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Subject:Re: Writing for translation From:"John A. Lord" <jlord -at- LIVINGSTON -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 16 Oct 1996 16:01:34 -0700
At 03:35 PM 10/16/96 +0001, Kazumi Tsuruta wrote:
<snip>---------------------
> I am interested in how
>you communicate translators when you have to make translation version
>before you finish the English version. (Translalators have to start their
>job with incomplete English draft, don't they?)
>If you have your own way or idea, please let me know. Thank you.
One commonly used procedure in the translation process is to provide a beta
version of the document to the translater, so that translation can start.
When the document has gone through final review and edit, the final version
is also sent to the translater. Assuming the document was prepared in an
application such as FrameMaker (or one of its competitors), it is then a
fairly simple process to make a document comparison between the beta and
final versions. The translater can then see the differences side by side and
in a summary report. This procedure enables a fast start on the translation
before the final document is ready, and provides the translater with a
comprehensive report of any document changes. Overall, this takes more
translation effort than if only the final document version were used, but it
can result in substantial time saving.
Kazumi mentioned starting translation from an "incomplete English draft".
This description sounds like the start of another horror story of spending
considerable time on the translation of something that bears little
resemblance to the final version. Perhaps the translation was started too
early in the development cycle, and then was not given enough time to
complete after all the changes or new information became available. Others
may have had similar experiences?
