localized context-sensitive page references

[pdenchfield]

I use the "context-sensitive page reference" command {pageref} for the xref formats, as defined in the print medium of my CSS file. This command automatically resolves to "on page n" or "on the facing page" or other variation, depending on the relative location of the cross-referenced item.

Flare-context-sensitive-pageref.png

Works great for English. The problem is localization.

Somewhere in Flare, localized versions of these phrases are stored - but some of the phrases are incorrectly capitalized. Skins looked like they ought to be the source, but I learned that (1) it's more work for the localization group to create a skin for each language, for each project (think 14 languages times 10 deliverables), and (2) the skins do not support PDF output anyway.

Unless I can find an editable source of localized strings in Flare for PDF outputs, I must abandon these context-sensitive page reference commands. I will have to use the clunky "on page" phrase, defined in English, in the CSS, for every xref format. (The CSS file will be edited for each localized project.)

Please prove me wrong.

[doc_guy]

I hope this isn't stating the obvious, but did you select a language in the PDF target? There is a Language tab that gives a list of languages and whether or not they have the skin file localized.

In theory this should be done once per language, as these language skin files are not part of the project itself, they are part of the background stuff Flare uses to work. Once you have the correctly-localized language skin file, it should work for all outputs, which is why, I guess, the language skin is a separate file from the normal skin file used for online output.

[pdenchfield]

Hi Paul,

Stating the obvious is fine with me. I can use all the help I can get.

Can you point me to the (editable) source of the language-specific skins that is used in generating PDF output? I tried editing the French language skin following instructions from Flare 10 Help and then rebuilding the PDF, but my edits were not used in the new PDF output. Indeed, Flare told me my source was up to date when I ran the re-build. Flare did not recognize the update to the language skin. And the skin editor says that the file exists outside the project. If I knew where to save it to, that'd be awesome.

Flare-skineditor-FRE.png

Flare-context-sensitive-pageref-FRE.png

The Flare 10 Help is inconsistent in statement of supported outputs for languages skins. In the topics for editing or creating language skins, the Help says language skins are supported for online outputs only. In the topic "about language skins," all outputs but HTML5 are listed as supported. http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... s%7C_____1

[doc_guy]

Very good questions. I've never actually done this, I just combed through the help system trying to find useful information.

I wish I knew more about it and could help. Maybe somebody with translation experience could jump in and help with more information...

[pdenchfield]

Thanks, Paul. I'll update this post if I learn something useful from tech support.

[pdenchfield]

I learned that Madcap's provided language skins are difficult or impossible to package in editable format with each Flare project. The language skins are stored on each person's hard drive, at C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V10\Flare.app\Resources\LanguageSkins (files have the .fllng extension). Our team is deciding whether or not to continue using context-sensitive page references with this undue burden on the localization team.

[Nita Beck]

I pinged one of our friendly Flare localization experts to tell her about this thread. Hopefully she can offer some insights and/or guidance.

[alt_jennifer]

Hello all!

Thanks, Nita, for the ping

You are certainly on the right track. You are updating the correct language skin, and yes, language skins are honored in all outputs, including PDFs. So whoever told you that they aren't is clearly not terribly familiar with how they work. I have used the contextual cross-references from the Language Skins in many PDFs, and in many languages. Please note that not all languages work well with the contextual cross-references: Chinese, Japanese, and Hungarian in my experience so far.

But you are very right in that it is really hard to package up language skins for translation. The default English is nowhere to be found in any of the language skins, since it's pulled from some UI resource file. With regards to your screenshot about the French skin appearing in bold but with no location at first, that is normal. The bold indicates that Flare has default translations for the skin, but the location only appears if you create an editable version of that language skin. Essentially, the .fllng file you create contains overrides to the default translations, so it won't include all the French text (if you look at it in a text editor).

The real issue is making sure that all your ducks are in a row, so that the edited phrases are actually used in the outputs. The first thing to look at is, as Paul indicated, the language selected in your target or in your project. So if you open that Language tab in the target file you are generating, you either want it to have selected the proper language, or you want it to say "(default)" and then make sure that the Project Properties has the proper language selected. I prefer the latter approach, but either works.

The second thing is to make sure you know what the proper language should be. With regards to French, there are several options: French, French (France), and French (Canada). It looks like the language skin you edited is the French version. If you select French (France) in the Language tab, then your edits will not come through because the language selected did not match exactly. I suspect that this is the problem, since you are seeing French, but it's not the right version of the French.

[alt_jennifer]

One more general note about skins....

What might prevent a language skin from being honored in an output is (1) a project skin, setup for a web output, that contains overriding text and (2) a stylesheet, since you can insert overriding text for various items like cross-references and breadcrumbs. But the contextual cross-reference phrases cannot be overridden anywhere. They always come from the language skin.

And one other thought about your specific circumstances....

If what I sent you doesn't fix things, check a translated topic in the text editor view. At the top there may be a language id, either "fr" or "fr-fr" or "fr-ca". Sometimes the topic-level language declaration will override the target-level language. So if the language id there doesn't match the language id on the language skin, try changing it to match. Regenerate, and see if that one topic is now correct. If so, then you have to make sure the codes line up everywhere. That has solved the issue for me before.

[pdenchfield]

Hi Jennifer! Thank you for your informative reply. I got it to work on my machine, but the difficulty of packaging the language skins for localization is dissuading me from using {pageref} at all. Instead I will use the "on page n" construction everywhere, with the phrase editable in the CSS file. Good to know about the limitations for Chinese, Japanese, and Hungarian outputs. Thanks again!