Auto-Number Text and Translations

[techwriter31]

For my English project, I'm using auto-numbered text for Notes/Tips/Warnings/Dangers/Cautions divs, so when the style is applied, the appropriate text is auto-populated.

Question: For my translated projects, would it be best to use a single .CSS with no auto-numbered text defined for these styles (we would have to manually add the appropriate text) or have a separate style sheet for each language?

I'm currently using Global project linking and store the English "Global.css" in the parent project. I plan to create similar global projects for each language, so I could have a separate .CSS for each, and just append the language-specific abbreviation to the file name. To add another layer of complexity - our QSGs are a single document that contains the English and all translated versions in one document (9 languages total). The current plan is to store these topics in the English project, rather than using global project linking to pull in all the topics from each translated project. In this case, I would need to import the .CSS files for all languages to the English project and link each of these topics to the appropriate .CSS file.

So it sounds like my options are:
1) One "Global.css" for English, and a separate "Global_xx.css" for each translated language that automatically populates the appropriate auto-text for each language. Downfall = a lot of separate .CSS files to maintain.
2) One "Global.css" for English and one "Global_Translations.css" for all translated topics, that does not include auto-text and we manually add the appropriate note/tip/etc. text. Downfall = possibly increased translation costs and local formatting of the "Note" text (typically bold/sometimes red font depending on the type of message).
3) A single stylesheet that contains the styles for all languages. Downfall = Potentially overwhelming due to the number of similar styles (we currently have 3 styles defined for each note type, for a total of 15 styles x 9 languages = 135 styles ). Doesn't seem feasible.
4) Drop auto-text completely and use a single stylesheet for all languages. Downfall = same as #2.

Help!

[GregStenhouse]

I fear this won't help in your situation (due to the QRC), but we use mediums for the different languages and it works quite well. E.g.

Code: Select all

@media French
{
	P.Note
	{
		mc-auto-number-format: 'Remarque : ';
	}
}

We select the French medium when building a French target and all the notes, tips etc are changed. We don't have a print medium, and I can see that it wouldn't work if we did (i.e. you cannot set 2 mediums).

Something you might look into, you can reference a stylesheet in another stylesheet using @import url('...');. Styles in the importing stylesheet take precedence over the imported stylesheet. So theoretically you could have a global.css, then translated stylesheets that import the global.css and also contain the autonumber 'overrides' with translated text.

Cheers
Greg

[ChoccieMuffin]

Just a thought - would a snippet work in this situation? That way you would have "Note:" as a snippet to be translated just once. (I have no idea whether you can use a snippet as auto-number text but if you can, that might work.)

[NorthEast]

I was going to suggest exactly what Greg mentioned - use an import.

For example, create a French.css file that includes an import link (this has to be at the top) and any French-specific style variations:

Code: Select all

@import url('Global.css');

P.Note
{
   mc-auto-number-format: 'Remarque : ';
}

Then set French(.css) as the master stylesheet for the French target.

[techwriter31]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I really like the idea of using an import. Would this also work for the scenario where I'm generating the multi-language PDF from the English project?

[GregStenhouse]

Would this also work for the scenario where I'm generating the multi-language PDF from the English project?

I imagine so, as you can select a stylesheet at the topic-level, allowing you to mix different stylesheets in a project. (being topic level, this assumes you don't mix languages in the same topic.) Select a topic, press F4, and under Topic Properties select French.css etc in the Stylesheet field.

[NorthEast]

Would this also work for the scenario where I'm generating the multi-language PDF from the English project?

I imagine so, as you can select a stylesheet at the topic-level, allowing you to mix different stylesheets in a project. (being topic level, this assumes you don't mix languages in the same topic.) Select a topic, press F4, and under Topic Properties select French.css etc in the Stylesheet field.

Yep, that'd work fine as long as there's only one language used per topic.
(Also, you couldn't use the medium method with a multi-language target.)

Just make sure you don't set a master stylesheet for this target (leave as default), as that will remove and replace the stylesheet links set in the topics.

[techwriter31]

That worked perfectly! Thanks for the advice!!