Export and Import of content in indesign

Question

Hi,
Thanks in advance for helping me out.
i work on indesign for book publishing. Is there are way where i can export just the content from my book ( through XML or anything suggested), send it to translator and import the same XML after translation. So that my development work time will reduce? Please suggest any better to achieve it

Answer 1

Peter's correct, as usual. The answer is "whatever your translation provider needs." But their answer will really depends on the kind of book you've written, both the content and the format. If it's a technical manual that has lots of graphics and callouts and such, but not already XML-tagged, I'd ask for a complete InDesign packge with all links. If it were a comparatively simple book that was just text - say, a novel, or a manual that was primarily structured text - then an exported IDML file would be all I'd need. Your translation provider is likely to use a translation tool that, as Peter suggests, will only accept IDML files.
Now, if you tagged your InDesign document for XML export, then you probably have a workflow that you could describe for us that would give us an idea as to whether or not you could export XML for translation. But frankly, if XML is already part of your workflow, then it may be easier to go back to your data source and generate XLIFF or some other easy-to-localize format.
Lastly - when you want to reduce your "development time" what are you talking about? Usually translation providers will want to handle the format as well, and not just because they bill for it! If you don't read the langauge then you won't know the typographical conventions, or how to handle the fonts. It's awfully easy to ruin a translation if you try to format it but can't read it.