tables and translation

[Maxwell Hoffmann]

Dear Verner,

I have been working with "table-heavy" translated FrameMaker files (for
clients, I am a translation vendor) for about 15 years now. Tables are
always a troublesome area. Besides some of the other excellent suggestions
already made, here are some other best practices that can help:

== Your Language Service Provider (LSP) should Quote on the initial project
to include time to make localized templates. These templates may include
slight point size and spread changes to help text fit.
== Table styles should be used extensively, and should have smaller
left/right cell margins in some target languages than in your source
language.
== NEVER define paragraph styles that have fixed or modified cell margins on
the paragraph level. This makes corrections of tables far more difficult to
accomplish. It is especially important to avoid this as a format override in
the source language, as it is difficult to locate and correct such instances
in translated text.
== There is nothing wrong with a moderate amount of format overrides to your
table styles (e.g. overrides to cell margins, etc.) or paragraphs (cellbody)
in tables. There are simply too many variations possible in tables to allow
you to make a unique table style for every instance.
== You can also have your LSP translate the text for table header row cells
ahead of time, to help determine ideal column widths
== Avoid the temptation to squeeze too much data into tables in your source
files. I have frequently seen training materials in English which have a
"one page" table that reaches the bottom of the page, with every cell packed
with 7 pt condensed text. Obviously, when text expansion occurs, (which can
be quite dramatic in Dutch, German, Hungarian or Italian) there is no
solution other than to let the table break to a second page. In many such
instances, a table "header row" (which would repeat) was not used. NOTE:
full page tables crammed with tiny font sizes are also a challenge for
reader retention, in any language.
== (This is a common problem in English source files): avoid ALL CAPS text
in table header rows. This will nearly always cause grief with text
expansion.
== Never use vertically rotated text in table header rows for documents that
will be translated (unless going into the few languages that cause text
shrinkage instead of text expansion.)The text expansion that occurs from
translation will dramatically increase the depth of your table header rows.
== Common problem in English source file tables: many writers use
abbreviations in table cells and just assume that an abbreviation is
acceptable in the target language. Not always. It is not uncommon for a 3
letter acronym to expand to 20-30 characters in some target languages.
== Finally, when authoring, ask yourself, "does this really need to be in a
table?" Sometimes the answer is now. Often simple steps can be conveyed as
effectively in a more flexible list.

I hope that this helps. I will soon be posting "The 10 most common mistakes
that FrameMaker users do which makes source files toxic" in a blog or white
paper on our web site.

Maxwell Hoffmann
Director, Document Globalization Practice

Globalization Partners International (GPI)
Toll Free: 866.272.5874 ∞ Direct: 503.336.5952 (PDX)
Mobile: 503.805.3719 ∞ Fax: 202.478.0956 ∞ Skype ID: Maxwell.Hoffmann
mhoffmann at globalizationpartners.com
www.globalizationpartners.com


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Andersen, Verner Engell VEA [mailto:verner.andersen at radiometer.dk]
>Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 6:53 AM
>To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
>Subject: RE: tables and translation
>
>Hi
>
>When we translated our manual from English to German via the Trados
>translation workbench it turned out that many of columns in tables were
>too small. The result was that a letter or two wre placed in line two of
>the column.
>
>I fixed this in the files I received from the translator but would like
>to fix it in my English source so that I won't have to do this again in
>the next release.
>My plan was to open a copy ofthe English files and manually compare all
>tables with those in the German files.
>
>Originally I used tables from the table designer by I  fear that many of
>them habe been manually modified.
>
>Do you have any suggestions about how to handle the task?
>I know that a Framescript can solve the issue, I am in doubt whether it
>will be too costly compared to the one time manual work.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Verner
>--------------------------------------------------------
>
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