Track changes in RoboHelpX5

[T_McMillan-0Lj5Ax]

Our company is entering the global market and I must now create Help topics in Spanish that will match our English-version.

I need to be able to track the exact changes that I make on the English-version topic so that I can be sure to make those exact changes to my Spanish-version topic. As an example, in Word for Windows I can go to Tools > Track Changes > Highlight Changes to visually display the edits I have made to a document; subsequently, I can Accept or Reject the changes to make it a finished document.

Can I "track changes" in RoboHelpX5 HTML? And if so, where do I find the instructions? I haven't been able to locate the information in my RoboHelp Help files but I may not be searching for the correct terminology.

[---Dirk_Bock]

I assume you are working with RH HTML, thus using RH as editor and not word.

RoboHelp does not offer this functionality, wt least not directly. And a lot of people would moan and complain if it did, as it would generate a whole lot of extra-code in the HTML-files.

The versioning is handled by the component RoboSource Control, which of course allows you to compare all versions of each single file. The bad news is that this comparison occurs on the code level, meaning that you'll have no nice formatted files to look at.

In your scenario, you would label the files in the source control system as you hand them out for translation. At any later point you'll be able to see which files have changed sinvce the last translation.

If you want to spare the translators some effort, you should definitely look at some Translation Memory System. Especially when you often change/edit your files, such a system pys off in no time.

---Dirk Bock

[TWSisters]

Dirk's right, there is not track changes for HTML documents. A translation memory tool sounds like the best solution. Our company is doing a Help in English and German, and for the time being we are doing version control, as Dirk suggested, and compare the two file versions using a tool called HTMLMatch. It's one of the rare tools that compares HTML not only on source code level but offers a nice visual and textual comparison too. Try it and see if it works for you.