User manual and Online Help localization and DTP
Product documentation is an important part of any product development. Most localization projects today contain some aspects of user documentation which may include:
- User guide
- Installation instructions
- Online manuals such as user manuals and interactive help systems
- Collateral materials such as product sheets, brochures, flyers
Although online documentation is increasingly the format of choice, other documentation types, like getting started guides, quick reference cards, product sheets and marketing brochures are often printed. CSOFT has significant experience with both electronic and printed documentation localization. Our service includes text translations, graphic design, figures/tables modification, DTP, PDF creation and pre-press production.
CSOFT also has strong capabilities with localization projects involving single-source publishing. Single-source publishing allows companies to share common product information to save development and localization costs. It also allows the same set of sources files to be outputted to various formats: online help, PDF and printed manuals, on demand by using conditional tags.
CSOFT processes a variety of documentation formats for translation and multilingual publishing including the following:
- Adobe FrameMaker
- Microsoft Word
- Adobe PageMaker
- QuarkXPress
- SGML and other markup languages such as XML and HTML
- Adobe InDesign
Online help is one of the largest translation components for today's localization projects. Online help files have become the medium of choice for the following reasons:
- Cost savings over printed manuals
- Updates and revisions can be easily distributed over the Internet
- Context-sensitive help allows users instant access to required information
- Users can easily navigate though the content and see related topics
- Built-in multimedia features allow for more effective product demonstrations and instructions CSOFT has a full set of capabilities to localize a variety of online help systems including:
- HTML or XML based help such as HTML Help and JavaHelp (.chm)
- WinHelp 3 and 4 (.hlp and .cnt)
- Mac OS Help (Apple Help and Apple Guide)
Our translators and help publishers are intimately familiar with various components used to build a help system such as hidden text, formatting tags, foot notes, sorted items and cascading style sheets (CSS). CSOFT uses a variety of software tools for each phase of the localization cycle: CAT tools (Trados, Transit, ForeignDesk) for translating the text, help authoring tools (Robohelp, Webworks, Help&Manual, Forehelp) for formatting and engineering the localized help, and testing tools (HelpQA, HTMLQA) for assuring the functionality of the help file works properly. |
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| The full list of software applications CSOFT localizes more>> |
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