hi,
I'm just getting started with Flare (day 3 of the trial) and just looking at our images and how that would work. We currently have a lot of images we annotate with arrows and text boxes in Word. From what I can tell we'll need Madcap Capture or do this externally and then save the whole image and insert? Option 2 will leave us with translation issues though. Do people generally use Madcap Capture when they need to annotate images and translate? Or can this be done within Flare topics themselves?
Thanks
Madeline
Annotated Images
Re: Annotated Images
Hi
Capture will indeed allow you to fit the translation of text boxes and localisation of images in an integrated workflow with Lingo.
We have the Madpak suite but to be honest I decided to bypass Capture for the time being (first months of transitioning to Flare). The reason is simple: it seems to me that Capture is basically designed to mostly caption screenshots of software interfaces. I'm sure this is great for people documenting software and publishing to HTML.
However we do not make software and I mostly publish to PDF. I like using vector images because I have access to plenty of those and they allow me to work to a higher standard for what I have to do.
Unfortunately I found Capture was severly lacking for my needs, or at least I haven't found a way to integrate it nicely.
What I personally do: I removed all text from my eps files (that I make and edit with a widely used vector graphics software) and only add numbered callouts, which I then list in a table in Flare below the image, when needed. This way images are good for all languages (in general you do not want to swap images when localising content) and the text is handled nicely in Flare and Lingo.
I had some explaining to do to my boss, because sometimes text inside of an image is really useful.. but honestly I couldn't get past the lack of vector file support and I had issues with stabilizing image sizes, having boxes of the same standard dimensions, making straight lines.. I guess I'll look further into it but not for now!
Do give Capture a chance though, because from what I've seen so far, the integration with Lingo is pretty sweet.
Capture will indeed allow you to fit the translation of text boxes and localisation of images in an integrated workflow with Lingo.
We have the Madpak suite but to be honest I decided to bypass Capture for the time being (first months of transitioning to Flare). The reason is simple: it seems to me that Capture is basically designed to mostly caption screenshots of software interfaces. I'm sure this is great for people documenting software and publishing to HTML.
However we do not make software and I mostly publish to PDF. I like using vector images because I have access to plenty of those and they allow me to work to a higher standard for what I have to do.
Unfortunately I found Capture was severly lacking for my needs, or at least I haven't found a way to integrate it nicely.
What I personally do: I removed all text from my eps files (that I make and edit with a widely used vector graphics software) and only add numbered callouts, which I then list in a table in Flare below the image, when needed. This way images are good for all languages (in general you do not want to swap images when localising content) and the text is handled nicely in Flare and Lingo.
I had some explaining to do to my boss, because sometimes text inside of an image is really useful.. but honestly I couldn't get past the lack of vector file support and I had issues with stabilizing image sizes, having boxes of the same standard dimensions, making straight lines.. I guess I'll look further into it but not for now!
Do give Capture a chance though, because from what I've seen so far, the integration with Lingo is pretty sweet.
Re: Annotated Images
Thanks. I'm not documenting software either. Mine are screenshots of engineering drawings that I then annotate with arrows and text boxes. I'll download the trail version of capture and have a look but imagine it'll probably be fine. We're currently using Microsoft word to annotate the images so they're not hugely complex graphics I'm talking about.
We do have machine interfaces where the screen are translated so I'm also interested in the bulk replace of images I've seen mentioned in regards to capture. Currently we manually replace all the screen shots in the English manual with the translated screen shots before sending for translation.
We do have machine interfaces where the screen are translated so I'm also interested in the bulk replace of images I've seen mentioned in regards to capture. Currently we manually replace all the screen shots in the English manual with the translated screen shots before sending for translation.
Re: Annotated Images
Hello everyone,
I'm just starting out with Flare and Capture and got stuck on our pictures.
I would like us to link the callout numbers to the text so that the numbers change automatically when I change this on the image or in the text.
Can anyone give me a tip on how to do this?
I can't select the callouts I set in Capture in Flare. Or is there a trick?
Thank you very much in advance!
Mareike
I'm just starting out with Flare and Capture and got stuck on our pictures.
I would like us to link the callout numbers to the text so that the numbers change automatically when I change this on the image or in the text.
Can anyone give me a tip on how to do this?
I can't select the callouts I set in Capture in Flare. Or is there a trick?
Thank you very much in advance!
Mareike