Streamlining localization workfl ows using Adobe technical communication tools Whitepaper

Any one of over 25 new features in FrameMaker 10 could tempt existing or potential users to move up to this new release. In this article we focus on a handful of features that will have significant impact on multilingual projects and unstructured FrameMaker documents destined for translation. Our next article will focus on FrameMaker 10 benefits to publishers making structured, XML/DITA documents destined for translation.

In multilingual projects, it is often the “little things” that can add up to hours or unwanted time and expense in post-translation publishing. A number of what might be considered minor or “B-List” features in FrameMaker 10 actually have tremendous impact in the translation workflow for unstructured FrameMaker documents. There are also many “A-list” features in FrameMaker 10; for purposes of this article we confine our review to features that will likely have the most impact on translation workflow.

Note: this review assumes some basic knowledge of FrameMaker. Read on:

1. Managing Styles in Paragraph, Character and Table Catalogs in FrameMaker 10

Although FrameMaker has always demonstrated great power in the ease with which you can import style formats (paragraph, character and table) from other documents, this feature often leads to unused formats in these catalogs.

FrameMaker 10 introduces an option button in all catalogs which allows you to make catalogs and style management much simpler. These features will prove to be a huge time-saver in post translation formatting of FrameMaker documents and also make FrameMaker more accessible for new users or temporary contractors who briefly assist with your projects. You may:

• Display all styles, with styles in use displayed first (styles currently used in the document have a check in front of them)

• Show only styles that are in use

• Show only unused styles

• Customize a list, showing only the styles you wish, or changing the order in which styles display (e.g. place the most frequently used styles at the top of the list.) Previous versions of FrameMaker always displayed catalog styles in alphabetical order, not in order of importance. This led to many odd workarounds, like placing a “z_” prefix in front of infrequently used formats, or styles relegated to master page headers and footers.

• You may Delete all unused format. This last option is particularly useful if you want to purge all styles from a document except the 10 styles present in a “partial template” document. When you import from the document, you will no longer bring in the host of unused or unwanted styles which have cluttered up catalogs in the past.

FrameMaker 10 also introduces a dedicated Table catalog to display Table styles. This eliminates the rather illogical actions in previous releases: (a) opening the Table Designer, (b) scrolling

Adobe FrameMaker 10Try the full functionality of FrameMaker 10 (as a part of Adobe Technical Communication Suite 3.5 soft ware) in minutes and without downloading the soft ware. Tutorials are also included. Test-drive it now at www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite.

Streamlining localization workfl ows using Adobe technical communication tools8 Ways Unstructured FrameMaker 10 helps Translation

through the pull-down list of named table styles and (c) having no indication of which table styles were currently availble in the current document.

2. Managing format overrides with FrameMaker 10

Many other FrameMaker 10 reviews have swept the improved ability to manage format overrides under a “Miscellaneous” category, but this enhancement is a huge boon in the translation workflow. This feature will enable your translation company to significantly reduce manual Desktop Publishing time to adjust formatting in translated documents. This feature will be particularly useful in “scrubbing” or “cleansing” source English documents before translation, to reduce the number of manual format override corrections required.

Many unstructured FrameMaker documents have unwanted or unnecessary format overrides to paragraphs, character selections and tables. The Find/Change menu now has the ability to search for Paragraph Format Overrides, Character Format Overrides and Table Format Overrides. In the example shown below, a search for Character Format Override has located an item in a bulleted list that has a “dead” character tag, “CF 12 pt HVY” applied to it.

This is typical of character styles that are artifacts from older legacy documents which were converted from Microsoft Word to FrameMaker. In this case, clicking on Change will remove the format override.

3. Suppress unwanted alerts when opening FrameMaker 10 documents

This may sound like removal of a minor nuisance factor, but it is actually a pretty big deal. Previous releases of FrameMaker paused document opening with pop-up warnings for (a) missing fonts, (b) that you were opening a document created in an older release of FrameMaker or (c) the file contains unresolved cross-references. In the translation workflow, especially when your translation partner is assisting you with file conversion or cleaning up source files, it is very common to have to open dozens of files from previous releases. Your own staff and desktop publishers at your translation company may have to click these alerts literally thousands of time throughout the year.

It is also common for one member of the translation agency DTP team to have to temporarily edit files which have missing fonts, knowing that final edits or publishing will take place in another location where all fonts are present. In cases like this, the alerts are completely unnecessary. Now a simple setting under preferences will allow your production of translation team to turn off these nuisance messages and open all files in a book in a manner of seconds, instead of minutes.

4. Real time spell checker helpful in translated FrameMaker 10 documents

As with Microsoft Word, a preference can turn on “as-you-edit” spell checking, placing the familiar wavy lines under misspelled words and offering pop-up suggestions. When FrameMaker documents are translated, a FrameMaker template is usually applied that makes paragraph font or style changes, if necessary. Language-specific FrameMaker templates can change the

“language” setting to the target language. This will make wavy lines appear under suspect words that are not in the target language dictionary.

This is not a panacea for translation, as there will often be obscure, industry-specific terms that won’t be present in the FrameMaker language spell checker (they can be added); but, this feature is one more quality check that can take place during the publishing phase.

5. Drag n’ Drop editing and automated scripting to eliminate repetitive tasks with FrameMaker 10

Drag n’ Drop editing sounds like an “about time” feature (it is), but don’t underestimate the impact of this feature on post-translation editing and reformatting of FrameMaker documents. Corrective formatting frequently involves selecting a few characters (e.g. tab/space) and moving it to the correct location in text. Being able to do this in one step (vs. cut and paste) is faster and will reduce errors. The benefits are magnified by the number of target languages your language service provider (LSP) is delivering to you.

Adobe ExtendScript allows you to automate repetitive and time consuming tasks. You may create your own scripts, use existing scripts or even configure scripts for “autorun.” Scripts may be viewed and accessed from a catalog.

A number of powerful third-party products made scripting possible with previous releases of FrameMaker. The limitation was that both the customer and his translation agency needed a license for the scripting product. Now that ExtendScript is bundled into FrameMaker, scripting will go into wider use. We may also see community-based scripts spread through social networking and become available through various FrameMaker forums.

6. FrameMaker 10’s background text color (highlighter)

Another “Word-like” feature is the addition of text background color on the character or paragraph level. User-defined colors may prove most useful with conditional text tags. Though infrequently used in translated FrameMaker documents (a future article may cover why), conditions will be much more evident if a unique background color can temporarily display when “condition indicators” are specified.

Background color (e.g. a pale gray) can also be used to temporarily mark portions of a document that need special review regarding formatting or other post-translation issues.

Feature request—as wonderful as background text color is, it is not well suited for creating a colored “square” of text around an entire paragraph. Unfortunately, tabs do not display the background color, so there is no way to “fill out” the color from the end of a paragraph to the right margin. Single cell tables will still be the workaround for this oft-requested feature.

7. Extended rich media support and “poster” frames in FrameMaker 10

FrameMaker 9 introduced the ability to place SWF files and other dynamic formats into FrameMaker anchored frames, which users can interact with in PDF output. The list of supported formats has been expanded considerably to include QuickTime and video formats, among others. Also, the publisher or author may import a static image (jpeg) file to create a useful image preview “poster” of what the motion video (e.g. SWF file from Captivate) will display.

How does this help translation projects? Many users are continuing to author technical documents and user guides in a traditional manner, with a series (often 8 or more) of progressive screen captures or diagrams to illustrate a series of steps. Now, the number of graphics and page count can be considerably reduced by having a captivate demo of interaction with software which takes up one frame and one page. Captivate “captions” or labels may be exported, translated, and easily imported back into the source captivate file for the target language. Due to the proliferation of online video and social media, technical product users expect (and deserve) more interaction with their documentation.

8. Collaborative review through enhanced import of PDF comments into FrameMaker 10

The importation of comments from PDF files into FrameMaker has been considerably improved. In FrameMaker 10, the comments will visually display within FrameMaker in a manner that resembles their function. For example, deletions default as “strikeout text”, while “insertions” will appear in green.

When using track changes to review documents which have PDF comments from multiple

authors, FrameMaker 10 provides a pull-down menu in the Review workspace which lets the user filter the comments and show those of a single viewer. This will eliminate a great deal of confusion, as collaborative review will sometimes contain conflicting comments from various reviewers. Also, when your cursor is inserted in an imported comment, the reviewer’s login name and timestamp will appear in the lower left corner of the document window.

The comment highlighter in Acrobat or Acrobat reader will create comments embedded in text highlighted with the background color. This feature will be especially valuable to your translation company during LQA (Linguistic Quality Review.) Many linguists in “exotic” languages must provide comments in PDF; very few have access to on-line, translation portal tools. Up until now, many linguists reviewing Asian languages have tried to use the “sticky note” for comments. It is often not evident which a range of Asian characters are being indicated for change. Now linguistic reviewers can simply use the highlighter pen comment in Acrobat or Acrobat reviewer, enter the changed needed, and their instructions will be crystal clear to any translation company staff making final changes to the target language document.

Incidentally, the edits shown in the screen capture above may be made in the free version of Acrobat Reader; the linguistic review does not need a full Acrobat license.

The screen capture below shows the improved, more logical display of reviewer comments after importation into FrameMaker 10.

Summary

We have certainly not touched on all new functionality in FrameMaker 10. There are many more exciting features that make the product an even stronger candidate for any publishing challenges. Our next article will cover specific product enhancements that make structured authoring, XML and DITA more productive in a multilingual project environment.

For a full overview of all new FrameMaker 10 features for general purposes, we recommend that you download the Adobe FrameMaker 10 and Adobe FrameMaker Server 10 Reviewer’s Guide, produced by Adobe. This 79 page guide includes dozens of highly useful narrated, Captivate demos. Be sure to also check out the new technical communication channel on Adobe TV.

6 Ways Structured FrameMaker 10 helps Translation

FrameMaker 10 introduces many great new features, several of which will have a positive impact on creating structured source content for your translation workflow. Our previous article, 8 Ways Unstructured FrameMaker 10 helps Translation, focused on new FrameMaker 10 features relevant to unstructured workflows; this article focuses on structured (XML/DITA) multilingual projects.

Note: this review assumes some basic knowledge of FrameMaker.

FrameMaker 10 introduces full support for DITA 1.2, which has a major impact on anyone creating topic based content, especially in a CMS controlled environment. It is now possible to introduce a range of topics or DITA content in a single step, whereas the previous version of FrameMaker required redundant, individual links. FrameMaker’s user interface has been improved, making complex procedures with XML and DITA much more accessible to “casual” or occasional users. This is significant, because many translation agency customers rely heavily on contractors or transient staff.

1. Enhanced tag view allows DITA element manipulation on a single, small screen in FrameMaker 10

Although you can customize and manage workspaces in FrameMaker, version 10 has several enhancements that make structured authoring even easier than before. A single click of a new FrameMaker icon in the structured authoring workspace will display all XML or DITA elements as tags in the document window. (With previous versions of FrameMaker, View->Elements as Tags… would display element tags in the document view that would not collapse.) The major improvement is the ability to expand or collapse tags. Once this is done, a selected element can be moved through drag n’ drop, and eliminate the need to display the tree-like structure of an XML document in the structure view.

The screen capture above illustrates a case where the last item in a list may be selected and moved in front of the first list item. This is easier to accomplish without viewing the text content of the collapsed tag. The traditional structure view with its “tree-like” view of the document need not be open during this simple editing task.

Benefit—structured authoring and editing are now much friendlier on a laptop or single-screen environment. With previous versions of FrameMaker, users often begged their managers for a 2nd computer screen to display the traditional structure view on a separate screen. This is one more way in which FrameMaker 10 will help structured authoring extend to less experienced, new users, who need to author content in DITA or XML. Complex, structured document manipulations, which previously required large or multiple computer monitors, can now be performed anywhere, even on a laptop.

2. Manage metadata with FrameMaker 10’s new attribute editor

Attributes are one of the most powerful aspects of DITA and XML. It is possible to “tag” elements with certain values that can be used in a variety of ways, for instance, a “language” attribute can identify whether portions of the source FrameMaker document should not be translated. Attributes may work in tandem with language specific formatting specified in the FrameMaker EDD (element definition document.)

FrameMaker 10 introduces a very accessible and much friendlier attribute editor. A simple window can display only required or specified attribute values, or all values. With previous versions of FrameMaker, the user had to use the structure view to select the [+] to the right of an element in order to display attribute choices. Double clicking the attribute with older versions of FrameMaker opened an inconvenient, modal menu which displayed attribute values and allowed change.

FrameMaker 10 allows attribute values to display in a cleaner, concise fashion.

Benefit—this enables novice users to become familiar with metadata much more quickly. Expert users will use this feature to monitor hidden metadata in a more convenient format.

3. FrameMaker 10’s filter by attribute, a better solution for “conditional text” in structured documents

At first glance, filter by attribute may appear to be similar to showing or hiding document content with FrameMaker’s conditional text control. This new feature in structured FrameMaker 10 has several advantages over traditional conditional text control for documents destined for translation:

• Multiple expressions can be saved at the same time.

• It does not allow the hiding of the entire document, since the root element may not be hidden. Regular conditional text control can create an empty content document.

• The smallest unit that can be hidden with filter by attribute is an element. Regular conditional text control could be applied to any selected text, including one character.

• A better level of granularity is available in terms of creating a hide condition, because an attribute can have several values (based on its definition). Hence, each attribute value has a separate SHOW or HIDE possibility.

Structured FrameMaker documents are composed of elements, each of which may have one or more attributes. Now, you can filter the visible content of a structured FrameMaker document based on attribute values. Since other XML applications can use the same attribute-value pair as FrameMaker 10 to filter content, filter by attribute enables you to preserve single-sourcing workflows across other XML applications.

When a filter is applied to the document, elements that have attributes that do not meet the filter criteria are screened out. You can specify how the filtered out content is treated:

• as hidden,

• highlighted with a color,

• or applied with a condition tag.

In the example below, a Boolean expression determines that text to be displayed must have the language attribute set to Japanese and the platform attribute set to Window. In this case, elements with a platform attribute set to UNIX are previewed with Dark Gray color, rather than being hidden.

FrameMaker’s traditional conditional text control and user variables have the potential for (a) maliciously affecting word order in translation and (b) merging paragraphs of different types if a

“hidden” condition tag straddles paragraph fragments. Since filter by attribute affects entire elements vs. text selection, this new method in structured FrameMaker 10 for displaying or hiding text is much less likely to created unwanted combinations of text that can adversely affect translation.

4. Developing attribute values with FrameMaker 10

FrameMaker 10 includes a new Config File Maker wizard that lets you quickly define attribute value options. For example, in an attribute such as audience, the XML standard allows text. This means that users can enter any value in this optional string attribute. Use Config File Maker to implement a set of your own allowed values, so that writers can choose an option from a drop-down list, eliminating the risk of user error.̀

This feature, over time, will enable FrameMaker 10 users to fine tune their document structure to be more “fool proof” from an end-user perspective. Cleaner source document structure, especially with structured XML or DITA documents, always improves the translation workflow.

5. Content Management System support in FrameMaker 10

Support for both EMC Documentum and the Microsoft Sharepoint is built directly into FrameMaker 10 allowing you to check in and out, upload, edit, and manage versions directly from FrameMaker 10. Supported features include uploading files or folders, opening and editing content, deleting files or folders, searching the Content Management System (CMS) repository, identifying file dependencies, and more.

The connectors to these two popular document CMS solutions are bundled into FrameMaker 10 at no additional cost. This is one of many high-end features, often available as expensive options on competitive products, that justifies FrameMaker’s relatively high price point. Obviously, FrameMaker 10 can connect to other CMS solutions, like Ektron, with some consulting required.

Benefit—every translation company has customers who are struggling to craft a cost-effective CMS solution. FrameMaker’s built-in support for two of the most common CMS choices for tech doc groups enables both the customer and the Language Service Provider (LSP) to benefit from leveraging reusable content on a topic-by-topic basis.

6. DITA usability enhancements in FrameMaker 10

Note—you may view informative, quick videos for the features mentioned below in the excellent article Do rapid DITA authoring in FrameMaker 10! by Adobe’s FrameMaker product manager, Kapil Verma.

Switch between Resource Manager (RM) or Document view in a DITA map

FrameMaker users who work with DITA maps often wish to work with a Resource Manager View or a Document View. Switching between these two views is now as simple as clicking a toolbar icon. The availability of two views also makes FrameMaker 10 easier to use for new content creators who are used to more traditional XML editors.

Drag and drop across DITA maps

Rather than cut and paste topicref elements between maps, they can be reorganized by using drag n’ drop. By using the drag n’ drop features, maps can be customized quickly. Content in one map can be moved into another map and reorganized as needed.

This new method is more intuitive and makes advanced structured DITA editing available to a larger pool of content creators. The benefit to the translation workflow is that source documents based on DITA maps can be produced more accurately by more people.

Insert multiple topicref elements in a DITA Map

When working with maps and topicref elements need to be added, it is very time consuming to select one topicref element after another. Instead, FrameMaker 10 enables you to select a range of topicref elements, or even all the files in a folder, and add them all at once.

This is one more example of how enhancements to structured authoring in FrameMaker 10 will accelerate creation of source files for translation, which will shorten overall project timelines.

Summary

We have certainly not touched on all new functionality in FrameMaker 10. There are many more exciting features that make the product an even stronger candidate for any publishing challenges. Our next article will cover specific product enhancements that make structured authoring, XML and DITA more productive in a multilingual project environment.

For a full overview of all new FrameMaker 10 features for general purposes, we recommend that you download the Adobe FrameMaker 10 and Adobe FrameMaker Server 10 Reviewer’s Guide, produced by Adobe. This 79 page guide includes dozens of highly useful narrated, Captivate demos. Be sure to also check out the new technical communication channel on Adobe TV.

How RoboHelp 9 benefits Translation Part - 1

Adobe RoboHelp, an innovative solution for help files celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. RoboHelp 9 can be used very productively as a standalone product, for people who only need various forms of Help systems or ePubs. But one of the biggest benefits to end-users is RoboHelp’s seamless integrations with FrameMaker 10, Acrobat X and Captivate 5.5 in Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite 3.5 (Tech Comm Suite.) Although this article focuses specifically on RoboHelp, the incredible power of combining content creation from FrameMaker and rich media generation from Captivate, seamlessly output through RoboHelp via Technical Communication Suite should not be overlooked. In fact, you should check to make sure that your language translation services provider (translation agency) is “up-to-speed” on the latest version of Technical Communication Suite 3.5.

A note about FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9 integration

A desirable option to maximize your single-source workflow for traditional documentation and HTML Help (or other formats) is to author your basic content in FrameMaker 10. Then, have FrameMaker paragraphs or DITA elements mapped to appropriate styles in RoboHelp 9, and output to a distinctly differently formatted Help system via Technical Communication Suite 3.5. Conditional text control in unstructured FrameMaker or DITA/FrameMaker can allow you to produce multiple versions of content, e.g. one for PDF output, and another, more extensive set of content for a complex Help system. For purposes of simplicity, this review will just focus on RoboHelp 9 functionality.

How the product has changed

Many readers may be familiar with older versions of RoboHelp (e.g. pre-Adobe releases created and supported by Macromedia), and may not be familiar with some of the compelling reasons to consider RoboHelp 10, or to upgrade to it from an older version. Here are just a few reasons to consider an upgrade to the current version of RoboHelp:

• Improved user-interface and “author-friendly” workflow. Despite the many forms of input and output, the tools are remarkably accessible and logical.

• The product is scalable and can easily grow with expanding needs.

• Significant time and money can be saved with the new Review and Collaboration workflow solution. Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free tool for reviewers to use.

• Several “extras” are bundled into the product at no extra charge, including RoboScreen Capture, RoboSource Control and Extended Scripting automation.

RoboHelp Features that specifically aid translation projects

Here is the short list of product functionality in RoboHelp 9 that is critical to multilingual and translation projects:

• Unicode support for over 35 languages

• Edit topics side-by-side with the Multiple Document Interface (MDI)

• Support for multiple tables of contents, indices and glossaries and different languages

• Granular control over language definition: define a language at the topic or even paragraph levels, in addition to the project

• The “LANG” attribute is used for thesaurus, spell checking, Smart Indexing and also creating the search index

• The language attribute specified at the paragraph level is given the highest preference

• RoboHelp produces clean XHTML code

• The new Review and Collaboration workflow solution can streamline your workflow saving considerable time and cost as the team is empowered to communicate efficiently and accurately

Although these few features assist Help translation projects tremendously, several new product enhancements, and features introduced in the previous release are very relevant as well.

Test drive Adobe RoboHelp 9Try the full functionality of RoboHelp 9 (as a part of Adobe Technical Communication Suite 3.5) in minutes—without downloading the soft ware. Tutorials are also included. To test drive RoboHelp 9 now, visit www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite.

RoboHelp 9 streamlines the Review and Collaboration process

One of the biggest challenges most clients have in managing the source language content for Help Systems is keeping content in sync and managing the review and collaboration process. RoboHelp 9 has several potent methods to ease these processes. The three major workflow solutions to this challenge are detailed below:

Adobe PDF Based Review

This method supports a “round-trip” workflow. The content manager can select topics individually or based on status. This can include just snippets or Master Pages. After the review process, authors can import the comments back into RoboHelp and either accept or reject comments as they deem appropriate. There is no limit to the number of reviewers of topics, so this is highly scalable.

PDFs generated for review can be hosted on an internal server, on Acrobat.com (a cloud), or a Microsoft SharePoint server. So, the reviewer’s access to files for review can be very flexible. Creating a PDF for Review in RoboHelp is relatively simple.

Once all comments are in from reviewers, the author can use the Review > Import Comments from PDF command. A Review Pane shows a list of comments or changes. The author can easily go to a specific topic to accept or reject it by double clicking on the comment.

The screen capture below, from Adobe’s RoboHelp 9 Reviewer’s Guide, shows a document with imported comments visible in the Review Pane at the bottom of the screen:

At this point, as the content-creator clicks on comments, logical navigation toolbars appear and he can accept or reject individually, or even Accept All corrective comments, as shown below in another illustration from the RoboHelp 9 Reviewer’s Guide:

Comment Moderation in Adobe AIR Help 2.0 for end-user input

Sometimes companies have Help documentation that is evolving, particularly in early product releases in the source language. RoboHelp can output to the Adobe AIR Help platform, which provides several useful commenting options:

• Enable limited commenting by end users for their own use in topic annotation or sharing with co-workers

• Use commenting between your content-creation team and SMEs to consolidate comments

• Allow end-users to share comments with other users

• Share comments amongst users in a shared review

RoboHelp 9 gives you the option to enable Moderation so that comments are first reviewed by a moderator and accepted or rejected before being made visible to the end-user community.

RoboHelp’s ability to manage tracked changes amongst multiple content creators

RoboHelp now has a powerful track changes facility, very similar to that introduced in FrameMaker a few releases ago. Using the Review > Track Changes command will highlight additions and deletions. Comments can also be added at this point. RoboHelp also has a feature under Tools > Options that allows the Reviewer or author to identify themselves, so their name will be associated with any insertions or deletions that the specific team member makes.

The image below, drawn from the Reviewer’s Guide, shows an example of Tracked Changes as seen in the Design Editor and the Reviewer pane:

More reasons to use RoboHelp for complex, multilingual Help projects

Our “part 2” article on this topic will focus on several more compelling RoboHelp features, including improved ways to work with shared and reusable content. An improved resource manager, cross project “live linking” and highly accessible “version control” are just a few features to be touched on in the next article in this series.

More resources about RoboHelp

Adobe staff and customers have created a large amount of highly useful reviews, articles and feature overviews on the latest version of RoboHelp. The following list of links will take you to some of the better articles or video demos on this dynamic product:

• What’s New in FrameMaker 10

• What’s New in RoboHelp 9

• What’s New in Adobe Technical Communication Suite 3.5

• RoboHelp 9 New Features

• RoboHelp 9′s PDF Review Function

How RoboHelp 9 benefits Translation Part - 2

Our previous article, “How RoboHelp 9 benefits Translation Part - 1,” focused on several new RoboHelp features that improve translation projects, including a streamlined collaboration and review process, managing tracked changes across multiple collaborators and comment moderation. This second article will expand exploration of relevant new feature/benefits, including improved ways to work with shared and reusable content, an improved resource manager, cross-project “live linking” and highly accessible “version control.”

Single source publishing may be achieved by publishing from FrameMaker through Technical Communication Suite via RoboHelp, or by authoring directly in RoboHelp. One of the chief benefits of RoboHelp is its versatile ability to output to a variety of critical formats. It is a real time and money saver to have one set of source language files translated to target languages and then output via RoboHelp in multiple languages to several file format deliverables: WebHelp, Adobe AIR, Word/PDF, ePub, CHM/HTML Help, Flash Help, XML, Oracle Help, Java help, WinHelp and Eclipse Help.

Review of RoboHelp Features that specifically aid translation projects

Here is the short list of product functionality in RoboHelp 9 that is critical to multilingual and translation projects:

• Granular control over language definition: define a language at the topic or even paragraph levels, in addition to the project

• The “LANG” attribute is used for thesaurus, spell checking, Smart Indexing and also creating the search index

• The language attribute specified at the paragraph level is given the highest preference

• Unicode support for over 35 languages

• Edit topics side-by-side with the Multiple Document Interface (MDI)

• Support for multiple tables of contents, indices and glossaries and different languages

• RoboHelp produces clean XHTML code

More about Acrobat PDF-based review

We touched on this topic in the previous article. But there are even more benefits to be discussed that can be highly useful for either in-country-review (ICR) or a general post-translation review process that involves Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

RoboHelp methods for SME review via Acrobat PDF

RoboHelp easily produces PDF for commented review. But there are several workflows or methods that can be used, so clients and their translation agency may choose the technique that best suits the project and content at hand. As discussed in the previous article, translation agency publishers can import the linguist’s comments into RoboHelp and then accept or reject them based on glossaries or other project standards. This is a highly scalable solution, as there is no limit to the number of reviewers or topics.

Depending on the size and location of the linguistic review team, there are three RoboHelp PDF Review methods to choose from. The only software required by the remote linguistic reviewer is the free version of Adobe Reader software.

• Send for Shared Review—in this scenario, RoboHelp creates a PDF and then uploads it to Acrobat.com (the cloud), a Microsoft SharePoint server location or an internal server for review. The RoboHelp publisher or author who starts the process must have Acrobat X Pro installed. Incidentally, Acrobat Pro is included with Adobe Technical Communcation Suite , which also includes FrameMaker, Captivate and Photoshop.

• Create a Local PDF—probably the most common technique, this involves simply creating a PDF file and manually posting multiple copies for each reviewer.

• Attach for eMail Review—this technique creates a PDF and automatically attaches it to a new email message opened in your email client (e.g. Outlook) You can provide instructions or descriptive detail in the body of the email and distribute what will become individual copies to any number of reviewers.

Mark topic status as “Ready for Review”

Sometimes projects are translated in “stages”, e.g. portions of the content (chapters, or topics) are updated after initial translation begins. In this case, the client or translation agency staff can use the RoboHelp Project Manager to select topics and mark them “Ready for Review”. Or the translation manager can simply send a topic or an entire set of topics inside a folder for review. This allows portions of a complex project to achieve LQA (Linguistic Quality Assurance) without waiting for the last topic to receive final approval in its source language.

Shared and Reusable Resources in RoboHelp aid Multi-Author Environments

RoboHelp 9 provides an enhanced Resource Manager and increased support for Version and Source Control application. This allows projects with multiple authors to leverage document assets more effectively when authoring source language files. Incidentally, lack of source and version control on the client side can be one of the biggest headaches for translation agency project managers, who must often make multiple requests from their clients for the latest or most accurate files.

Keep Assets up-to-date with “Live Linking” in Resource Manager

When working in a collaborative authoring environment with shared resources, it is imperative to know when externally linked content has changed. What if another author has updated a portion of an externally referenced topic, for instance? “Live linked” content in RoboHelp will now visually show the author when a referenced file has been changed. This new enhancement goes far beyond the simple linking of Adobe FrameMaker or Microsoft Word documents into RoboHelp projects, which was established in earlier releases of RoboHelp.

The screen capture below (drawn from the Adobe RoboHelp 9 Reviewer’s Guide) shows how a linked graphic, “ChartCrop.jpg” has been modified; there is a linking color of red in the lower right corner of the icon. The author right clicks and selects Sync to update the graphic and make sure that the image reflects the latest change.

Source and Version control keeps team members “in synch”

RoboSource helps multiple authors avoid getting “out of synch” as changes occur in their projects. This is a natural benefit to the dynamic workflow which often requires Help projects to begin before final documentation or even final translation is complete.

Many source control applications integrate directly with RoboHelp and can be invoked directly from within your RoboHelp project:

• RoboSource Control 3.1

• Team Foundation Server 2010 and 2008

• Perforce

• Microsoft Visual Source Safe 5.0

• Any other version control application that supports Microsoft Source Code Control API

The image below shows a topic being checked in to source control within RoboHelp.

Here is a link to more information about RoboSource Control: http://www.adobe.com/ devnet-archive/robohelp/articles/robosource.html

Asset Folders are now unlimited

Resource Manager enables every author to create as many Asset Folders as required. Asset Folders may range from Graphics, to Multimedia, to Cascading Style Sheets, to Master Pages and many other file types.

Create links via Drag and Drop

You may now use an “asset view” inside Resource Manager by simply dragging it from the pod directly into the project. A link is created, and once any changes occur to the original graphic, the RoboHelp author is notified and given the option to update to the new version. This feature can be used across multiple RoboHelp projects involving many authors.

Prevent duplication and maintain consistency with Asset Links

When a link is established between any resource and Resource Manager, RoboHelp periodically scans both the Project and Resource Manager locations to detect if anything has changed. If an asset has been modified in any way, RoboHelp will notify the author of the change.

Streamlined ePub output from RoboHelp

We have all read a variety of articles, Tweets and White Papers on the swift proliferation of handheld devices and tablet computers. Most consumers are accustomed to immediate access to critical information either in mobile applications, or with technical information provided in a portable and dynamic format. It is now “old news” that Amazon outsells eBooks vs. traditional print books. All of these trends have influenced customers in locales and many languages to want their tech doc or Help “now”, on a portable device smaller than a laptop or Netbook.

About the ePub format—ePub is an XML-based file format designed to reflow text based on current screen size. The ePub format provides a “standard” for organising and reading digital content on mobile devices. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), a nonprofit standards organization, designed and maintains the ePub file format. The standard was developed with the participation of over 60 companies and organizations and was unanimously approved by IDPF members.

Top features of ePub—

• Text reflows according to screen size, which is perfect for reading on mobile devices, eBook readers, and tablets

• Simple table of contents and navigation implementation

• Ability to embed images, objects, and multimedia files

• Open, nonproprietary file format standard developed and maintained by the IDPF

• Advanced control with font embedding and CSS styling

• Interoperability for unencrypted files

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe AIR, AIR, FrameMaker and RoboHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

91065688 1/12

Adobe Systems Incorporated 345 Park Avenue San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA www.adobe.com

RoboHelp 9 has a “wizard-driven” workflow that makes the process of publishing to ePub extremely easy. You simply click File > Generate > ePub Output to start the process. You can view how simple the process by watching some of the webinars and video demos contained in the list of resources below.

More Resources for Adobe RoboHelp

• Adobe TV—http://tv.adobe.com/channel/technical-communication/

• Adobe Technical Communication Blog—http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/

• Adobe RoboHelp User Forums—http://forums.adobe.com/community/robohelp

• Adobe RoboHelp Help & Support—http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelp/

• Adobe OnDemand Seminars—http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=list&loc=en_us&type=ondemand_seminar&product=Technical+Communication+Suite&interest=&audience

A note about FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9 integration

RoboHelp 9 can be used very productively as a standalone authoring solution for people who only need various forms of Help systems or ePubs. But one of the biggest benefits to end-users is RoboHelp’s seamless integrations with FrameMaker 10, Acrobat X and Captivate 5.5 in Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite 3.5. This provides a highly desirable product combination to maximize your single-source workflow for traditional documentation (“fancy” PDF) and HTML Help (or other formats) by authoring your source language files in FrameMaker 10. Then use the Publish function in FrameMaker 10 to transform files through RoboHelp 9, and output to a distinctly differently formatted Help system or ePub format.

Conditional text control in unstructured FrameMaker or DITA/FrameMaker can allow you to produce multiple versions of content, e.g. one for PDF output, and another more extensive set of content for a complex Help system. You can find even more related information about FrameMaker in our previous article, “6 Ways Structured FrameMaker 10 helps Translation” and “Automating Document Translation Formatting with Structured FrameMaker 10.”

GPI Authors

You may contact Globalization Partners International (GPI) at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about FrameMaker, RoboHelp and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Translation Quote for your project as well. GPI periodically publishes blogs which include tips and best practices for Technical Communication Suite and other Adobe products. You may want to follow these blogs at http://blog.globalizationpartners.com/

Nicolás Cárcano

Ashley Pangborn

Oana Diaconu

Yasser Ahmed

Maxwell Hoffmann