RoboHelp 8 and Internationalization

[Thomas_Ressel]

Hello!

I'm trying to internationalize an existing project in RoboHelp 8 and followed the instructions in the RoboHelp 8 help. The help suggests to create a new topic for the new language and translate the topic title but not its filename. I suppose that the filename should be left untranslated in order to make things easier for the next person working on the project. For example the translation of file 00_Content.html should be in file 00_Content_es.html instead of 00_Contenido.html.

But now I'm running into problems when there are different filenames for the different languages: I now do not simply have to translate the content of the files but also the links in it.

Is there some sort of mechanism for this? I would have expected that instead of a the filename there is something like a resource name which would be e.g. "Content" and that at generation time I select English or Spanish and then either the English or the Spanish version is compiled into the "Content" file. This way, the links in the files would simply point to "Content" and I would not have to touch the links inside the files...

Thank you in advance for your comments!

Regards, Thomas

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

You need to investigate using Conditional Build Tags. That feature should allow you to accomplish the goal.

Cheers... Rick

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[Thomas_Ressel]

Thank you for the response!

I am working with Conditional Build Tags, but I don't know how they could help me with my goal. I think of them as kind of markers that specify what gets generated as output. I don't see how they can help me to duplicate a file, translate only it's content but not the links contained in it.

Example:

File content.htm contains a link to page profile/overview.htm.

Now I would like to duplicate the content.htm, translate the duplicate into Spanish but leave the link in it as it is.

Then I would like to duplicate the page profile/overview.htm also into Spanish. So the already translated content.htm points to the right file. Then at generation time I would like to specify whether to export the pages in English or Spanish.

For exmaple in Java, there would be the page structure in the "root" folder and then there would be a folder nl/{lang} with the exact same page structure...

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

In this case you would duplicate both files. Translate each file and ensure the link is properly pointed to the desired translated page. Then you would apply the Conditional Tag to the topics themselves. When you generate, you would use a Conditional Build Expression that ensures only the desired content is in the output.

For example, in a simplified setup, perhaps you only have English and Spanish content. So you tag all the English topics with a tag you would create and name English. And likewise, tag the Spanish topics with a tag you would create and name Spanish. Then in your Single Source Layout recipe, you would use a conditional buld expression similar to the following:

To create English output, the expression would be NOT Spanish.

To create Spanish output, the expression would be NOT English

Sometimes folks just find it simpler to copy the project and convert the whole project to Spanish or whatever language you desire. In that case, if a new topic is added or an existing topic is changed, you must do it in two different projects. In reality, it's the same amount of work as you still have to manage multiple topics. But the separate project may be less confusing to manage.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Thomas_Ressel]

Hey Rick!

Thank you very much, I tried it out and your solution works very well!

Kind regards,

Thomas