Translating webhelp

Hi,
We are working with RH9 and produce our webhelp in both English and German.
As per RH help it is possible to have content for multiple languages in a single HTML project but for webhelp I have to create a copy of the project and work with two seperate projects
"Note: To translate a webhelp project, first make a copy of the project, open that copy in Robohelp and author in your desired language."
Can someone explain to me why this is and if it is the same in RH10?
Is there a work around?
We are about to start a new project which will have to be produced in at least two languages and I am sure to be asked again why it is that I have to have two separate projects for webhelp ouput.
Thanks
Morven

Ben Minson wrote a DevNet article that may help. http://www.adobe.com/devnet-archive/robohelp/articles/localized_projects.html
Until Rh10, you really needed separate files for each language as whilst the content could be tagged, the Topic Title would be in whatever language you entered it in. Hence Colum advising you need a separate set of files for each language, be they in one project or multiple projects.
Rh10 allows you to use variables for Topic Titles so you can create a variable for each topic title and then enter values for each language.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Similar Messages

How Do RoboHelp 9 WebHelp Generated Files Handle Map IDs and Aliases?

The text below was written by our team's developer/architect. I am the help author who uses RoboHelp to write content and generate the help files, but I am clueless how it all gets generated and is deployed. Please help. We use RoboHelp 9. I use it in Windows XP and our app and help run on IE 7, 9, and Firefox (multiple versions).
"Our application uses the numeric identifiers associated with the Map ID. For example, to get to the <appname>_home_page.htm file, we use the number 1053. <appname> = pecs, in this example.
All of this is used in a call to a RoboHelp method defined in the RoboHelp_CSH.js file. The mehtod we are calling is the RH_ShowHelp() JavaScript method and the code to perform the call, when you click on Page Help, is this:
RH_ShowHelp(0, ''/pecsHelp/index.htm>pecsHelp',HH_HELP_CONTEXT,topic);
Topic is translated to the Map ID number for the page help. HH_HELP_CONTEXT is defined in the RoboHelp_CSH.js file. This method translates into a URL and from what I have seen, the URL that gets generated is this:
http://{server}[:port]/pecsHelp/index.htm/{server}[:port]/pecsHelp/index.htm#<id=1053>>pecsHelp
Server and port get replaced with the appropriate values. I have no clue how id=1053 is supposed to get translated to mean "pecs_home_page.htm". If you check the PECS_help.h file, you will see the following entry:
#define PECS_Home_Page1 1053
Then in the RoboHelp alias file (PECS 3.0.ali), the following line is in the file:
<alias name="PECS_Home_Page1" link="pecs_home_page.htm"> </alias>
But both of these files are used during the WebHelp generation process and I don't know how the WebHelp generated files handle the Map ID and aliases."

You need to assign the numbers you find in the pecs_help.h file to topics in your help. You do this in Context Sensitive Help > Map Files > All Map IDs. (From RH7, but I assume the location is similar in RH9.) This creates the entries in the .ali file.
Peter Grainge suggests a couple of sites to read for a greater understanding here:
http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/calling_webhelp/using_map_ids.htm
(Although the second site is based on RH X5, the basic concepts and procedures should be very similar. )
HTH,
Amber

MiniTOC does not appear in translated source file

RoboHelp 8.0.2
WebHelp Output
I added a miniTOC placeholder to three of my topics. This is the first time I am using the placeholder.
The English WebHelp project was sent for translation to French Canadian. I received the source project and noticed that the placeholder does not appear in the source file. Therefore, when I compile the output the miniTOC does not appear.
The translation company is using the latest version of RoboHelp, but I am not sure what tool they use to translate.
I have no clue how to resolve this issue. Sample code and screens are listed below.
Donna
English Source
<h1><a name="Top"></a>Working with Web Ordering</h1>
<p>This topic explains how to generate and maintain NAPA and Factory orders.
(Special orders and Non NAPA orders will be available in a future release).
You perform these tasks on the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Order
Maintenance</span> page. This topic assumes you have launched <span style="font-weight: bold;">Order
Maintenance</span> from the TAMS II Landing Page or selected <span style="font-weight: bold;">Inventory
> Web Ordering</span> from TAMS II BackOffice.</p>
<p>See: <span style="font-weight: bold;">TAMS II Web Interface Overview
</span><span>topic</span> for instructions on common functionality such
as sorting data.</p>
<?rh-placeholder type="minitoc" ph-style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-weight: bold;font-style: normal;text-decoration: none;"
list-type="ul" list-style="circle" caption="Topic Contents" caption-style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;font-weight: bold;font-style: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
margin=";;0px;1px" min-heading-level="h2" max-heading-level="h2" flags="7" ?>
<p> </p>
<h2>Adding a New Order</h2>
<p>Follow these instructions to create a new purchase order:</p>
French Source
h1><a name="Top"></a>Utiliser le module de commande en ligne</h1>
<p>Cette rubrique explique comment créer et gérer des commandes NAPA et
d'envoi direct. (Les commandes spéciales seront disponibles dans une version
future.) Ces tâches sont effectuées à partir de l'écran <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gestion
des commandes</span>. Cette rubrique suppose que l'utilisateur est connecté
et que la <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gestion des commandes</span>
a été lancée à partir de la page de renvoi de TAMS II. </p>
<p>Voir : La rubrique <span style="font-weight: bold;">Survol de l'interface
Web de TAMS II</span> pour des instructions sur les fonctions courantes
comme le tri des données.</p>
<h2>Ajouter une nouvelle commande</h2>
<p>Suivre les instructions ci-dessous pour créer un nouveau bon de commande :</p>

The Shuffle can only be linked to one computer at a time if you want to use the Shuffle on a different computer you must allow Itunes to restore the Shuffle and than you can use it. Sorry there's really no good way around this besides going third party.

TOC in French version of webhelp does not expand correctly

I have a RoboHelp project (RH 8.0.2.208) created by importing an HTML Help project that I use to generate WebHelp. The HTML files, the .hhc, .hhk, .hhp files have been translated to French (from English). I have changed the language in the project settings to French (France) and I generate the WebHelp output. All appears to process correctly except the TOC does not expand and collapse correctly. Some first level entries expand with one click (as expceted), some entries only expand after other entries have been expanded, and some entries will not expand at all, and once expanded, some entries will not collapse.
I have used the same process to generate other language versions and have not had the same issue. I have been searching the forum to see if similiar issues have been reported but cannot find anthing similar.

I had something a bit similar with RH 7, except it wasn't limited to one language but Firefox browsers. That problem was solved by installing the latest RH patches. You have a later version of RH and the problem is only in French, so the problem is most likely in the French help project.
What I'd do to troubleshoot it: Make spare copies of the help projects, just in case you make it worse and not better.
use a comparison tool like Beyond Compare, to compare the .hhp, .hhc and .js files between the French and English projects: any unexpected differences that are not language related? If there are unexpected differences in tags or other functional items, copy those items from the good project. Rebuild the project by opening the .hhp file.
or
Assuming your projects use the same file names for everything, copy the French .htm, .hhc and .hhk files into a spare copy of the English project. Open the project normally and change the language setting and help title (the .hhp should not have any other translated texts than the help title).
It can happen that a translation agency does something to the translated files, that does not work in your system. It can be very obvious in a side-by-side comparison, in a comparison tool or just Notepad, or it might be a bit more hidden like wrong character encoding.

TOC not displaying in translated files

Using RH8 (HTML).
Translating English RH source files using TRADOS TagEditor.
Translations to Chinese and Japanese have worked fine.
In translations to European languages the TOC does not display in RH nor compiled chm.
This appears to be caused by the use of 'alpha codes' for the extended character set. For example, an .hhc file with
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<toc version="1.0"><properties imagewidth="16" windowstyles="8388642" exwindowstyles="256"></properties>
                <item name="Introducción">
                </item>
</toc>
does not display.
But one with
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<toc version="1.0"><properties imagewidth="16" windowstyles="8388642" exwindowstyles="256"></properties>
                <item name="Introducción">
                </item>
</toc>
or
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<toc version="1.0"><properties imagewidth="16" windowstyles="8388642" exwindowstyles="256"></properties>
                <item name="Introducción">
                </item>
</toc>
does display.
Unfortunately, on return from the translators our .hhc files are littered with 'alpha codes' for extended characters.
Any confirmation of our suspicions and suggestions as to:
1) How we can rectify the situation, bearing in mind that a manual replacement is not an option due to the number of files and occurrences within those files.
2) What should have been done to stop this happening.
would be gratefully received.

Hi there
And I too hope that Willam and Peter will forgive me for popping in.
Peter told you that you need to be creating WebHelp, not WebHelp Pro as you initially stated. By reading this, I'm comiing to the conclusion that you believe you must create WebHelp Pro because you are using the RoboHelp_CSH file.
"We don't use the Robohelp server, becuase we use the context sensitive help so we lunch the htm via the script RoboHelp_CSH.js within our own web application."
The thing is, if you are still outputting as WebHelp Pro, you are getting a *DIFFERENT* set of output files that are coded specifically to work within the unique environment that the RoboHelp Server provides. This would explain why the calls aren't being made as expected.
I could be wrong on this but I don't believe I am. If so, one of the others will surely set me straight. You need to generate your output as WebHelp, NOT WebHelp Pro, then publish that set of files to the server. And the RoboHelp_CSH file will happily use the new set of files. (assuming, of course, that all mappings are correctly set)
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

Which RoboHelp 7 files need to be translated?

I have been transferred to a different division in my company and I am now responsible for the Online help that is created using Robohelp 7. I am completely new to Robohelp and what little I know I learned through a tutorial that I found. I have just been told that I need to provide RoboHelp files to be translated to French. I am pretty much lost. The application that has Help has two components (and therefore two types of Help): a desktop component that uses HTML Help and generates a ",chm" file and a web component that uses WebHelp that generates ".htm" files.
My problem is that I do not know which files in each type of Help that I need to have translated.
For the HTML Help I assume that I need to have the source files translated. But if I do this, do I need to recreate the entire project including recreating the topics, TOC, and index in French? What about map files?
For the WebHelp, do I just need to translate the ".htm" files along with the TOC and Index files?
I am using RoboHelp 7 on Windows XP
I would appreciate any help on this that anyone could provide. TIA
Bill

Hi Bill
See if the article linked below helps.
Click here to view
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

Printing foreign translations in RH7

My documentation has been translated into several different languages. Both the original (English) and the translated Help is generated in RH 7 -- both WebHelp and Printed Documentation. Asian languages present issues. The most pressing one is as follows:
The Korean characters (Index, ToC, everything) present correctly when viewed in RH7. From the Single Source Layout pod/pane, I then generate Printed Documentation of that Korean Help system. Only junk characters result, however, when the Printed Documentation is generated (in Word), i.e., every character shows as a tiny little square. (In Japanese and Chinese, many characters present correctly, but some in the ToC and Index display as garbled characters.)
Any ideas why this is happening? There are other issues with the Asian languages, specifically the Related Topics buttons disappearing in WebHelp, but right now this is the most important. Thank you very much for any assistance.

Create two new projects with just one topic each. One in a language where things work as they should and one in Korean. Name to projects with the language. Check the printed documentation is failing as with you main project.
Zip them up and send them to me via http://www.cutesendit.com. Include a link to this thread in the email. You can get the address from my site.
I may not be able to resolve this one as I don't usually work with foreign languages but I'll give it a try.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

RH7 Translation to French

I have an English version of a large RH7 WebHelp project that
is tied to our point of sale software. Our office in Montreal is
going to translate to French (Canadian). I don't know what version
of RH they are using or what tool they are going to use to
translate. I am assuming translation is not done in RoboHelp.
I am new to translation of a RH project and have some
questions.
It would be best if they are using the same version of RH,
correct?
I would send them all the source files and folders, correct?
Do they translate the topic file names to French or leave as
English?
They would generate the Webhelp output and send back the
output files, correct?
Donna

Maybe Ben Minson's article will help you.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/robohelp

Translation, localization

Hi all.
I've been tasked to find out what it would take to get the
WebHelp I built (using RH6) into Simplified Chinese. There are no
Asian languages listed in the Language Settings and everything I've
read says RH doesn't support double-byte characters. How do I get
my help files translated then? Does anyone know if RH7 will offer
this feature?
Please respond and thanks.

Hi Denise. Take a look at
this
thread posted by John Daigle after he attended the STC
conference - where Adobe had a stand - last May.

How do you create translated versions of a project under version control?

Hi,
We have a project under version control that has been translated. How do we best create projects for the translated material so that the webhelp output matches the English version only translated? Is it possible to create a project with a name that reflects the translated language, copy the English project file to the new folder, change the name to coincide with the translated version, import all of the associated English files, and then exchange all of the English files with the translated ones?
Thanks,
Allen

Hello Allen and welcome to the community.
See if this article helps. You didn't mention which RH version you're using, but except for the features specifically called out as being in RH8, the process should work for RH7 projects.
I use Subversion for version control, and I haven't had any additional challenges from having localized projects in version control—you check the files in and out as you do the English ones. Check out the article and let us know if you have any additional questions.
Note that the article gives recommendations, but you certainly can do your localized versions as completely separate projects. If you do it that way, for each separate project, copy the English project to a new location, rename it if you want, and change the project language.
Hope this helps,
Ben
GryphonMountain.net

Translation Tips for .CHM Help Systems?

RH8, parent/multiple-children.
My company is looking to expand overseas, and part of this will eventually include translating the help. As part of this "internationalization" project, I've been tasked with determining what to expect for how our help system will be translated.
Currently, our help is a 20-odd collection of CHM files, one parent and the rest children. We are also in the process of using these same projects to develop a WebHelp version of our Help to place on our company site.
I believe at the moment we are planning to use Multilizer in translating both our application screens as well as the Help, and I"m aware of a interface plug-in for Multilizer to extract the text out of RH projects. However, I've been specifically tasked to find generic advice/suggestions/etc. as if we're not using Multilizer.
In other words, I need to assume we're not using it and need to know what we might need to make our Help "generically" ready for translation, if such a thing exists. Sorry for being such an open-ended question, but that's what I'm tasked with.
Personally, my main question is - how are multiple languages handled for projects? Do I need to duplicate each project by language - i.e. EnglishParent, SpanishParent, EnglishChild1, GermanChild1, etc.? Or do I retain a single project and add some indicator of what language I'm using when I build the .chm files?
Thanks,
Jeff

Hi Jeff.
We are only just starting down this line ourselves and in a more limited way than you. Only one of our merged child projects will be translated thus far. From our perspective we chose to maintain all the topics in the same project. You may decide to maintain a different project. I think the decision here is based on the usability for your authors as either way can work.
We use the RH language settings to control topic spelling / grammer inside the same project. You can add conditional build tags to filter out topics from the output. The only issue here is TOC / Index files. You'd probably want to have separate files for each language if in the same project and these take the default project language - i.e. you can't override to use a different language. This in itself is not such a big issue if you are sure your fingers do what they're told!
If you adopt the single project approach I'd recommend using folders for the different languages. It makes things a whole lot easier to manage. However as your translating everything I'd certainly look at the separate project approach.
The RoboColum(n)
@robocolumn
Colum McAndrew

Meaning of WebHelp subdirectory files?

Hello. Is there any reference anywhere to discover the meaning of each of the whdata, whgdata and whxdata files in WebHelp?
Here's why I ask:
I am trying to remove an index keyword without opening the project in RH7. (Long story, but it's an Asian-language translation, which has proven very fragile in RH7.) I want to make one small fix without opening (and recompiling, and therefore breaking) the entire project. So, I am making the fix directly to the WebHelp files. I thought I'd found the keyword and removed it in one of the whidata.htm files, but it still shows up in the displayed Help system. There must be other pointers to it somewhere, but it's like a needle in a haystack for me, since I don't know where all the index references are. Same goes for ToC.
I hope this is clear. Any ideas are most appreciated.

Keep in mind, for the future, that RH does a re-balancing of all those wh* files each time you generate/publish an update of the output. (Keeping those files smaller improves download performance, but not only does it add more files as needed, but "spreads around" the links.)
That is, what was in whgdata\whlstfl19.htm (19 of 19) the last time you generated might now be split between whlstfl12.htm, whlstfl11.htm, whlstfl18.htm, even a new whlstfl20.htm! And, of course, links to those files are modified as well.
Good luck,
Leon

Currency Translation on Key Date for AR Aging

Need your valuable advice!
I have created an AR Aging query including both Open and Cleared Items based on 0FIAR_C03_Q0005 standard query. However the requirement is to do currency translation to Group Currency (USD) on Key Date. This Key date is defaulted to today but the user can change this to go back in time and pull all the ARs as of that back dated key date.
I was planning to create a currency translation type on M rate based on the Key Date Variable in RSCUR. However I am confused on which variable to base this currency translation. I have several key date variables in my query such as 0P_KEYD2 (based on Posting Date), 0P_KEYDT (based on Net Due Date) and 0P_KEYD3 (based on Clearing Date).
Which Key Date Variable should I use in 'Time Reference from Variable' field in RSCUR? Would it be one of the 3 mentioned above or something else and why?
Appreciate your valuable advice.
Thanks,
Al

Hi,
Yes I do want to use the Key date from the variable screen and I am using the standard 0FIAR_C03_Q005 with slight modification including currency translation.
As I mentioned in my original post I have several key date variables in this query such as 0P_KEYD2 (based on Posting Date), 0P_KEYDT (based on Net Due Date) and 0P_KEYD3 (based on Clearing Date). My question is which one should I use if I want to base it on the specific key date variable from the variable screen? I need the specific Key Date variable technical name.
Thanks,
Al

XML Publisher report - Number translation in Italian

While i am Doing an XMl publisher report in english and Italian Languages i am facing an issue with the Dot translation.
For eg: 4.5 is translated to 4,5 in Italian.This creates a problem for me when i am doing summary on this column.So how should i handle in case italian.

better to ask this question in the BI (XML) Publisher Forum: BI Publisher

No Unicode Translation Error

Hi All,
I am getting the following error while running a report in Answers tool.
State: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 46115] No Unicode translation is available for some of the input characters for MultiByteWideChar(). (HY000)
I am seeing this error on my local windows desktop. The database is oracle 10g.
The error is not very consistent. Sometime it works and then it fails because of the above error. Not sure what is causing it.
thx,
Bejoy
Edited by: bejoy.nair on Sep 1, 2009 9:00 AM

I am also receiving the same error, but from within Answers. It occurs occasionally, depending on what fields I select. I am trying to narrow it down to a field and field type. I am using OBIEE 10.1.3.4.0 and Oracle 11g.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Anne

Translating webhelp

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for