This step is where the real work of the Project Synch function comes in. Now you want to synchronize the new version of the original help with the translation of the original version. The result will be an updated translation version in which all the topics containing changes are marked, with the new versions of the updated topic contents inserted for translation.
For this step you need the updated version of the original project edited in Step 3 and the original translation delivered by the translator in Step 2.
 Key Information
The Synch procedure has reversed since Help+Manual 4! Now you open the Master (original) project and synchronize with the old translation.
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The synchronization is performed by opening the latest version of the original project then selecting the old translated version to be updated.
1.Open the updated original project in Help+Manual.
2.Select and select the Compare tab. Then select the old translated project in the Select OLD sibling... field:
3.Select your synchronization options. Recommended settings:
•Keep old and new text in TOC and topics
•Highlight changed topics
DON'T select Compare TOC by Topic ID when you are comparing a sibling! This is a special setting for comparing existing translations that are not siblings.
4.Click on OK to update the translated version.
This will update the old translated project with the changes in the new version of the original. After the conversion you can check the updated translation to make sure that everything has gone OK and then send it to the translator so that they can translate the changes and the new material.
Before the translator starts work make sure that he or she has studied the instructions for identifying changes and the original translation guidelines.
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When you are synchronizing modular projects consisting of multiple separate Help+Manual projects in a master module, you need to perform the actual synchronization on each project separately. So you would Synchronize the master project with its master sibling in the second language, and the child projects with their corresponding siblings in the second language.
Child projects / modules with different names
In Help+Manual prior to version 8 your child modules needed to have the same names in all languages. Otherwise their names would be changed to the names of the same modules in the master language when you synchronized. Starting in version 8 you can now have child modules with different names in the individual languages. For example, a child module called CHILDA_ENG.hmxp in the English master copy can now have an equivalent CHILDA_DE.hmxp module in the German sibling and the reference to this will not be reset in the master when you synchronize.
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Selecting this will insert the complete new version of topics containing changes above the old translated version. The old and new versions will be separated by a header saying -----.
The same procedure is used for the TOC captions, the headers and the keywords in the tab.
This is the best mode for normal synchronization.
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The content of changed topics, headers, topic captions etc. will be completely overwritten with the new versions in the original language.
The translator must then use a copy of the original version of the translation for comparison.
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This option only highlights changed topics in the TOC and does overwrite the translated version or insert a new version.
The translator must then use a copy of the new version of the original to obtain the new versions of the topics and their keywords etc.
Note that even when this option is selected the following changes will still be updated:
•Context numbers
•Topic IDs
•Help window settings
•TOC structure (new, moved and deleted topics) |
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Selecting this identifies changed topics with colored highlights ("Needs Review") in the TOC.
This should always be on. If you turn it off it will be very difficult to identify where changes are located.
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WARNING: Do not use this option for synchronizing siblings!
This is a special setting for synchronizing two versions of a project that were not created by making a sibling copy of the original. In normal synch mode the Project Synch tool compares topics on the basis of their hidden internal ID, which never changes – this makes it possible to compare topics even when their visible IDs have been edited.
If you independently create two projects that have the same structure and Topic IDs they will look identical but their invisible internal IDs will not match. The first time you synch such projects you need to use this option to compare by topic ID. After this the internal IDs will by synchronized and the projects will then be siblings.
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