Translating with external editors

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Navigation: Multi-User Editing & Translation > Translating Your Projects

It is also possible to edit and translate the XML files in your project with any XML editor, along with WYSIWYG previews if the editor supports that feature. However, we really don't recommend this because the disadvantages greatly outweigh the benefits. XML editors are designed for XML programmers, not for translators or authors. They expose all the XML source code and tags to the translator, who has to be extremely careful not to damage anything accidentally. In addition to this, it is much harder and slower to work on the text in this way, and more errors are almost guaranteed.

Protecting text against changes and translation

You can explicitly protect text against translation and editing changes. To do this select the text in the editor and then select the "padlock" tool in Write > Font. The text will then be displayed shaded in the Help+Manual editor and it will be tagged with the attribute translate="false" in the XML topic file.

Procedure for translating in an external editor

Click on the individual steps below to display more detailed instructions.

Translating in external editors is only possible with the Professional and Floating license versions of Help+Manual. The Basic version cannot write the uncompressed XML format required for access by other editors and translation tools.

The following procedure assumes that you have saved the project in this format. If you haven't, use Save As... in the File menu and choose Help Project/Uncompressed XML as the save format and an empty folder to save to. You can then add folders for graphics, snippets etc. to this new folder.

1.Make sure your graphics are included in the project folder

Graphics files:
The translator will be able to understand the project better if you include the graphics files. The easiest way to enable this is to make sure that all the graphics are included in the project folder as well. You can move them there easily, and generally they should always be kept there. See Managing your graphics for instructions.

Graphics containing text:
If you create your graphics using the Impict editor included with Help+Manual you can have it store the text they contain in linked XML files that can be translated by translation memory programs. See Translating texts in images for more details.

2.Check whether you need to include any snippet files for the translator

If your files contain linked snippets from external sources you may need to include copies of these embedded files for the translator.

If you include the files with the translation package you should put them in a separate folder inside the project folder you are going to send to the translator and add an entry to Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path pointing to the folder containing the snippet files so that Help+Manual will find them.

3.Make a "sibling copy" for the translator to work on

Select Synchronize in Project > Tools and make a sibling copy of the original project. This copy will have exactly the same internal IDs as the original, which will make it possible to identify changes and update the translated version with the Synchronize tool later. See The Project Synchronization Tool for more details.

It is best to perform this step after consolidating all your graphics and external files in the project folder.

4.Set up the language settings in the sibling copy for the new language

This is very important and can lead to unexpected errors in your output if you forget it. For details on the settings you need to make and the issues you need to consider study International languages setup.

5.Translate the project with your external tool

The physical procedure for translating will depend on the tool you use to edit the XML files. However, there are some important instructions for translators that should always be observed. See Instructions for translators and editors for full details.

6.Check through the Configuration to make sure that everything is OK

When the translation is complete load it in Help+Manual and check through it carefully make sure that all the relevant texts in the project's Configuration section in the Project Explorer have been translated to the new language. Also check things like the index keywords etc.

7.Publish your project in the new language

You will be able to generate the new version of your output in the target language directly. What you get back from the translator is already a fully-functional Help+Manual project since they have been working directly on the project source files.

Here too, of course, you should check things like special characters in your output before distributing the finished product.

Procedure for updating translations

When your original project is updated you can use the Project Synchronization Tool to make an updated version of the old translated project for the translator.

Click on the individual steps below to display more detailed instructions.

These instructions assume that you used the Project Synchronization tool to create a sibling copy for the translator to work on when you sent the project for translation. If you did not do this you may need to use a special feature of the Synch tool to link the two projects. See Synching existing projects for details.

1.Create an updated version of translated project for the translator

Follow the instructions in The Project Synchronization Tool for synchronizing the new version of your documentation with the old translated version. This will create a new version of the translated project for the translator. Deleted topics will be removed, new topics will be inserted and changed topics will be marked as changed. You can also choose to insert full copies of the new content of all new and changed topics for the translator to work with.

2.Translate the new material

This is the same procedure as above. The translator just translates the new material in the updated XML package.

3.Generate your output from the updated project

You don't need to check your language settings because you are already using a project set up for the target language. After checking that everything has been translated correctly you can generate your output with Help+Manual normally.

Translating individual topics

Since all your topics are stored as individual XML files you can also send copies of individual files out for translation as well. However, this is not generally recommended. It is usually better to provide the entire project so that the translator has the entire context. Also, when you split out individual topics it is much too easy to lose track of what has been edited and what hasn't.

In addition to copying individual topic files from your project folder you can also export topic files with the File > Save Topic to File function in Project > Manage Topics.

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