param name="Name" value="System Overview">
<param name="Local" value="System_Overview.htm">

The HHK file contains similar pairs:

<param name="Name" value="Emergency Contact">
<param name="Local" value="Emergency_Contact_Information.htm">

In these examples, "System Overview" and "Emergency Contact" are the text you want translated. Make sure that the translators can pick out the right text (if they translate "Name" into "Nombre," for example, I'm sure the TOC or index will break.)

If you're setting up the localized TOCs yourself by copying and pasting, don't send the HHC file to the translators.

Because of RH7's language support, things should turn out all right. For the Chinese and Korean to show up correctly in RH on your computer, you may have to do some tweaking with Windows. If you search the forums for "language pack" over the last year or 18 months, you'll see a few different threads that should help you with that. There are also some threads about making Asian languages appear correctly in CHM output, if that's what you're dealing with.

Glad to help.

Sorry I should have tried that first. After you sent the message I opened them in Notepad. I looked and the translators did not work on these files.

So I guess that means if I send the hhk, hhc and glo files to the translators, all should be okay. When I compile the project, the toc, index, and glossary should appear in the corresponding language, correct ? The toc topics do come up correctly for the corresponding english toc entry.

Thank you so much Ben. I feel very fortunate that you were able to help me and save me time.

Kathy