Round-tripping Chinese XML

[Kevin Farwell]

Hello Morgan and Richard,

Formatting requires almost no language skills. I have formatted tens 
of thousands of pages in 30 or so languages, and have not needed a 
translator at my desk with me. As long as a linguist is accessible by 
marked up PDF, fax or even telephone, you can get all of your 
formatting done. FrameMaker is pretty good about putting things where 
they belong after translation, so the number of questions that come 
up should be very low. Also, the resource doesn't need to be a 
professional translator. Since all the translation (which should 
always be done by professionals) should be done before formatting 
starts, all the linguistic resource should be counted on is for 
things like hyphenation or occasionally placing callouts. A native 
speaker with some sort of translation industry credential, as opposed 
to an exchange student living with a neighbor, is usually sufficient, 
and they are cheaper to hire than trained translators.

One word of caution: taking on formatting should not lead to skipping 
quality steps. Make sure a native speaker looks at the formatted 
document before it gets finalized.

Kevin

At 7:43 AM -0700 9/8/10, Combs, Richard wrote:
>Hayward, Morgan (Bolton) wrote:
>
>>  We are investigating whether or not it is possible to exchange XML files
>>  with our translators and take on the formatting in FrameMaker ourselves.
>>  Our translators currently convert our FrameMaker files to MIF and run it
>>  through their translation software.  They then take the result and enter
>>  it back into FrameMaker where they finalise the formatting.
>>
>>  We have not localized our OS for Simplified Chinese and are hoping for a
>>  solution that will help us avoid this.
>
>Just curious: How do you expect to "take on the formatting" without 
>localizing your OS? Or, for that matter, without being fluent in the 
>language?
>
>
>Richard G. Combs
>Senior Technical Writer
>Polycom, Inc.
>richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
>303-223-5111
>------
>rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
>303-903-6372
>------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>
>You are currently subscribed to framers as kevinf at dim.com.
>
>Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>
>To unsubscribe send a blank email to
>framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
>or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/kevinf%40dim.com
>
>Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
>http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.