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FrameMaker has long been the publishing tool of choice for most content-creators of large-scale, technical documents. But, before the advent of FrameMaker 7.0, the formatting features that made FrameMaker a joy to use could introduce hidden costs and delays into the translation process.
Six and a half years ago ENLASO developed a dramatic solution that enabled customers to publish from FrameMaker 5.5 to well-formed XML, before such a feature was supported by Adobe. Although the introduction of FrameMaker 7.0 in 2002 rendered this unique development obsolete, this article touches on many XML benefits that are still relevant to the current release of FrameMaker and localization.
In this article, we share the unusual solution that ENLASO developed, which enabled FrameMaker customers to take advantage of XML’s cost-saving benefits to localization three years before FrameMaker officially supported XML.
The Pre-FrameMaker 7.0 XML Solution
In 1999 ENLASO developed a unique “round trip” solution to extract well-formed XML from FrameMaker 5.5 files and eventually render that XML back to MIF (Maker Interchange Format), with virtually no loss of formatting integrity. Furthermore, once the XML was derived from the original FrameMaker documents, a series of automatic scripts rendered that XML into various formats, including “framed” HTML Help files and RTF (Word) files.
Migration to XML as a source file format led to substantial cost savings for the following key reasons:
- Authors could still create new projects in FrameMaker with familiar paragraph tags and a user interface they understood.
- Using translation memory, the need for the manual alignment between files was substantially reduced because XML data is more intelligently described than conventional desktop publishing files.
- File formatting was free from degradation after translation post-processing because it resides outside of the source file.
- Quicker turnaround time for file editing and redlines were achieved, as publishers concentrated on content, not formatting.
A major medical device manufacturer in a heavily regulated industry managed large technical documentation projects that ranged from 400 to 1200 pages. These high page count projects were translated from English into Japanese and four major European languages. Document content was consistently formatted and included hundreds of externally referenced graphics, cross references to external files, dynamic hyper-linked index markers, and tables that broke across 20 or more pages. The client regularly required quick turnarounds on translation and multilingual desktop publishing, as critical regulatory deadlines had to be met with the submission of new or revised materials.
Localization Challenges with Formatting
Maintenance issues involving document styles and structural integrity were a common translation challenge, when using unstructured FrameMaker as a source file format. Only incredibly disciplined coordination among the publishers could avoid document flaws from a localization standpoint. For example, multiple document authors frequently made format overrides to standard template styles. This impacted the translation process.
When linguists leveraged previously translated text, slight differences in character-level formatting would often cause “breaks” in alignment. This required a linguistic engineer to manually adjust alignment, often in dozens of locations between two versions of a file. Such a problem is also common in other file formats such as QuarkXPress and PageMaker. Ultimately, extensive format proofing was required for FrameMaker documents in target languages because embedded formatting was not always successfully preserved through the translation process. Common translation tools, developed around RTF format files, often encountered problems working with more complex file types.
The client also needed to render the same content into various formats, including HTML Help files. Although FrameMaker 5.5 and 6.0 had a “save as” HTML function, the resulting HTML did not meet the client’s strict specifications. For example, the client desired a frame around the HTML content with Table of Contents style bookmarks in a side window; a level of presentation uncommon to the typical out-of-the-box publishing solutions of the time.
ENLASO developed a unique project and document-specific, single-source publishing and translation solution. The application consisted of an XML document structure and a series of custom rendering scripts, designed to work with structured FrameMaker documents. Under the new “round trip” solution, the client continued to author new documents with FrameMaker, while exploring the cost saving benefits of XML. Publishing and translations costs on some projects were reduced by nearly 50 percent!
Working closely with the client, ENLASO tailored a custom DTD that controlled and constrained the document structure in files derived from FrameMaker. Based on familiar FrameMaker paragraph tag names already in use by the client, the XML structure was immediately “familiar” to the publishers. Special conversion scripts were developed to map FrameMaker structure (in MIF files) to the new nested XML elements that conformed to DTD rules. Resultant XML files parsed without error and did not require extensive corrective editing.
Although the client continued to author new documents with FrameMaker, the rendered XML files became the “source files” for all future project translations. XML files went through translation more cleanly than traditional MIF files, which were riddled with embedded format codes. Greater leveraging with the Translation Memory was achieved due to the benefits of simpler XML content.
Rendering XML Back to Unstructured FrameMaker
Once the translated “well-formed” XML files arrived from the linguistic team into Desktop Publishing, the capabilities of the new solution truly blossomed. Using a series of automatic scripts, the ENLASO publisher would swiftly render XML files to various formats including MIF (Maker Interchange Format), HTML or RTF. MIF files, opened as unstructured FrameMaker documents, produced print and on-line PDF files that perfectly matched the formatting in the original English. The rendering from XML back to MIF completed the “round trip” from unstructured FrameMaker to XML!
Improved Publishing with FrameMaker 7
As effective as this pioneering effort was, this customer inevitably upgraded to FrameMaker 7 to take advantage of its native structured editing capabilities. In the new "structapps" files ENLASO developed for FrameMaker 7, this customer worked with far fewer elements than the number of paragraph styles previously used.
Due to FrameMaker’s improved ability to recognize non-format-driven document structure, the publishing process was further streamlined and faster turnaround became possible for customer-mandated customization. ENLASO developed an EDD, template and associated files that made maximum use of containing elements and context-sensitive formatting. Highly complex table structures were made compliant with XML structure and element attribute metadata were used in a highly creative fashion.
ENLASO has since developed a series of custom, structured FrameMaker plug-ins that automate tedious publishing steps. Of tremendous interest to structured FrameMaker users is an ENLASO-developed plug-in that automatically generates a fully XML-compliant structured Table of Contents and generated Index. As powerful as FrameMaker 7 is, “one touch” structured TOCs and Indices cannot be created “out of the box.”
A Sample of Solutions Available
This article touches on just a few of the innovative services available from ENLASO Consulting Solutions. Due to the highly complex formatting and content requirements of many of our clients, we have developed advanced solutions in FrameMaker and XML to dramatically reduce localization project costs and delivery cycles. Although ENLASO works with all popular publishing software, FrameMaker is our preferred tool for high volume, technical content, as it is highly customizable with ENLASO-developed plug-ins.
ENLASO's FrameMaker and Documentation Localization Solutions
For more information on how ENLASO can assist you with all of your localization needs, please contact us at Contact@enlaso.com, call 303.516.0857 x127, or complete the quote request form.
