Translation of an InDesign document

The newsletter I put out for work requires publishing in both English and Portuguese. I do not speak Portuguese and we use a translator.
Prior to my arrival in this position, the newsletter was designed in Microsoft Publisher and was sent to the translator for translation in that file type. I switched us to InDesign because it is what I am best with and I feel it is the best option out there. Problem is, we've had difficulty with translation, as the translator does not use InDesign.
What would be the best way to send this for translation, in your opinion? At this point, the other person who works on the newsletter sends her a word document with all of the text copy-pasted but this is not efficient.

At this point, the other person who works on the newsletter sends her a word document with all of the text copy-pasted but this is not efficient.
Yeah, that's not efficient.
If your translation provider uses anything like Trados, then sending PDF and IDML should work. If your translation provider is one of those who only works in Word or Office, then you have a few less-than-satisfying options. I manage a multilingual workflow with a large number of complex-script users who will only use Word, so I style text carefully, export RTF, and flow the translated RTFs back in and clear overrides. This is problematic in a number of ways, but it's my least-bad option. Other options that might work for you are StoryTweaker from Rorohiko or DocsFlow (or WordFlow) from Em Software. They both allow text-work outside of ID that flow back into ID with much less hassle than place-and-clear-overrides, and much much less hassle than copy-paste.

Similar Messages

How do I get a Euro into my InDesign document?

I need to know how to insert a euro symbol into my Indesign document.
I have looked at other posts and the suggestion of holding down the Alt key with 0128 doesn't work for me.
Does anyone have any other suggestions please?
I am based in England.
Thanks

Hey, I'm from Ireland and the Euro symbol is a pita.
The keyboard comes fitted with an Alt Gr + 4 (the right alt key and the number 4 on the top row) but that does not translate well across RIPs and often come out as question marks or blank squares.
Please use the Euro Font that is available for free http://www.adobe.com/type/eurofont.html
Usually I will use a symbol I don't usually use in the document (being in Ireland I don't need the £ symbol at all), so I use that symbol but in the Euro Font, available in 3 different flavours with different weights.
So pick a symbol you won't use and then apply the Euro font.
I have a nested style for Euro symbols that applies it as a character style. And with CS4 it should be possible to use a GREP STYLE to apply the Euro font to anywhere you need the Euro symbol to show up.
It's really the best option as it's a font and it's a character of a font and it won't drop out of the RIP.
(Suggestions for alt characters to use could be ¬ or $ or ~ or #, for example. That way if you need to find $ or £ you still can without finding all the Euro Symbols too)

How do I set up an InDesign document in another language?

I have laid out an InDesign document in English. It will be very easy for me to copy/paste my translated text for Spanish since my fonts include the accents, etc. for Spanish. But, how do I do it for a language that uses cyrillic (or other) characters instead of normal letters? I will be given the text in Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, and Korean in a Word document. Will I need to purchase special fonts for these languages? I'm assuming that if my English InDesign file is using Helvetica Neue Lt Std, that a copy/paste will not work when I'm pasting Russian text. If I will need special fonts, can you recommend some for these languages (for PC; opentype or postscript)? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Well, I can answer all of your questions, but I'm feeling like you ought to be answer some of them yourself in order to be able to demonstrate yourself competent of typesetting these languages in the first place. For instance: a brief visit to Wikipedia will reveal that Tagalog is typeset in Latin script. Just make sure that it's not marked as English, and that hyphenation is off, and you should be okay with whatever English-language fonts were originally selected for the project. This is partially because Tagalog typographical rules are not as stringent as English rules are, and many of the rules tend to hew to US English standards in any case.
However, that cannot be said for Russian at all. Russian typographical rules are more stringent than English rules. They don't have the pick-your-own-style-guide problem that English has. Ever watched people argue over the Oxford comma? Much less likely to have that kind of dispute in Russian. But since you don't know the rules, you won't know when you're breaking them.
Russian and Vietnamese are both supported by comparatively narrow arrays of fonts. There's a Russian foundry called Paratype that will have a very wide array of Cyrillic cuts of familar fonts. Vietnamese is harder to find. The advice from Ellis is good. I'd also point out that any Adobe "Pro" font stands a good chance of having Russian and/or Vietnamese. I am pretty regular user of Myriad Pro and Hypatia Sans Pro (with all of the extra typographical doodads turned off).
Chinese and Korean are so different that there isn't even very much hope that you can go out and find a font and do it yourself. Fonts for both languages are incredibly expensive. The free fonts that came with your OS might be okay; the ones that came for free with InDesign are also good. But in neither case should you expect a full set of weights, or any italics whatsoever. (Also: don't fake an oblique by adding skew; it looks about eight thousand times worse in Chinese than it does in English.)
I would strongly advise that you have all of your documents proofed by the translators. For Korean, it'd almost be mandatory; your formatting job stands a decent chance of being Worse Than Useless. (About ten percent of the Korean I handle in InDesign fails to wrap at spaces and breaks in the middle of words.) If there is any chance that you can job this out to a pro, I'd suggest that you take it. It'd be far better for your non-English-language readership if you as a designer critique the typically sub-par design job offered by your translation firm's DTP department than you, as a designer, render the translated text poorly and not have an in-language reader tell you where you've botched it. In the first case, it's probably ugly, but in the second case, it's maybe illegible.

Help! How do you adapt an InDesign document in various languages?

Hi everyone...we are presently working on a user manual which we designed in English. We need to adapt this manual in 4 other languages. Is there anya feature in InDesign that changes the language in the doucument without going through the process of applying styles etc? (The doc is 90pages) Thanks

Sorry, OP, I can't even really tell for certain what you're asking for. It sounds like you want to click a button that will automatically machine translate your document, and then autoformat so you don't need to do any post-translation DTP cleanup. I want that button, too, but
a) it might be a decade or two before the technology exists to make that happen, and
b) when it happens, I'm out of a job.
So, assuming you're not looking for an InDesign feature that completely translates and formats a document automagically, what are you trying to do? What are your target languages? Are the translations being provided by contractors, or do you have translators and editors in-house? There is a magic-bullet tool that will flow a translated document into ID and retain all style information, but it still requires some post-translation DTP cleanup, it costs about $5k (at the absolute minimum), and you need some years of experience using it to be able to process an InDesign doc without accidentally scrambling your translation.
Sounds to me like you are in need of a translation industry pro. If you can articulate what you're trying to do, I'll try to point you in the right direction.

Converting an InDesign document from English into Mandarin (Chinese)

Using a Mac OS X Version 10.7.5. InDesign CS 5.5
A 4 page layout in English needs translating to Mandarin (Chinese). I have been provided the copy in Mandarin in a Word document.
Most of the Word doc looks fine other than a few characters show as rectangles.
I then asked the client to copy and paste each of the four pages into an email, all of the characters showed were in Mandarin.
I then copied and pasted from the email into the InDesign document only to find every character came up as a squares encased in a pink line.
I have reset the settings on the Mac in System Prefs and changed to Chinese (as there's no setting for Mandarin), it has made no difference what so ever.
Apple have advised InDesign has trouble with Asian fonts esp. double bite fonts.
I do not have the seriel number for InDesign on me and therefore Adobe will not assist in this matter.
Can anyone help please?

Pink Piranha wrote:
A 4 page layout in English needs translating to Mandarin (Chinese). I have been provided the copy in Mandarin in a Word document.
Most of the Word doc looks fine other than a few characters show as rectangles.
I then asked the client to copy and paste each of the four pages into an email, all of the characters showed were in Mandarin.
I then copied and pasted from the email into the InDesign document only to find every character came up as a squares encased in a pink line.
Apparently the font applied to the text in InDesign does not contain Chinese characters. Select one that does.
I have reset the settings on the Mac in System Prefs and changed to Chinese (as there's no setting for Mandarin), it has made no difference what so ever.
That merely changes the interface, doesn't it? Your documents would not change -- all of your e-mails, for example, are still in English, right?
Apple have advised InDesign has trouble with Asian fonts esp. double bite fonts.
Don't worry about that, Apple doesn't know anything about fonts, advanced typesetting, PDFs, color management ...

Finding folios in the indesign document

i want to find the folios in the indesign document and i want to write in csv file. filename.foliosexistpage.
could anyone tell me

Hi,
There is no folio in InDesign, You can get a pagenumber with section prefix. by using the following code:
app.activeDocument.pages.everyItem().name;
Regards,
Ramkumar .P

Is there any way to get the height/width of an image before importing it in the indesign document.

Hi All,
I need to obtain an image's attributes such as dimensions (height, width in pixels) without placing image in indesign document.
I have full path of the image (say abc.jpg is stored at c:\my pic\abc.jpg).
I have obtained the IDFile for this image, tried getting size using GetFileSize() which correctly return size in bytes.
Is there any way to get the height/width of image without importing it in the indesign document.
Please, give me some hints. I have spent quite a lot time digging in CHM. I have searched in FileUtils, IDFile API's but found no method which serves this purpose.
At this point I am clueless where to search next.
Any help will be appriciated.
Just a point to mention, I am able to get image height and width for an image in indesign doc though Its not my requirement.
Thnx,
D.

You might be able to examine the contents of the PlaceGun after calling kImportAndLoadPlaceGunCmdBoss without actually placing the image in a document. Not sure, but would be worth looking at.
Otherwise you will probably have to write platform specific code, ideally with a generic platform-independant wrapper (see SDKSamples/paneltreeview/PlatformFileSystemIterator).
For the Mac, look at CGImageGetWidth() etc., not sure what the best option is for windows.
Perhaps Quicktime could provide you with a platform independant solution.

How to embed data into an InDesign Document

Hello everybody,
I'm porting a QuarkXTension to InDesign CS3 on PC but, maybe, I've found a showstopper...
The current xtension writes some collected data into a document slug that is retrieved by an external application simply scanning the content of the file.
I need to maintain the same way with InDesign but I've discovered that the persistent data added to a document workspace doesn't stay all together when is more than few KBytes (everything seems to be ok until 2 KBytes but that's too little) inside the InDesign document but is scattered on many locations. Of course this makes the work of the external application impossible.
Is there any way to command/force inDesign to write the persistent data insidde the file in one single chunk?
I understand this is something unusual but that's the way that complex publishing workflow works and can't be changed in that part.
Thanks a lot in advance for any help.
Best regards,
Luca Severini

I think I have found a possible solution to embed my data in a way readable by an external application. To use the XMP toolkit.
Very interesting the fact XMP Toolkit includes the source of a simple command line tool that parses the xmp embedded into InDesign file.
The same source can be easily modified to get all the objects contained in the document aka database.
Bye
Luca

I Try to open an Indesign document. The message: it is made in a newer version. Go tot CC: Help/Give your Adobe id/Start Indesign again and try to open the document. This doesn't work. How to solve this problem?

I Try to open an Indesign document. The message: it is made in a newer version. Go tot CC: Help/Give your Adobe id/Start Indesign again and try to open the document. This doesn’t work. How to solve this problem?

What version are you running?
What version was it made with?

On Windows Platform, encounters error when trying to open an Indesign document created from MAC

Hi all,
On Windows Platform, encounters error when trying to open an Indesign document in INDD format created from Mac. Error received "Either the file does not exist, you do not have permission, or the file may be in use by other application". I am currently using Adobe Indesign CC 9.2 Trial version.
Kindly advise how can i open this document on windows platform and allows me to edit the document.
Thanks!
With Rgds,
Fiona Choy

Normally there is no problem to open any INDD opening on Windows, when created on the Mac.
But Mac user are often not aware on the naming limitations. A file name must not contain /, \, |, :
It should not contain any extended character, it is not a primary problem but will be, if something links to that file, so avoid also: ÄÖÜäöüß+&
You can use all other non A-Z a-z, 0-9 and - and _
I personally would also recommend to avoid spaces.
This is valid for the INDD file itself but also for all linked content.

How to import multiple XML files into one inDesign document without copy/paste ?

I use InDesign CS6, and I have several XML files with the same structure. Only the data are different.
I created an Indesign layout with some tagged placeholder frames on merge mode, for automated layout.
Today for each XML file I have to create a new InDesign document to import the XML. Everything works fine. Then in order to have all Indesign layouts one after the other into a single Indesign layout, I have to use the copy/paste function.
I mean for example, copy the contents of all documents to the first one. Or add pages of other documents to the first one, then delete spaces between each page.
So my question is the following:
How to repeat this process without copy/paste function, knowing that the
number of XML files could be unknown.
Thank you very much for your answer.

Yes, effectively I would like to catalogue the files into one collection so i can save as one PDF and Print as one.:)
I know I could save each AI as a pdf them then merge the pdf's together in acrobat, but I have nearly 100 files so would feel more comfortable seeing them all together before print / saving.
My concern is that if I insert them in Ai, will the file resolution reduce? and will the ai still be editable and would it update the indesign file?
Thanks for the quick reply

How do I print multiple copies of the same InDesign document on 1 page?

I made a sign that is 7"w x 3"h and I would like to print 3 on a page. Can I do in InDesign? Adobe Acrobat. I found a feed from 2008, but was hoping that something had changed.
Thank you.

If you're looking for automated "n-Up" functionality, I don't think you'll find it in InDesign or Acrobat.
All I can suggest is start a new InDesign document and place 3 copies of your sign on the page. Print.

How Do I combine 2 InDesign Documents into 1 (in a very particular way)

How do I combine two InDesign Documents into one in a very specific way.
Here's my problem: I have two separate InDesign CS5 files for playing cards. File one is the front. File two is the back.
The company that does my final print production needs the the cards sent as two separate PDFs. One for the card fronts, one for the card backs. Both of these InDesign (and the PDF export) files are arranged in the same way: page 1 is card #1, page 2 is card #2, etc. Nice and simple.
However, I use a different company for producing prototype versions of the decks (the production printer can't do this economically). My prototype producer needs me to send a single PDF where page 1 is Card #1 Back, page 2 is Card #1 Front, Page 3 is Card #2 back, Page 4 is Card #2 front, etc.
The decks I am building usually run 56 cards, but can be as large as 180 cards.
So, what's the easiest way to automate this process? is there a way to combine two separate indesign files by "interleaving" the pages from the two original documents into a new larger document (where I could do a new PDF export)? Or, is there a better way to do this in Acrobat Pro? At the moment I have to resort to drag and dropping each card from one PDF thumbnail pallet to the other. It's really time consuming and mind-numbingly boring. Any Ideas?

This script is actually pretty straightforward, so it's a good first
challenge I think.
I would script this in InDesign -- probably because I'm more familiar
with InDesign scripting.
To start learning the InDesign scripting basics, open the ExtendScript
Toolkit (ESTK) which is almost certainly installed on your computer
already. Go to the Help menu, and you'll find an entry there called
Adobe Intro to Scripting. Read that. I think that's the best place to start.
For the script in question, you would want to:
1. make sure both InDesign documents are open. They would both have the
same number of pages. (No scripting involved here, just make sure
they're open before running the script.)
2. loop backwards through the collection of document pages of one of the
documents. (document.pages is the collection you're looking for)
3. use the move() method of a document page to move it. (myPage.move())
4. Learn about the LocationOptions enumerator so that when you move the
page you can tell InDesign if you want to move it before, or after
another page. (LocationOptions.AFTER or LocationOptions.BEFORE)
5. Get a reference to the page in the second document before (or after)
which you want to move the page in the first document.
5. that's basically it
I suggest that as you work your way through this (if you decide to take
up the challenge), you post any questions you may have on the InDesign
Scripting forum here.

Is there a way to trace back an indesign document from which a certain jpeg was exported?

I have a jpeg image that was exported from indesign a long time ago. I no longer know where the indesign file is located or it's name, but I need to edit the text of the jpeg and the only way to do that is by editing the original indesign document and reexporting it. Is there a way to trace back an indesign document from which a certain jpeg was exported?

boshalosh wrote:
I have a jpeg image that was exported from indesign a long time ago. I no longer know where the indesign file is located or it's name, but I need to edit the text of the jpeg and the only way to do that is by editing the original indesign document and reexporting it. Is there a way to trace back an indesign document from which a certain jpeg was exported?
Depending on how the text interacts visually with the image, it might be possible to use the fill property of the content-aware deletion feature of recent Photoshop versions to remove the text with little or no evidence of the deletion, then apply text over the graphic however you like.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Packaging an InDesign document with Placed Illustrator Files which contain PLACED GRAPHICS!

I've got an InDesign document 215 pages long. Each page contains a placed Illustrator document... and each Illustrator document contains a placed TIFF.
When I package the InDesign Document the Illustrator files are gathered into the new location, but InDesign does not gather the TIFFs. I need to get this material to the book designer, but relinking 215 pages is going to be a very risky and time consuming process--one that will have to be done OVER and OVER again as the project moves from one location to another. Can anyone recommend a solution? Why doesn't InDesign look for nested files?
Does anybody understand what I'm talking about?
--Jay

The reason behind link (.psd in layers) means in the future it can be edited.
If the person receiving to package needs to edit the layers of a PSD placed in an Illustrator file, then yes you would have to manually include the layered PSDs. But if it's just a matter of ensuring full res and color managed output downstream then saving as PDF does that and preserves the links to layered files locally. So if I save as PDF trash a link and reopen the PDF in Illustrator it will look for the link:
If you save as .ai with the links embedded, the users downstream would be able to unembed and edit a flattened version of the placed art.

Translation of an InDesign document

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