Pagemaker to FrameMaker conversion

[Harro de Jong]

Carol J. Elkins wrote :

> I suggested to my client that we might convert the doc to FrameMaker
> and have a "professional" manage revisions to the Spanish
> version. That would,
> at first glimpse, be a better idea than having my FrameMaker version
> translated to Spanish. So my query is really just a
> preliminary first pass
> at what I might need to consider if I make a recommendation
> to my client.

If you do that, you'd have to manually maintain the Spanish version
independently of the English version, which is rather error-prone. 
The conventional way is to maintain the English version, and use a
translation tool (see below) to translate each update of this version to
Spanish. This takes less work, and makes sure the English and Spanish
versions have the same content. 


> I've never heard the term "translation memory," so I don't
> know what to do
> with your comments that used it. Can you explain it a bit more?

Many translators use 'computer aided translation' tools like Trados and
Deja Vu. You import your document into the tool and translate it there,
and it keeps a record of what has been translated. This is the
translation memory. Once the translation is finished, you export the
book from the tool (back to FrameMaker). All the layout elements and
graphics from the original book will be transferred automatically by the
tool, so you end up with a Spanish version that looks identical to the
English version. 

If you later want to translate a similar book (like an updated version),
you can import it into the tool, and it will compare the document to its
memory. Every sentence it finds in the memory is automatically supplied,
so the translator only has to worry about translating the new content.  
Another advantage of these tools is that the translator no longer needs
Pagemaker, FrameMaker etc. She only needs to use the translation tool,
which makes it easier to find translators who can handle your book. 


Harro de Jong