Lingo --> Excel (or similair) --> Lingo Workflow

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cjs
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:37 pm

Lingo --> Excel (or similair) --> Lingo Workflow

Post by cjs »

Hello,

I am new to Lingo and have spent many hours researching and experimenting to find a process that will support translations from a selling partner using ubiquitous tools. The high-level flow is as follows:

Flare --> Lingo --> Export to .xlf --> Convert to Excel or other pervasive tool --> Translations by Selling Partner --> Convert back to .xlf --> Import to Lingo --> Flare

I am stuck on either finding a method to convert .xlf to Excel or a tool that the Seller Partner can use to easily add translations into the .xlf file.
Of course one option is the Selling Partner to use Lingo. The cost of multiple licenses might make Lingo prohibitive. Is there a floating license that we could use for the various Selling Partners to use as they need it? Also, although Lingo is pretty straight-forward, it does require some knowledge of the tool and the Selling Partners would prefer a common tool.

Anyone have experience working with multiple users to translate Flare content with common tools?

Thanks!
Chris
jasonsmith
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Re: Lingo --> Excel (or similair) --> Lingo Workflow

Post by jasonsmith »

Hi Chris
Any translation provider worth their salt will be able to handle .xlf files. If you are using a non-professional translator and you are not too worried about maintaining a translation memory I would suggest creating a Word target and sending your partner a Word file. Once the document is translated you can create a Flare projecct from the Word file.
Abigail111
Jr. Propeller Head
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Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 2:39 am

Re: Lingo --> Excel (or similair) --> Lingo Workflow

Post by Abigail111 »

HI there
I am also new to lingo.And i am a beginner in Excel.You said that you want to convert xlf to Excel.That's a little bit difficult without an Excel processing tool.
So i just wonder that if there is a converter which supports to do that direclty.Thanks for any suggestions.
I am a newbie here
I want to learn more about
Excel processing and Excel program.
Carsten Pedersen
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Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:11 am

Re: Lingo --> Excel (or similair) --> Lingo Workflow

Post by Carsten Pedersen »

I'm also new to Lingo, but now have some experience with Flare over the recent years.

My problem is that every time MadCap is talking about translations they always refer to professional translation services (who of cause knows everything about translations, XLIFF file formats, translation memory etc.). Maybe I'm the only person who have requests from a sales office or even customers who wants to translate one of our manuals or software help texts. In this case the translator is not a professional translator, he just want a simple tool to translate a text line to something in his language. And here I find that Lingo (just like Flare) simply fails..

Starting with Flare; we are only few persons who build and maintain Flare projects, but we have a number of people who writes input to Flare. They do not need the compiler, targets, master pages, conditions etc., they basically just need the editor part of Flare. I know about the Contributor products, but here you can't see the topic structure, add and edit topics and so on. So make a product like Flare for Writers please.

And now Lingo; it also seems to do a great job opening Flare projects, working with TM, MT and so on, including the possibility to translate, preview the changes and converting them back to Flare in multiple languages. But again the translators just need the translation part and the preview. So here I miss the product Flare for Translators. For the software translation I use an old program called Multilizer, this has a feature which bundles the translation into a projects together with a limited version of the Multilizer program. And this solution is perfect since the translator just receives and runs the program and translates.

If XLIFF is so fantastic, which tool should I recommend to my non-professional translators? It should easily open the XLIFF bundle from Lingo, show some columns to translate and being able to re-bundle the package for me to import into Lingo.
The price for a full Lingo is too much just to buy and send to the translators! And I'm also afraid that the program contains too much stuff besides the translation columns and the preview - you know, non-professionals always just asks for a Word file.

-cpede
cjs
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:37 pm

Re: Lingo --> Excel (or similair) --> Lingo Workflow

Post by cjs »

Thank you all for the replies. The solution that I testing is as follows:

1. Use Lingo as the translator tool. I have written simple (as simple as I can get it) instructions for the non-translation professional to use Lingo as a line by line editor.
2. We have purchased a floating license of Lingo for this use. It is the most cost-effective approach for many occasional users.
3. I manage the upload to the TM etc. of the translated strings.

This seems to work pretty well and allows me to best manage the Translation Memory. Let me know if you'd like to see the instructions I use.

Chris
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