Translation
Translation considerations must be addressed early in the editorial process, as they impact both the editorial style and the organization of repositories.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution: delivering information in multiple languages requires ongoing oversight. However, addressing translation constraints early in the process and using an appropriate methodology can enhance quality and reduce costs and delivery times for multilingual versions. Translation should be integrated into the document workflow. Additionally, it is essential to ensure effective communication between technical writers, engineers, subject matter experts, designers, and translators.
If documentation is modular, translation can occur concurrently with writing, thereby reducing delivery times.
Parallelization of Writing and Translation
Regarding the organization of source file repositories, is it preferable to position the language directories before or after the document project directories? In other words, should the structure be as follows:
- english
- product 1
- product 2
- french
- product 1
- product 2
or like this:
- product 1
- english
- french
- product 2
- english
- french
In most situations, it is advisable to distinguish languages as early as possible. Using software development terminology, creating a translation of a content set is akin to creating a branch of that set. It is easier to manage a branch from its root than from its extensions, making it more practical to handle complete directories, especially when providing them to translators, rather than using a set of subdirectories.
Once translation is completed, changes to either the source or translated version cannot be automatically mirrored. Continuing with software terminology, the new branch is a fork: modifications in one cannot be automatically reflected in the other. Therefore, to offer the same information in different languages, it is essential to effectively track updates to the original version.