updating index

[DejanBGD]

Hello to everyone. I have problem with very long FrameMaker document which is originally created on english with alphabetical index on the end. Now I have translation on cyrillic and everything fine but when I start updating of index nothing happen and I need to have cyrillic index!
I thought that the index would be automatically generated from the original references to the terms (which are now Cyrillic) in the text, but this does not happen. On the contrary, after the update, all references (contents, titles, ...) are renewed, but the index remains in English.
Any advice? Thank you.

[Bob_Niland]

In the main text, take a look at some of the Markers of type Index, with the Insert Marker dialog up.

When these are first created, usually by selecting the word or phrase of interest, the Marker Text is pre-populated with the text as it appeared at time of Marker insertion. The Marker Text may not precisely match the original text selection, having been edited (and often is, to normalize capitalization, etc.). If the Body text is translated, and the Marker is not revised at that time, it remains as originally auto-populated|edited, in the original language.

I'm not aware of any way to automate a revision of these. One problem is that the Marker has no record of the text span/range, and even if it did, it would have no way to know what conventions were used to normalize Index entries. The Marker is just a moveable point object, that isn't even necessarily at the start of the range. The Marker Text can also include markup & operators to control Index formatting, adding further challenges for any desire to automate translation.

Some of the available translation tools may have aids. Otherwise, it's going to be a process of stepping through the .fm files via Find Marker-OfType.

[DejanBGD]

Thanks Bob, actually the whole thing is much more complicated than we thought... We tried several techniques but in the end it turned out that the original file was not created properly 😞 so we will do everything in a different way, outside of FrameMaker 🙂 Thanks again !!!

[Bob_Niland]

DejanBGD: …the whole thing is much more complicated than we thought…

Now you have me wondering if this was originally a pre-FM8 project, and the Cyrillic had to be done using codepage/overlay fonts. If so, the whole thing needs to be re-cast in Unicode.

[K.Daube]

An aid to step through all index markers (and correct them) might be my script FMmarkers. I suggest you first read the documentation. 

[DejanBGD]

Thanks Daube good to know about this tools. Anyway, the whole thing is much more complicated than we thought... We tried several techniques but in the end it turned out that the original file was not created properly 😞 so we will do everything in a different way, outside of FrameMaker 🙂 Thanks again !!!

[FrameMaker-dk]

Have you changed the sorting markers on the reference pages in the index? You will need cyrillic characters in order to sort the cyrillic index words.

[FrameMaker-dk]

Have you tried modifying the index sorting with the cyrillic alphabet? I believe that was how I managed to make it work last time I did a russian language manual

[DejanBGD]

I apologize for the delay in replying, too much else happened so this work was put aside.
Many thanks for the advice - yes that is the solution, I just have to find out how to do Cyrillic sorting?!?!?
Thanks again for the great help.

[Bob_Niland]

DejanBGD: I just have to find out how to do Cyrillic sorting…

Well, Cyrillic is a script, and not a language, so FM won't have any sorting for it per se. What FM may have is sorting for any of more than a dozen Slavic and non-Slavic languages that employ Cyrillic script.

[Danilo33941567ppfk]

Thank you Bob!!! I certainly don't know how to write that (or any other) script :):):)

[mk-will]

Hi, @DejanBGD ,

1) as @Bob_Niland mentioned the text in index-markers must be translated as well.

2) as @FrameMaker-dk mentioned you must also tell FM about how the cyrillic alphabet is sorted to get a correct index.

This is to be done on the index reference page.

Regards

Stephan

[DejanBGD]

I apologize for the delay in replying, too much else happened so this work was put aside.
Thanks for the clarifications, we will now go down that way, so we hope to find a solution.