Latest Articles on tcworld.info http://www.tcworld.info/ Latest Articles on tcworld.info en Latest Articles on tcworld.info http://www.tcworld.info/typo3conf/ext/tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.tcworld.info/ 18 16 Latest Articles on tcworld.info TYPO3 Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200 Is Automated Speech Recognition the new lingua franca? http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/is-automated-speech-recognition-the-new-lingua-franca/ After a decision to implement a direct-to-store supply chain, a local manager of an electronics... The ability to instantly translate speech is here ASR has come a long way since its original development by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) “SUR” in the 1970s, which could only recognize about 1,000 words. While more advanced systems developed through the 90s had expanded lexicons, faster processing, and increased accuracy, they were still very much constrained by manually programmed rules. In the past decade, there has been a revolution in ASR technologies that use statistical analysis to determine the most probable meaning. In other words, this technology is not just processing a command, but essentially thinking and interpreting the meaning being expressed by the user’s words. Armed with the capability to interpret the meaning of language, ASR systems are now being joined with MT into a single engine that can translate speech-to-speech in near real time. The key to this development was the introduction of translation systems that integrate rule and statistical methodologies for a “hybrid” approach. This has several advantages for MT, ASR and their integration. In 2006, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Open Machine Translation Evaluation revealed hybrid approaches to have the highest accuracies, especially on noisy data (speech and inaccurate text input). Also, combining the two approaches allows the system to do more with less – hybrid systems can translate phrases or sentence fragments, as well as develop new languages faster and with less training data. Today, the accuracy of automated translation can approach that of human translators. This has several benefits for businesses with multilingual needs including lower cost, additional flexibility, and faster workflows. However, even the best speech translation systems have shortcomings that require some tradeoffs. ASR is more sensitive to incorrect use than MT because there are many variables that impact the quality of ASR, including vocabulary size, the speaker, fluency/spontaneity of speech, background noise and if multiple languages are being spoken. Systems will be faster and more accurate depending on how they are employed. The more tailored a system is for a specific task, the better. An ASR system that performs well with a large vocabulary, continuous and spontaneous speech is ideal for translation and interpretation. Accuracy statistics and other forms of ASR measurement can be incredibly misleading, so users should adopt technology specifically tailored to the type of task they’re conducting.

Big data, small hardware: ASR is where technology is going

Major trends in IT have made ASR adoption all the more critical for global businesses. For example, a recent IDC study showed worldwide data growth last year was 62 percent for 800 billion gigabytes total. Social media use has grown as well. It is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. In other words, there is an exponentially increasing amount of video and audio data available that far outpaces the supply of human translators. Automatic speech translation can play a vital role in enabling communication when human translation is not feasible, and in helping to pull important information from a mass of data. While data is getting bigger, video conferencing technology has been getting smaller and easier to use. For example, the early days of video conferencing featured a plethora of bulky equipment including heavy monitors and large cameras. It was unlikely this equipment was going to be mobilized for anything but important, large corporate meetings. Today, most desktop computers, laptops and even phones have video conferencing capabilities enabling small, informal and impromptu meetings to be held on an unprecedented scale. Medium to small-sized businesses can hold frequent video conferences without breaking the bank on equipment or IT support. ASR and MT will allow these meetings to be held across borders and languages so businesses can increase efficiency. And, just as video conferencing became industry standard the more user friendly it became, ASR and MT technology are on the same trajectory.

Mobile and global: ASR is where business is going

It is not just technology advancements that support the adoption of ASR, but also business trends. Across industries, demand for the latest mobile technologies is greater than ever. While security concerns in each of these markets have stalled adoption in the past, the demand has grown to a point that businesses are prioritizing finding a way to make mobile technologies a reality in their respective markets. A recent survey issued by IDG Connect shows that 91 percent of business and IT professionals use their  HYPERLINK "http://www.imore.com/ipad-2" iPad more for business communication than personal needs. Many speech translation technologies are embracing this trend with solutions that can be deployed via a smartphone app or tablet device. The next generation of mobile speech translation applications will be tailored for specific industries. For example, the marketing industry may use translation applications that understand the word “copy” is likely referring to text rather than a document that has been duplicated. This will provide greater context by assuming the environment or purpose for which the technology will be deployed, and thus result in greater accuracy. Also, businesses will be able to utilize these applications when they do not have an Internet connection, which is not always available when traveling. And traveling for business is exactly what people are doing more and more. The Global Business Travel Association found that person-trip volume is up 3.1 percent in 2011. While you may still want human translation for that important international business meeting, speech translation technologies can enable executives and other company representatives to travel foreign countries with less hassle and stress. Not only are business operations increasingly taking place across borders, but they are becoming more interdependent. For example, Ford's Michigan-assembled Mustang’s transmissions come from China, France, the U.K., and Mexico. With so many moving parts, sometimes the only way to straighten everything out is to pick up the phone. Speech translation technologies answer a real need – instant cross-lingual communications.

Best practices in speech translation

There are multiple specific uses of speech translation technology from which businesses can benefit today:
  • Customer Communications: After tailoring, the accuracy of ASR, MT, and speech translation technology has reached the point that meaningful conversation with external customers is possible. For example, there is at least one state-level Department of Health currently issuing tablet devices with speech translation programs to healthcare workers in clinics across the state so they can better communicate with patients who do not speak English. This works in a setting, such as healthcare, that places a high importance on accuracy because time is not a critical factor – if miscommunication arises the question or answer can be restated.
  • Business Intelligence: The efficient acquisition and smart analysis of business intelligence is key to most business operations. Currently, programs are available that use speech translation technology to transcribe TV newscasts from around the world. Once transcribed, you can search the database by keyword and region.
  • Internal Coordination: The direct store shipping hypothetical story at the start of this article is a great example of how businesses can use speech translation technologies to boost internal coordination, ultimately leading to simpler workflows and lower costs. Business divisions and teams can now be composed of talent from across the world without losing efficiency.

The future of ASR and MT

Both ASR and MT technology advances will move further from word-to-word translation toward the actual meaning of communication. Speech translation technologies will be able to support more languages and translations will become more accurate as the technologies are able to gather additional context from inputs outside of speech, such as GPS or optic technologies. It’s entirely possible the language barrier will diminish or even disappear within the next decade. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SAIC.]]> translation and localization Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200 Technologies begin catching up with market expectations http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/technologies-begin-catching-up-with-market-expectations/ Many people have experienced the fun or frustration of playing with technologies that are not yet... Russian translation program in the late 1970s for a course in computational linguistics. Boasting a small lexicon and a relatively simple grammar that included support for dependent clauses and variable sentence structures, it earned me a passing grade as it demonstrated the complexity of handling unpredictable natural language and gave me reasons to empathize with MT developers. My introduction to ASR was at Digital Equipment Corporation in the early 1980s where we experimented with the software that became DECtalk. The contemporaneous speech recognition software was clunky at best and very dependent on the speaker’s clear, slow enunciation and patience. Over the last few years, both MT and ASR have entered mainstream use. Several years ago Google’s translation tool began offering users tolerable output that has gotten better as the bilingual corpus of training data has mushroomed. Other MT developers have improved their linguistic competence and performance as well. On the speech front, better ASR technology has liberated customer care centers from the strictly regimented IVR dialogs to allow to be more flexible and responsive to caller needs.

Artificial intelligence today

ASR has come a long way in the last year with highly visible applications that catapulted speech recognition to the forefront of consumer awareness. In early 2011, IBM’s Watson, an artificial intelligence application, competed with human contestants on the Jeopardy quiz show, asking questions to the answers given by the show’s host. Based on IBM’s DeepQA project, Watson melded speech recognition with natural language processing, information retrieval, knowledge representation, reasoning, and machine learning.The DeepQA software generated a hypothesis, gathered data in response to the queries generated by the hypothesis, analyzed it, scored the appropriateness of the data, and came up with an answer (which is delivered in the form of a question in the Jeopardy show). While speech recognition was only a small part of the application, it was the most visible part, allowing Watson to compete with Jeopardy champions using the most natural computer interface of all – speech. Speculation abounded that Watson could add IBM’s statistical MT software as an intermediate component or back-end server, thus adding in-line translation to Watson’s search competence. Later in 2011, Apple introduced its iPhone 4S with the Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) personal assistant software it acquired in 2010. As with Watson, the flexible speech interface and natural language processing are what grabbed everyone’s attention, but it was the integration with a range of frequently used iPhone apps that actually makes Siri such a useful assistant in finding restaurants or asking about the meaning of life. Siri began its own life at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as software spun off from the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) PAL project (Perceptive Assistant that Learns) into the start-up acquired by Apple. More recently, Microsoft entered the ASR-MT discussion with its prototype multilingual talking head, a system that recognizes speech, processes words, and vocalizes the results in the target language. Other examples of speech interfaces becoming more mainstream are Apple’s latest iPad with speech-to-text dictation, commercial products from companies such as LumenVox, Microsoft, and Nuance, as well as a variety of open-source ASR projects at Sourceforge. Just recently, Ford made the news with its update of MyFord Touch to fix a variety of problems with its touch screens and voice recognition. Keeping the driver’s eyes on the road with ASR makes a lot of sense.     With Siri’s earlier generation of government-funded natural language processing now in commercial products, DARPA is now pushing a broader language initiative called BOLT (Broad Operational Language Translation). BOLT envisions the integration of a broad array of natural language processing technologies “ranging from phrase translation to the scanning and translation of large data sets of voice, video and print.” An essential component of BOLT and any commercial integration of ASR, MT, and other technologies will be application programming interfaces (APIs) that support the interaction and exchange of data among various software products, thus allowing anyone to talk to anyone (or anything) else over any media.  

Mash-up or single-source?

Our research firm, Common Sense Advisory, sees two basic approaches to integrating speech recognition and MT, mash-ups and single-source development. For mash-ups, developers of either ASR or MT technology use product APIs to develop a voice interface to a machine translation engine. Several of the MT developers that Common Sense Advisory tracks have said that they have customers or partners working on such integrations. The benefit of this mash-up of disparately sourced products is that developers can choose the best-of-breed technology for their projects or connect already installed products used by their customers, thus preserving their investment. The downside of mash-ups is the age-old litany of integration problems such as asynchronous software releases leading to software breakage, inaccessible features, and confusion about which company is responsible for which bugs. In the case of speech recognition and machine translation, there’s an additional problem – dissimilar lexicons. ASR and MT technologies originating at different companies will typically use proprietary learning algorithms, repositories, and interfaces for the words that they process, resulting in the need to create, train, manage, and synchronize two dictionaries. The second approach is the “everything under one roof” model. As Watson’s television debut on Jeopardy demonstrated, end-to-end control of all the technology pieces can result in a seamless, impressive experience. With Siri, Apple’s rigid approach to managing iOS means that its personal assistant can talk to any app that complies with its APIs. Neither Watson nor Siri today boasts a connection to MT, but it won’t be long. With its own ASR and MT in the lab, IBM stands a good chance of creating a seamless experience for users of the two technologies. Meanwhile, SAIC (né AppTek) is already shipping its Omnifluent product that integrates speech recognition, machine translation, and a single lexicon in the same software. The hybrid MT engine supports both speech-to-text and text-to-speech machine interpretation in the same software. Of course, the disadvantages of the one-roof model will always be money and scale. Few companies own both ASR and MT technology, and most cannot afford the continued development of the two technologies to keep pace with industry innovation. These software products can require a lot of developers and processing power. Furthermore, they are most useful when connected to other things – ASR to just about any product with a human interface and MT to any stream of content.

Voice interfaces for all our devices?

The unfortunate reality of the software business is that few software or media companies will invest in such integrations without a guaranteed market or customer base, thus limiting the ability of smaller companies to gain traction with their innovative products. In response to this reality, we can expect licensing deals and outright acquisitions by larger companies to secure the technology they need to achieve that end-to-end control over these voice-to-translation applications. This dynamic gives natural advantages to larger software companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft – and Apple, if it decides to invest in more natural language software. That said, there’s always the opportunity for a company with innovative technology to raise capital and generate enough marketing buzz to capture the market’s attention. Without a doubt, spoken language is a much more natural way to communicate with machines. We can and should expect voice interfaces for all of our gadgets. The next generation of televisions, microwaves, and automobiles will follow the lead of Siri and allow total voice activation and interaction. On the machine translation front, our phones, car dashboards, and other handheld devices will take advantage of voice interfaces, 4G LTE connectivity, targeted APIs, and MT in the cloud to provide translation anywhere, anytime. However, the fragmented nature of the language technology sector, the small size of most players in that market, and the vast number of products that could be provisioned with ASR and MT will initially limit the integration of both technologies to only the most lucrative and obvious opportunities. Today, health care, military, and intelligence applications lead that charge.  In the near future, more consumer devices will follow. ]]> translation and localization Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200 Leveraging the terminology treasure trove http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/leveraging-the-terminology-treasure-trove/ Microsoft offers a language portal on the Internet. The portal contains terminology in about 100...
  • www.microsoft.com/language/de-de/default.aspx
    • This portal has become quite recognized among terminologists. But it’s worth a look even for technical writers, who create online help for instance, or are involved in designing software user interfaces. Figure. 1: The homepage of the Microsoft Language Portal
     With the portal, Microsoft provides all interested parties access to its own terminology, to motivate other companies to use the Microsoft terminology for their software products. This free service from Microsoft serves to establish its own terminology beyond the boundaries of the company. It creates a win-win situation for all involved: Microsoft sets standards; others are saved the efforts of terminology work. Except for the fact that “Windows Vista” means “Window chicken” in Lettland, the terminology creates a completely well-rounded impression. There are some discrepancies, which are however to be expected considering the voluminous quantity of data.

    Access to 100 languages

    Access is not restricted to TechNet customers and is granted without registration. Microsoft offers terms in over 100 languages, but to varying extents. The number of terms is approximately proportional to the number of software products that Microsoft offers in the particular languages. The terms do not have a status. This means, the database contains only preferred terms and no forbidden terms. The terms can be accessed in two different ways:
    • Terms can be searched individually. The user can search for a term in a specific source language using a search screen. The language portal delivers one or more permitted terms in the target language. This process is suitable for reference. However if the user wants to extract a large number of terms from the database, this process is not suitable.
    • Terms can be exported in a source and a target language respectively as TBX file. An export of several languages and files all at once is unfortunately not possible.

    Transferring data

    You can get an impression of the scope by considering the file size of the bilingual export of German/English. The TBX file is approx. 11 MB in size. Therefore the user should not import the entire TBX file or even several TBX files in his terminology management system. It is better to prepare the data in advance and to only import selected components. This can take place in the following manner:

    Open TBX-file with Microsoft Excel

    1. Download one or more TBX-files.
    2. Open the first file with Microsoft Excel. If Excel indicates that the data format deviates from the expected format or the file is corrupt, confirm this message.
    3. If Microsoft Excel asks for the file format, select as “As XML table “. Microsoft Excel automatically creates a schema that suits the data structure.
    4. Save the file as excel list.

    Merging several TBX-files

    1. Open another TBX-file with Microsoft Excel.
    2. Sort the column F (ns1:lang2) from A–Z.
    3. Delete all rows having value “en-US” in the column F.
    4. Copy the rest of the rows, with the exception of the header row and insert them at the end of the worksheet of the Excel list.
    5. Sort the column E (id) of the Excel list from A–Z.
    After you have merged the TBX data into an Excel list, you can take all terms that are useful for your terminology database from this list. Image. 2: TBX-data, after it has been transferred to Excel. Many terms are Microsoft-specific and are not suitable for use in your company. Also, there are many duplicates that need to be sorted out. The data is primarily appropriate for the standardization of button labels and menu entries. However, once you have separated the wheat from the chaff, the Microsoft terminology makes a valuable contribution to the terminology of your company.]]>     content strategies Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200     Making quick reference information mobile http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/making-quick-reference-information-mobile/ For decades, quick reference tools such as quick reference cards, job aids and help cards have been... The history of quick reference content Quick reference content, for the most part, started out as physical “cards”. Before the turn of the century, many people who worked with computers had laminated cards propped up against their “terminals”, typically above the function keys. These “cards,” which came in a variety of shapes and sizes, usually contained all the arcane key combinations needed to perform equally arcane functions on their company’s computer systems. For less well-to-do companies, quick reference content took the form of pages ripped (in disgust) from large, hardcopy computer manuals and taped haphazardly to the sides of employees’ monitors. And these often came to be replaced by sticky notes. In fact you probably have some taped to your monitor right now. In other work settings, for example, at manufacturing locations, this type of information was stuck on the wall and ignored most of the time. In office settings, the early physical quick reference cards were often supplanted by electronic quick references that were accessed by clicking on links or the Help icon. Content also changed significantly because it included more than key combinations. The electronic iterations of quick reference content were often instructions about performing specific job-related tasks, some of which were not even computer related. Today quick reference information has found a new home — on mobile devices, particularly on the smartphone.

    Examples of quick reference content

    So what kind of quick reference content is suitable for mobile?
    • Reference information (for example, explanations of troubleshooting codes and procedures)
    • Step-by-step instructions
    • Performance checklists (discussed in detail later in this article)
    • Flowcharts (although graphics do present some issues on mobile)
    • Decision tables
    • Data lists (for example, lists of office locations and contact information)
    So basically, what do these things have in common? Typically, there’s no background or conceptual information, and the content is formatted in short documents using terse language. It is because of these factors that quick reference content has acquired a new lease on life – via the mobile platform. Its short, compressed, information-packed nature makes quick reference content a spot-on fit for mobile devices.

    The table problem

    The one issue about porting quick reference information from the “old media” (the printed page or PC screen) to the “new media” (smartphones) is that much of this content exists in a tabular format. For example, if you have quick reference content that looks like the one below, you’re going to have a difficult time smashing it into a mobile framework. Figure 1: Table on smartphone?
    So how can you make quick reference content with four or more columns readable on a mobile device? One answer is — to hope that users will take advantage of the accelerometer and flip the mobile device into landscape mode. However, there are several caveats here:
    • The table may not even fit in landscape mode if it is being displayed on a small smartphone.
    • Since most people initially look at their mobile devices in portrait mode, you have to design information so it will be legible and immediately useable in portrait mode.
    • Different browsers and different-sized devices render information differently. So just because the content looks OK on one mobile device doesn’t mean it’s going to render the same way on another one.
    Often a redesign of the information is necessary, particularly if the information is going to be displayed on a smartphone. One way to do this is to examine your quick reference table and see if you can use the left-most columns as the basis for a menu (see Figure 1). In many cases, the data in the left columns establishes the basic categories that are detailed in the cells to the right. Here’s an example of quick reference content that we redesigned so it would fit on a smartphone. As you can see, the categories of Code and Symptom became the menu options, and the details appear when the user taps the “category” link.
    Obviously, the major limitation of this approach is that the user loses the ability to see all the information for all categories at once. Sometimes this doesn’t matter, particularly when the user is looking for one specific item, such as a troubleshooting code. But if it does matter, you can somewhat ameliorate this by placing a Return to Menu link at the end of each detailed section. But if you have a 4-, 5-, or 6-column quick reference table that you want to display on a smartphone, this approach may be the only feasible one. However, if you need to stick with tables, here are some suggestions that might improve their usability on mobile devices:
    • Eliminate redundant information – Determine if you can consolidate information. If the information in two rows is very similar, combine it into one row and note the exceptions. This may ultimately decrease the length of the table and thus reduce the need for scrolling.
    • Combine columns – If possible, combine similar columns. In the example in Figure 1, combine columns 1 and 2 into a single column called Code and Symptom.
    • Use hyperlinks whenever possible.

    Mobile checklists

    One way to greatly enhance the usability of quick reference information is to turn it into a checklist. As Dr. Atul Gawande pointed out in his acclaimed book, The Checklist Manifesto, checklists used in hospital settings can actually save lives. In this book, Dr. Gawande studied the work of Dr. Peter Pronovost, who determined that checklists provided two major benefits: “First, they helped with memory recall, especially with mundane matters that are easily overlooked in patients undergoing more drastic events. A second effect was to make explicit the minimum, expected steps in complex processes.” Many other professions have noted the value of checklists as well. And, it’s obvious that mobile devices have exponentially increased the power and usefulness of checklists because of their ability to transmit data, GPS functionality and inherent portability. So here are a few things to keep in mind if you are designing mobile checklists:
    • Don’t forget the checkboxes – It almost goes without saying that mobile checklists should include checkboxes, but unfortunately, many mobile checklists appear to be dumped directly from static hardcopy into the mobile framework. It’s important to include checkboxes because they allow the user to see what’s done and what remains.
    • Make the checkboxes large enough for a finger tap – If the rows are not deep enough, it can be very difficult to tap the correct checkbox without zooming. You don’t want users to have to zoom to see the information because it might distort the content.
    • Don’t include useless graphics – This is particularly true if your app is web-based (see below). If the app needs to pull down the graphics from the Internet, it will take longer for the graphics to load than for text alone.
    • Avoid text entry – As everyone knows, it’s tough to type on a smartphone.

    Developing a quick reference mobile app

    So, if you’re seriously thinking about developing a mobile app, here are a number of steps you need to take:

    1. Determine the type of app you want

    The first issue you need to resolve is – what type of app will it be: a native app, a web app or a hybrid. Here’s a very brief explanation of each option:
    • Native apps reside totally within the mobile device. These apps are coded in 
C-style languages or HTML5 and are basically more difficult to develop and distribute (or “publish”) to a wide audience than the other types of apps.
    • Web apps look like native apps, but they’re really websites designed for mobile with all or most of the browser controls hidden. Since web apps are, at heart, websites, they are somewhat easier to develop since they’re written with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and they’re easier to distribute – all that’s required is an Internet link to access the app.
    • Hybrid apps combine elements of both native and web-based apps.
    If you intend to export data collected by your quick reference app to an external database (for example, the checks entered into a checklist), you’ll need to create either a web app or a hybrid app.

    2. Develop a detailed design

    No matter which type of app you decide to develop, your next task is to develop a detailed design, which completely describes the app’s functionality, look and feel, and database access (if the app exports performance data). By the way, there are many free web-based tools (some of which are discussed in the next section) that let you build a user interface prototype before you commit any further effort or resources to the project.

    3. Putting it together

    Once you’ve finished the design phase, you have different options for making your quick reference app work. If you’re technologically inclined, you may want to take a shot at creating your quick reference app from scratch. Or you can hire a programmer to do this for you. Another alternative is to use a software tool to create your quick reference app. Some of these tools are web-based, others are not. You don’t need to be a professional programmer to use most of them. However, a general knowledge about how programs and databases work is very helpful. Here are a few tools you might want to consider: MadCap Flare – As you may know, MadCap Flare is typically used to develop WebHelp and content for single-source output. But this product can also be used to develop mobile performance support information. Flare has an option to develop WebHelp for mobile, which can easily be tweaked to make it look and function more like a quick reference app. To do this, you need to change the “home” page so that all quick reference topics immediately appear when you first access the app. (A link to instructions for doing this is given at the end of this article.) Here’s an example of what a tweaked home page can look like: Figure 3. Quick reference home page This is a great option if you already own MadCap Flare and you don’t need to save anything (such as a check to indicate that a task has been completed) into a database. ViziApps (also called MobiFlex) – This is a web-based tool to let you develop web apps and hybrid apps. It’s fairly easy to develop the user interface, but developing the back-end interactivity is a little more complicated. However, for testing or even for production, ViziApps lets you use a Google Docs spreadsheet as your “database.” One thing to keep in mind about ViziApps – make sure you do not use Internet Explorer as your browser (many functions will not work properly). The recommended browser is Mozilla Firefox. Tiggzi – This is another web-based app that is very similar to ViziApps. The user interface design tools are a little more robust, but setting up the connection to the database is more complex. Both Tiggzi and ViziApps are good tools to use if you just want to play around with designing the UI. I have listed other tools with similar functions at the end of this article.

    4. Testing

    The last step in this process, testing your app, is critical. It’s extremely important to test whatever you’ve created on different devices (unless you know the specific device on which your app will be used).  Just because your app looks OK and works well on an Android doesn’t mean that it will look and work the same way on the iPhone. Also, even smartphones marketed by the same company may not display information the same way.

    Adding technological bells and whistles

    If you’ve developed a performance support app and you want to add some bells and whistles to improve usability, here are some things you can do, particularly if you have a programmer available:
    • Make rows expandable to show additional details – If your quick reference information is in a tabular format, you can use JavaScript coding to make rows optionally expand to include extra details that would clutter up or elongate the basic quick reference content. The code for implementing this is freely available on jQuery, which is a cross-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.
    • Add zebra stripes – With this technique, every other row in a table is shaded, which improves legibility. This can also be implemented via jQuery coding.
    • Data sorting and static column headings – Data sorting allows users to sort information based on a particular column header. Another technique, static column headings, allows users to scroll down a long table while the column headings remain static.
    • Search – Adding a search capability is a real enhancement, particularly if you have numerous checklists. The Flare product (see above) includes a search engine. However, search functionality can be added to other apps by embedding code for a search service, such as Google.

    The bottom line

    As time goes on, all of these tools will become more sophisticated and easier to use. As a result, creating a quick reference app may be in your future sooner than you think.

    Links

    • MadCap Flare instructions for changing home page
    • Search utilities


    Mobile app tools


    • ViziApps (MobiFlex)
    • Tiggzi Mobile App Builder
    • MadCap Flare
    • jQuery
    • MobiForms
    • 
Fivespark
    • MobileNation

    ]]>     content strategies Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200     Technical writers and social media http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/technical-writers-and-social-media/ A recent tekom study, which included 1595 participants – mostly tekom members – investigated the... Social networking The questions on use of social networks were specific: How many of the respondents are active on the networks facebook, XING, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Twitter? Are the social networks used more professionally or privately? Or is the usage mixed? Image 1 shows that the number of people not yet using social networks outweighs in all platforms. The distribution is halfway equal only in the case of XING: Here, 48.7 percent stated that they use the business network, primarily for professional reasons. It is similar for LinkedIn; this network also primarily serves professional purposes. Image 1: The majority do not yet use social media. Image 2 shows how the users of social networks are distributed over the five platforms. Image 2: Distribution over networks and their usage The main reason for the use of social networks is keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances. Furthermore, the respondents would like to learn about the newest trends and developments through social networks. Other reasons are maintaining contact with colleagues and business partners, as well as the search for answers to technical questions. Around 27 percent of respondents stated that they do not use any of the social networks. It emerged that people are held back from using social networks by the fear of insufficient data protection.

    The tekom web forum

    All respondents who are tekom members and come from the German language region were also asked about the tekom web forum. As compared to other social media, the web forum has a special position. It is directed exclusively at professionals from technical communication, therefore the information offered is tailored exactly for this target group. The offerings include expert forums such as legal services or standards and guidelines, as well as the job market, the service provider file and the events calendar. Users of the web forum can subscribe to all information offerings via email. This means, they basically need to login just once, enter their current email address and configure the subscription. Everything that is newly entered from that point forward is sent directly to their inbox by the system, another visit to the web forum is not necessary. This background explains why the rate of passive users is relatively high. From the 1417 respondents, 13 percent said that they would use the web forum for their own contributions, 63 percent acquire information by reading the entries.

    Internet offerings for technical communication

    The respondents could voluntarily provide information about the Internet sites they visited to keep up to speed with the developments in technical communication. It is striking that most directly visit company sites. Image 6 shows a summary of the different sources. The website of tekom also counts among the sites of companies that are looked up most often. Image 1: Where do technical writers go for information? The three most mentioned blogs are:
    • the blog of the partner association TECOM Switzerland
    • the blog of the technical writer Marijana Prusina
    • the blog of “Content Wrangler” Scott Abel
    Forums are mainly looked up for questions concerning special editors such as Adobe FrameMaker. tekom offers an RSS feed of all mentioned blogs and a list of all forums for download. The blogs can then be imported in your own RSS-reader

    Smartphones and tablet PCs

    Since Internet offerings and special social media are being increasingly used over mobile end devices, tekom surveyed how widespread smartphones and tablet PCs are. 46 percent of those surveyed possess a smartphone, while 14 percent own a tablet PC.

    Magazine format

    The majority (52.4 percent) prefer to read the technical magazine ‘technische kommunikation’. An exclusively digital format, either as PDF or eBook is desired by only 13.3 percent. 34.3 percent are for a mixed form, printed and digital format.

    Opinion about social media

    Lastly, the survey respondents could volunteer a statement on social media. The responses were widely diverse. Uncertain data protection was criticized here again, as also that the information flooding through social media was overtaxing. Sceptics primarily noted that social media are everything other than social for them. In contrast, others were of the opinion that social media are a fixed part of the Internet and they would be happy if tekom were to engage in this area further. ]]>     technical communication Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0200     Translation and liability http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/translation-and-liability/ Everybody who deals with translations and everybody in the language service business knows: When... Exclusion of liability by the language service provider (LSP) Many LSPs are trying to take the easy way out. Their General Terms and Conditions are not included in the contract, when they should be. A mere reference to a website is not sufficient. In addition, the definitions in these General Terms make things appear too simple: for example, any form of liability is excluded, the liability is limited to the volume of the purchase order or any liability claims are reduced to five days after delivery. The EU liability directives, for example, make such agreements obsolete in the first place. Consider the translation itself as a product. So, who is actually liable to which amount, under what conditions and when? The General Terms and Conditions alone need to be revised throughout the entire language service provider business. All buyers of language services should examine if, in terms of liability risks, their purchasing regulations are compatible with these legal conditions and how they can be applied.

    The contract between LSP and their client

    Every client will eventually sign some kind of contract with his favorite LSP. This contract covers mainly prices and discounts. However, these issues alone leave plenty of room for marked improvements. What about the liability? Where did this contract between the LSP and the client originate from? In most cases such a contract comes from the LSP and this is where one should watch out: The liability regulations in a contract originating from the LSP naturally reduce any kind of liability of the translator and most likely try to shovel the entire liability over to the client. If, and to what extent, this is legally valid depends on the different contract agreements. Is it really possible to limit the clients right to reject the delivery of a bad translation to five days? Can a few paragraphs in the contract really restrict the liability to the client? The answer is no. And when the client and the LSP are subject to a case of liability, they can both be liable: the client who did not proofread the translation of safety relevant documentations as well as the LSP, in case the translator did not do his job right. Even the freelancer who actually did the translation can be liable when it can be proven that his negligence of the job caused factual damage. Please note: Nobody must be liable – but all involved parties can be liable, it all depends on the individual case.

    Insurance

    Everybody seems to have some kind of insurance to fall back on: Companies that sell products usually have some kind of insurance. The LSPs that deliver translations also have insurance. The freelance translators who actually do the translation have insurance or at least they say they do. But what exactly do these insurances cover? Can an engineer from Lisbon have an insurance for translation jobs in Germany? Many insurance companies demand some kind of official certification for translators, no matter how good their translation work might be. The question that remains is: Which insurance applies when there is some kind of damage resulting from poor translation quality? Will any insurance at all cover the damage?

    Damages resulting from a bad translation

    Here is an example: a car manufacturer purchases the translation of the owner manuals of his new car model from a language service provider. The Portuguese freelance translator does the translations for this LSP. The job is time critical, he has to work late hours and he has a few drinks while doing his job. Late at night he confuses “gas pedal” and “brake pedal” in the entire Portuguese documentation of the new car. What happens? A batch of new cars goes to Portugal with the incorrect translation in the documentation. Five cars get involved in serious accidents, because their drivers, after carefully studying the owner manual, stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake. So who is liable? The drivers, because one should be able to assume that a person with a drivers license knows better? The translator, because the faulty translation was the result of severe negligence? The LSP because the project managers skipped the proofreading phase due to a tight schedule? Or is the car manufacturer liable because he should definitely have known that a translation for 0.13 US$ per word could not be of superior quality? In this example the car manufacturer had no kind of documented translation quality control because the shareholders demanded a drastic slashing of the costs. The fact that everybody has insurance complicates things further: The translation error was not entirely the translator’s fault. It was the result of a corrupted translation memory, which had been included in the translation job. Yes, things can get complicated. But you can be sure: When a liability case goes to court, the judge will most likely want to acquaint himself with the documentation. And if the documentation seems to be complicated and hard to understand, the jury will move one step closer to a “general mistake in the instructions”. In the case illustrated above, European jurisdiction might even have everybody in the process chain made accountable, all the way down to the translator. And all insurance companies of the different parties involved in the process might have a laugh and waive any coverage of any liabilities. This example is drastic and fictitious. But it shows that much can go wrong in a translation process.   

    So now what?

    It is not enough to know about safety issues resulting from bad translations. And it is not enough to refer to some kind of insurance policy. So how can one ensure that one will not be subject to some kind of liability issue in the first place? In the case of the freelance translator from Lisbon, the Portuguese subsidiary could have done the proofreading. But this would only have been possible if there had been a Portuguese subsidiary. The Portuguese manager could claim that he did proofread thoroughly. Moreover, he will normally tend to make a general complaint concerning the translation quality instead. And the LSP? In a case of severe negligence, how can the LSP protect itself and its personnel from liability? One thing is clear: There is no standard solution. But when the manufacturer of the product starts to put the risk resulting from translation errors into his overall risk analysis, he is moving in the right direction. The General Terms and Conditions LSPs present for translation jobs and the translation processes inside the enterprise itself should be documented. The risk analysis of the product itself should list translation errors as well. The awareness inside the enterprise will then quickly increase and the different countermeasures that need to be taken will surface by themselves. The most important instrument for avoiding liabilities resulting from general mistakes in the instructions, is within the documentation itself: Make sure you have experienced and trained technical editors producing the documentation and that they have made it easy to understand. We all know that documentation dictated by engineers and developers may be filled with strange terminology and lengthy sentences. Such a documentation can definitely not be translated without errors, regardless of how good the translator might be and regardless of how many drinks he might have had or not. Also, check the contract situation between the enterprise and the LSP. For the exporting enterprise one should keep in mind that small steps in the right direction are better than the general negligence one can observe at the moment. A definite exclusion of liability will never be reached, but you can get close. Keep in mind that a court delivers a verdict - not necessarily justice. There is a difference. ]]>     translation and localization Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0200     Implementing changes successfully in technical communication http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/implementing-changes-successfully-in-technical-communication/ “If you keep on doing what you can, you'll always be what you already are”, said industrialist...
  • Strategic turning points, e.g. entry in new markets, company takeover or reorganization of the product portfolio; these usually occur when the competition changes strongly, new rules of play apply in the market or a new phase is reached in the life cycle of a company.
  • Innovation and new products, such as the introduction of new products or services; employees must understand them and convey to others. This requires new skills that must be acquired.
  • New technologies, for instance information and production technologies, any tool introduction or creation of mobile documentation; they must be learnt and mastered by the employees.
  • Reorganization and process customization, e.g. new definition of responsibilities and work areas, new regulation of processes of the company due to changed customer requirements or legal requirements; employees or processes have reached their limits. The processes of a company are essential. The company can work effectively and efficiently and fulfill customer requirements only when they function smoothly.
  • Influences in behavior and attitudes, for instance through new employees, a group in the company following specific targets, image management of the company, change in values, changed attitude towards profession and work, closer involvement of users in the text creation process; the behavior and attitudes of employees significantly define what an organization can achieve and how the work climate develops. This continuously gives rise to new requirements.
    • In practice, these points are often closely related. Usually processes also need to be redesigned, when new products or a new technology are introduced. When processes demand changed cooperation between different departments, employees must change their behavior. This often results in a complex conflict situation that makes changes difficult.

    Reactions of employees

    Some people take up changes enthusiastically. Others are basically against all change. Most are reticent and hesitant. The reactions of employees develop during the change process and influence performance. Resistance to imminent change is always to be expected. Employees probably use rational reasons. Or they offer political resistance and stage power plays. The primary resistance is however emotional in nature and very subjective. There are different causes for this:
    • Employees do not understand the sense of the change.
    • Changes are communicated insufficiently.
    • Employees mistrust managers and management.
    • Employees are not actively involved.
    • Company targets and employee targets are generally contradictory.
    • Employees have various fears, e.g. about additional work or personal undermining.
    Subliminal motivations that are in opposition to the officially expressed intentions, forecasts and facts and that are not expressed openly are of greater importance. They are significant drivers of human behavior:
    • Fear of failure
    • Fear of change in itself
    • Fight for status and privileges  
    • Blockades
    • Envy, distrust
    • Fight for power and influence
    • Rivalry
    • Insider relationships
    Technical writers often have the impression of having to sit between stools, being at a disadvantage and having less influence. It is therefore important to get the change process under control and to manage it specifically.

    Designing change successfully

    A successful change process is not a coincidence. Rather, the process can be developed through proven strategies and techniques of so called change management. By change management, we understand the planning of the change processes, their management and monitoring the achievement of the target. A successful change process considers the insecurities and resistance of employees and ensures that the planned change becomes a state in the long term, which is accepted as normal. The objective is to remain master of the change at all times and to steer it, instead of just reacting to circumstances. Because change is a very complex process in companies, many models were developed in theory and in practice, to present the individual steps of change. That they would function exactly as described by their inventors, is rather unlikely: No change can be planned exactly at the outset; the unexpected rears its head latest during the implementation. Nevertheless, a process model or phase plan helps during the conceptual preparation. Moreover this helps to redirect deviations time and again back to the central thread and thus to continue following the target. Considering change as a project and implementing it in four phases – analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring- as a general standard is proven.

    Analysis

    Analysis is the first step and helps to get a picture of all important information that require a change or are related to implementing change and to enable preparing for the difficulties that will occur. Techniques of conducting analysis are, for example:
    • Individual interviews with employees or customers
    • Stakeholder analysis
    • SWOT analysis
    • Blueprinting
    • Functional analysis
    • Key parameter analysis
    • Scenario analysis
    The analysis should be thorough but should not get out of hand. The insights flow into the so called unfreezing, which consists of three steps:
    • Creating awareness of the problem
    • Transforming a consensus on the problem into a consensus on the solution: the most important sources of energy for human action (fear, psychological stress, hope) can grow cooperation and support.
    • Create pressure to act, before the window of opportunity becomes too small: this is important, because the circumstance could otherwise endanger the success of the changes. You can work with risk analysis or horror scenarios here, which must however be believable, since you would otherwise lose the support base.
    • Other proven options are open communication of figures that are usually not accessible, the visualization of available data, customer surveys to obtain external estimations, confrontation with critical customer opinions, employee surveys or involvement of external professional experts.

    Planning

    This phase first includes setting the target and creating the change concept. Targets are best defined clearly according to the SMART principle: specific, measurable, accepted, realistic und timely. There are different change concepts:
    • Top-down – the change process is started from the top management and percolates below.
    • Bottom-up – the change is driven from the below to the top.
    • Countercurrent process – the impulses come from both directions, but can be contradictory.
    • Multiple nucleus strategy – changes are initiated at all levels, but this can lead to chaotic states.
    The change concept is a key factor for successful change management. Managers are often of the opinion that they have to plan, trigger and drive all measures and activities themselves. The employees see themselves as chess pawns or victims, whose opinion is not noticed or simply doesn’t count. However, if employees are involved without receiving clear guidelines, they are directionless. They expect clear statements and concepts from managers, since that is their job, as many employees believe.

    Linking concepts

    Ideally, the top-down and bottom-up approaches are combined. Managers provide targets, guidelines and frameworks and support, honor and encourage. Employees develop their own perceptions towards the change with specific measures and activities that they implement themselves and synchronize with their targets. This ensures that all are involved and can identify with the change as extensively as possible. For technical writers this initially means that they should strive for promoters who would help them to increase support. The focus can be set differently depending on the area of change, phase and requirement. The company culture and the existing leadership style also play a role.

    Revolutionary or evolutionary

    Furthermore, it is necessary to decide whether you are striving for an evolutionary or a revolutionary change. A revolutionary change follows the basic idea, that radical changes can be implemented only in case of high pressure problems. It is fundamental, radical and takes limited time. The management plans rationally and primarily takes the role of the authoritarian doers; the employees are just elements or pawns to be maneuvered. An evolutionary change starts with the basic thought that employees accept change only in steps. The focus lies on efficiency and humanity. It is characterized by development in small steps over an unlimited period of time as continuous process. The management primarily plays the role of the coach and process moderator, the employees are co-creators. In practice, the process usually runs as a mix of both concepts; this depends on the urgency and the scope of the change, the size of the company and the capabilities of the employees. It is important to define the focus for all aspects.

    Like when we build a fire

    Communication is the key factor of change management. It serves to build consensus and advertise the idea, creates contact between the project and those affected and enables dealing with the change. The greater the change, the greater is the need for planned communication. Various communication media and channels support the dispersal of information, e.g. employee magazines, gatherings, project work or the blackboard. They differ in their reach and the impact: Some provide a mere superficial impulse, others have a clear signaling effect, and still others provide the impetus to rethink or cause a direct change in behavior. Even the timing when the employees are included is important. You can imagine it like building a fire: First you ignite the paper that catches fire most easily, then the brushwood for burning continuously, after that the branches and smaller pieces. Changes function in exactly the same way in principle:  First, it is those that are fascinated by the change idea alone that cooperate, followed by those that cross their fingers, who are at first reticent, then the hesitant ones, who first want to know what is happening exactly or would like to see the first successes, and finally when the change appears to be inevitable, even the last of the critics. It has been proved helpful to identify these groups and to involve them specifically in this sequence to continue expanding the support base in a planned, effective manner.

    Implementing and anchoring

    Once the planning is completed, then it is about its implementation. Employees are integrated, motivated and trained, new behaviors are practiced. Especially the last aspect is key to success, when the change is implemented top down. Further training and qualification are to be integrated and communicated as important components at the factual and functional level, to mitigate the fears of employees and to help them to competently fulfill new tasks and roles. Specific measures should be planned for this oriented towards participation and should be conducted immediately. Unfortunately there are many losers during change. They usually feel they have been treated unfairly, not the least with consequences for the working climate. It is therefore important to inform openly about causes, targets and progress of change, to motivate through incentive systems and supportive management behavior, involve employees in the transformation and to support especially those employees who are affected negatively by the change. Next to these, consistency, speed and tact of negotiation also contribute to success as do celebrating and communicating success in the sense of internet marketing.

    Monitoring success

    A comparison of planned versus actual, e.g. based on KPI figures and checklists is recommended at regular intervals, to be informed about the status of development at all times and to be able to countersteer when required. Any deviations can thus be caught with adjustments. QM documentation, nominated process caretakers and a continued exemplary communication secure success.

    Summary

    Mastering change successfully is no coincidence. Much more, it is the result of careful analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring. It is possible to steer at different levels with a project approach and a clever selection of the means, of which just a few could be presented here. However, there is always a winner and a loser in the change processes. For change processes to run successfully, employees should be involved in the change and those that are affected negatively by the changes should be compensated.]]>     international management Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0200     New version of Help & Manual http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/new-version-of-help-manual/ Adobe RoboHelp and MadCap Flare are considered market leaders among authoring tools for online... Image 1: WYSIWYG-Editor with conditional statements and snippets You can adjust the design of the generated online Help as you please using templates for the generated HTML code. Along with online Help in all its usual formats, the software also generates printable manuals as PDF files, including integrated table of contents and index. You can design the layout of a manual with the help of the accompanying “Print Manual Designer”, but with small restrictions. This is the price for the fully automated publication process that generates the PDF directly from the application without detours through Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker. This dispenses with any subsequent manual work. However, you lose the option of making improvements at one or the other place. An example of a publication is seen in Image 2. Image 2: PDF-output with the example of the accompanying user manual

    Small updates free of charge

    Updates between two main versions are included in the price for Help & Manual as is the support by email. Since new main versions appear only once every two to three years, the purchase price includes maintenance for up to three years at the same time. The number of functions added during these updates is remarkable. From version 5.1 to 5.6 these were, for instance:
    • Connection to version control, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe and compatible
    • ePub as additional output format
    • Optional integration of Google Analytics
    • User interface in German;  online Help and manual for the program continue to be in English only
    • Extended command line interface
    • New syntax highlighter for source code documentation
    • Improved full text search for browser based Help (Webhelp), optional PHP or ASP-based
    • Direct import from Microsoft-Sandcastle projects
    • Significantly improved import of RTF files with the option of an automatic format mapping
    • Complete Windows-7 compatibility

    Users of the premium pack additionally received:
    • sortable tables in online Help
    • iPad-skin with touch screen interface for output on mobile devices

    Current innovations

    The producer has remained true to his policy of continuous improvement in small steps even with version 6. Version 6 has less revolutionary aspects, but a lot of useful ones. Some innovation was also overdue. A core area lies in further developing un-compiled browser based Help, which is increasingly replacing the old CHM format in practice. Help & Manual 6 generates HTML5, uses iFrames in place of traditional framesets and integrates jQuery. This can be used to show graphics and videos in lightboxes for instance. The generated source code was optimized for search machines. A sitemap is also generated if required. The generated Help can easily be integrated seamlessly in a website, as demonstrated in the online Help on the website of the producer for instance – Image 3. Image 3: Online Help integrated seamlessly in a website
    The support for the current Help format of VisualStudio 2010, MSHC is a new feature. Export to ePub format was improved, especially for Apple iPad and iPhone. The spelling and grammar check was replaced – a behind the scenes improvement. The new version now works with dictionaries of OpenOffice. This provides a usable spelling and grammar check even for German. The newly added automatic hyphenation for the PDF output is based on the same OpenOffice dictionaries. Along with hyphenation, the PDF output can now cleanly implement multi column layouts when required. However, the text is positioned completely automatically only and manual adjustment is not possible. Therefore side note adjusted next to a paragraph and specific opposing of text and image are not possible. This can be implemented only through tables, if required. You can now manage snippets and format templates in a central library. Another new feature of snippets is that they can now be used as inline elements within a paragraph and no more just as a complete paragraph, as was the case earlier. A graphical user interface is now also available immediately along with the command line interface for the automation of the production process. The “task-based export” compiles several output variants into one “build”. All variables can also be set specific to document and the template to be used can be selected. Image 4: Publish Task
    A useful improvement in the detail is that a paragraph can be selected completely by clicking three-times. The popup that appears automatically directly next to a selected text for formatting simplifies work for all who do not use keyboard shortcuts for formatting. Anyone using many tables will appreciate the option of sorting a table at the press of a button. Icons before expandable sections (Toggles) now disappear automatically in the print output. The time consuming hiding through conditional statements is a thing of the past. There is an option of a new function for hyperlinks, which keeps the link text current, when the title of the target topic changes.

    Herein lie the limitations

    With the link to a version control, with the option of several authors editing a project concurrently, the central library function for snippets and formats and the XML-based translation process Help & Manual is now suited for use in larger projects as well. Small disadvantages continue to exist in the PDF output. The property of not having to or not being able to manually edit the manual output later is both a boon and a bane. Paragraphs can only be kept together with the following paragraph on a page, but not with the preceding paragraph. And in tables this only works within a table cell and not across two rows of a table. The new automatic hyphenation is not yet mature enough. E.g. there is no option for setting the number of characters that must remain in a line at a minimum. The hyphenation also cannot be suppressed for individual words or formats. Similarly, the user cannot define the language of a text. If you are writing a German text for instance, which includes quotes or terms of an English user interface; these texts are hyphenated according to German rules, without you being able to intervene in the process. Just as before, the distance after a paragraph is not to zero automatically, when it is followed by a page break. Sometimes it leads to a page break just before the end of a chapter, although this extra page is not necessary. The function of marking single rows or columns as conditional statements is also missing for tables. Conditional statements are possible only within a table cell. If there is no content available for a production variant, the empty table cell therefore remains. Under certain circumstances you then have to completely duplicate a table due to a small difference between two program versions and maintain both tables separately.

    Vis a vis the competition

    Help & Manual is clearly leaner than RoboHelp and Flare. This is evident right during the installation, which is completed in a few minutes. The program starts quickly and does not need online activation. The familiarity period is comparatively short, the operation simple and the license costs economical. Help & Manual saves all data in XML format, because of which it can also be compiled and processed externally. However, there is no import and export for DITA. The program consciously does not use HTML as source format. Thus it can generate optimized code for the output on individual target media. E.g. Help & Manual generates a completely different HTML format for CHM files as that for Webhelp. The same applies to the export to ePub format. Although this approach limits designing possibilities at one or the other instance, it also saves the author from frustration and precision work. Help & Manual creates manuals exclusively as finished PDF files. A suitable export to Microsoft Word or Adobe Frame Maker does not exist yet. The program does have an RTF export which cleanly reproduces the layout of the manual. However that is not much of an advantage. All drawing formats and paragraph formats are exported “hard” and not with their format assignment. This hardly makes the export suitable for further automated processing. However, a full value export in the DOCX format is planned, according to the producer. Automatic maintenance of glossaries, link groups for links sorted by topics or information types and “mini TOCs” are some functions that users of RoboHelp or Flare will miss. If you would like to achieve the corresponding results notwithstanding, you must implement them manually.

    Summary

    Help & Manual remains the most pragmatic and flexible among Help authoring tools even with the new version. The online Help and the electronic media generated leave almost no wish unanswered. For line and page brakes in printed manuals you must continue to be prepared for one or the other compromises even with the new version. You gain by saving a lot of time you would spend on refined manual formatting.

    Help & Manual 6 – Overview

    Operating systems

    –   Microsoft Windows XP, SP 3; Microsoft Vista; Microsoft 7 (32/64 -Bit)

     

    Price

    –   Professional Edition, approx. EUR 480

    –   Basic Edition, approx. EUR 320

    –   Upgrade from version 5, approx. EUR 160

    –   Upgrade from version 4 or earlier, approx. EUR 230

    –   Premium Pack with ready to use skins for online Helps, approx. EUR 80

    Information and test version

    EC Software GmbH, www.helpandmanual.com

    Alternatives

    –   Flare, approx. US$ 1000, www.madcapsoftware.com

    –   RoboHelp, approx. US$ 1000, www.adobe.com

    –   Doc-To-Help, approx. US$ 1100, www.componentone.com

    –   HelpStudio, approx. Euro 345, www.innovasys.com

    –   Doc-O-Matic, approx. Euro 200 to 1000, www.doc-o-matic.com

    Other alternatives

    –   www.indoition.com/de/online-help-authoring-tools-uebersicht.htm

     
    ]]>     technical communication Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100     The future of online Help http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/the-help-system-of-the-future/ Classical online Help looks old-fashioned today. Features that were once innovative now seem stale...
  • Quick access - Access must be simple and straightfoward for Help content to be noticed at all.
  • Easy orientation - Users need to find their way quickly. Handling must be comfortable. This means easy operation, familiar structure, clear navigation, and attractive presentation.
  • High utility - The information found must be current and helpful.
    • As long as an information product enjoys a certain exclusivity, users will overlook weak points. But as alternatives become available, weaknesses in even one area can cause users to ignore the information product completely.

    What’s wrong with conventional online Help?

    Despite expectations, online Help in its classical form has never really gained traction. Users seek help from other sources instead of using online Help. Often they don’t even know the online Help exists [2]. Why? Unfamiliar source - In the beginning, users could access online Help content through the Table of Contents, Index, Search, and context-sensitive Help. Yet providers continued to deliver the usual printed manuals containing the identical information. So it’s no surprise that users reached for the familiar information source rather than learning something new. Unclear organization - No matter how much effort the author puts into organizing the Help content, users cannot grasp the structure right away. The more comprehensive the online Help, the harder it is for users to find their way. Even context-sensitive Help, online Help’s unique selling point, is of little use, because the displayed topic often does not describe what the user is looking for. Insufficient networking - After online Help came the Internet. Even though the presentation and access options were initially not as good as those of online Help systems, the Web offered exciting possibilities, which until then had not existed in the static, locally installed Help. Obsolete technology - There has been little development in the area of Help platforms over the last twelve years:
    • JavaHelp still supports HTML 4 only rudimentarily
    • Microsoft’s HTML Help is still the official Microsoft Help platform
    • Web-based Help platforms are not standardized and offer little or no support for context-sensitive Help
    Adobe and Microsoft have recently developed new solutions, but neither represents a great breakthrough [6], [7]. Adobe Integrated Runtime, AIR:  With AIR, Web applications can be deployed as standalone clients on mobile devices and desktops outside a browser. Proven Internet technology such as HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash, and ActionScript can be used from any location, across platforms, and without browsers locally on the end device. At first glance, the ability to use Web technology without the security gaps of the Internet seems promising. The world of Help could profit from it as well. Adobe itself offers the Community Help AIR application for its CS5 products. It has optimized search filters, included the option of using Adobe Help and language references offline, and enhanced sophisticated functions for analysis, commenting, and feedback. The major hitch, however, is that users have to install the appropriate AIR runtime environment on the client running the AIR application. This completely contradicts simple operation and will surely prevent the general prevalence of AIR Help.

    Help Viewer

    Help Viewer 1.0 from Microsoft is the new Help platform in Visual Studio 2010, and is purported to take the place of HTML Help. The connection to the Web has improved. The contents continue to be saved locally and are, therefore, available regardless of Web access. A new feature is that the online Help can be displayed by any browser, not just in Internet Explorer as is the case with HTML Help. However, it still requires installation of the appropriate Microsoft Help Viewer. With the exception of the XHTML format for topic contents, Help Viewer (a completely proprietary solution) is unsuitable for broad-based application. 

    What’s next?

    Go mobile

    Smartphones and tablets could be the media that finally earn Help its rightful place. It’s as though these beautiful little devices that accompany us everywhere, all the time were designed to offer Help directly and in an attractive form. Authoring tools such as MadCap Flare and Adobe RoboHelp offer the option of generating Help for mobile devices.

    Stay flexible at the source with DITA

    New media and changing user expectations have led to the creation of Help content that is specific to a single device [8] [9]. This will lead to a variety of variants if similar but not identical devices appear. The problems inherent in this approach are well known. To avoid losing the tried and true single source principle, Help authors should commit to a set of common neutral standards. Topic-based structuring is the established structuring method, and is the only sensible approach for overcoming future challenges [3]. As a standardized XML format for topic-based structuring, DITA is the most suitable basis [5]. Version 1.2 contains numerous enhancements to handle the upcoming challenges:
    • DITA 1.2 offers Help authors attractive options for efficient and clear content management. This includes indirect addressing, definition and use of variables, and even more flexibility in reusing topics, allowing authors to add or exchange topic contents.
    • A separate Help subcommittee drives DITA development for the Help authoring world.
    • Users are increasingly supported by a variety of free and paid tools. Output of DITA sources in ePub format is already possible. There are also Drupal-based wikis that use DITA as the source format. More and more tools are being developed that automatically extract contents from DITA-tagged data for mobile presentation.

    Show, don’t tell

    It is often easier to understand a procedure when it is demonstrated rather than described at length. Today it’s easy to create attractive videos using tools like Adobe Captivate. However, presentations should be organized into short, easily digestible chunks. One to two minutes maximum is recommended.

    Lean and light

    Simple solutions are quicker to create, easier to understand, better to communicate, and easier to change. Users prefer to read and comment on small pieces.  When software is divided into small apps, the documentation must be adapted. We should learn to convey the essentials with as few words as possible, even in Help for complex applications. Users love the simplicity of apps and will reject anything that seems too complicated.   

    Emotion, not depth

    People are daunted by the growing amount of information today; they want you to appeal to their emotions. We need to package and deliver information in a way that attracts users. Apple has identified this trend early. Anyone buying an Apple product, such as an iPhone, gets Help that speaks to their senses.

    Image 1: Help that appeals to the senses [10].
     

    Image 2: Help that makes you want more [10].

    Accompany, don’t command

    Help should speak directly to people in a way that feels pleasant. Dry, impersonal technical language has become the standard for software documentation. But when people interact with each other directly, a different tone reigns. It is more important than ever to find the appropriate language for the target group.
    Image 3: Finding the right tone [10].

    Profiting from the knowledge of others

    Web 2.0 has opened up possibilities for technology that dramatically change the handling of information. Instead of one-way communication and information flows, the focus is on bringing in many participants and profiting from the knowledge of others, enabling people to achieve their goals more quickly. Wikis, blogs, and forums are examples of how knowledge can be exchanged quickly and effectively worldwide without great effort.  As always, technology alone does not guarantee success, as some failed attempts show. Without a plan and maintenance, participatory platforms quickly degenerate into chaotic information dumps or are abandoned due to low participation. Success requires thoughtful adaptation of conventional organization, responsibilities, and tasks.
    Image 4: Everyone can participate – MediaWiki based Help of Comet.
     
    Image 5: Integration of social networking – Wiki Help of Confluence

    Above all, stay close

    The more information is available, the more important it becomes to have direct access to the right information. The best source of information is still a human being who understands what the user needs. Failing that, users will do a Google search. Recently, mobile tagging has enabled direct access without search engines or tedious inputs and connects not just electronic content but also the non-electronic world. 

    References

    [1]    Bertram, M., Closs, S. (2011): Wie geht Single Sourcing für mobile Endgeräte? In: Dok-Magazin, H. Mai/Juni, P. 28–32.
    [2]    Closs, S. (2006): Agil und eXtrem, die Zukunft der Technischen Dokumentation. In: C-Blatt, H. 14, P. 5–7.
    [3]    Closs, S. (2007): Single Source Publishing – Topicorientierte Strukturierung und DITA. entwickler.press, München.
    [4]    Closs, S. (2009): Technische Dokumentation im Wandel
    [5]    DITA 1.2 Spezifikation (10.9.2011)
    [6]    Thiemann, P./Platz, Ch. (2010): Neues Hilfeformat in den Startlöchern? In: technische kommunikation, H. 4, P. 40–42.
    [7]    Thiemann, P./Platz, Ch. (2010): Luftnummer oder neues Hilfeformat? In: technische kommunikation. H. 3, P. 41–45.
    [8]    Uhrig, M. (2010): Zeigen statt Beschreiben. In: technische kommunikation. H. 4, P. 27–32.
    [9]    Ully, F./Häberle, M. (2010): Dokumentation mit Touch. In: Newsletter zur tekom-Jahrestagung. H. 2, P. 2/3.
    [10]   www.apple.com/iphone/features/
facetime.html ]]>     technical communication Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100     Arabic in a nutshell http://www.tcworld.info/rss/article/arabic-in-a-nutshell/ With more than 300 million speakers around the world, Arabic is a language that certainly can’t be... A brief history of the Arabic language Arabic is the only surviving member of the North Arabian languages used in the fourth century and is a descendant of the Classical Arabic language of the sixth century. The Arabic language was preserved because it is the language of Islam’s holy book “Al-Qur’an” and Islamic prayers cannot be completed without correctly reading parts of “Al-Qur’an”. Arabic is also used in prayers in some Christian churches in Arab regions. Arabs now use the Modern Standard Arabic, which is the language derived from the Classical Arabic of “Al-Qur’an”. It is the language taught in schools and universities, and used by the media as well as in varying degrees in business and government. There are different spoken dialects among Arab countries to the extent that Arabs from the Gulf may not understand their peers from Morocco when they use their spoken dialects, but this does not apply to written Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic is the one written language that every Arabic person can understand. The Hijri calendar (Muslim calendar) is a lunar calendar that consists of 12 lunar months, which makes a year of 354 or 355 days. The Hijri calendar is used as an official calendar in some Arab countries and is used to determine the date of many events and holidays in Arab and Muslim countries. Weekends in Arab countries are different from Europe and the U.S.. The majority of Arab countries have Friday and Saturday as a weekend, others Thursday and Friday. Friday is a common weekend day across all Arab countries because Friday is a holy day for Muslims. Accordingly, the week starts either on Saturday in some countries or on Sunday in others.

    Cultural aspects

    Arab communities represent the majority of the Middle East region and these communities have a common distinct culture developed mainly by language, religion and major traditions of a conservative nature. There are differences in the level of openness between Arabic countries. Some are open, the majority is moderate, and others are conservative. Different levels of openness are mainly represented within specific categories of the communities and regardless of these differences in openness there is still a common ground of traditions across all Arab countries. There are some cultural restrictions on types of content and media, and in some countries these restrictions are not merely cultural, but also legal. Arabic culture is intrinsically linked to Islam, therefore, conservative values should be carried over into any advertising or marketing strategy that is to be implemented in Arabic cultures. For example, ads should focus on the quality and functionality of a product instead of making comparisons with other products.

    Linguistic challenges

    In accordance with the above mentioned factors, localization of content requires taking special care of sensitive issues like photos, gambling, nudity as well as some other kind of content that is not acceptable for the majority of these communities. So, the localization team takes on the critical role of bridging the cultural gap between Western and Arab communities, encouraging mutual understanding and resolving conflicts. Localization and translation into Arabic requires understanding both the linguistic and cultural differences between Arabic and Latin languages. There are some notable features that differentiate Arabic from Latin languages:
    1. The writing direction is right-to-left (RTL), horizontally.
    2. Arabic is a bidirectional language (BiDi), which means that in one sentence there may be both Arabic and Latin words each flowing in their correct direction RTL and LTR.
    3. Arabic requires logical-to-physical transformation algorithm where text is entered in logical order and the output appears in a physical order. Unicode layout algorithm is applied (Bi-Di).
    4. The Arabic keyboard has to have two languages Arabic and English.
    5. More than one key stroke may be used to write one letter.
    6. The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters plus 8 diacritics called in Arabic “Tashkeel”.
    7. The diacritics are used for correct pronunciation since the same word may have different meanings or tenses.
    8. Diacritics are typed after each respective letter and appear above or underneath the letter. Font type affects their display.
    9. Arabic has no capitalization, alternatively single/double quotes may be used to compensate the absence of the capitalization feature in Arabic.
    10. The Arabic letters may be linked or separate; in initial, final or medial position; or isolated. One word can contain five linked letters. Letters may also acquire different shapes according to their position in the word. Moreover, two letters may be combined to give one shape.
    11. The fact that Arabic letters are linked to form words leads to another fact that acronyms and abbreviations are not supported in Arabic.
    12. Two numbering formats are used in Arabic. Contrary to Arabic letters, numerals are written left-to-right. The reading order of numbers whether Arabic or Hindi is also left-to-right (LTR).
    13. There are two formats for calendars: Gregorian and Hijri (Islamic Lunar year).
    14. Nouns have more than one form: singular, plural, dual. Each form differentiates between masculine and feminine. In other words, Arabic has six forms of the noun.

    Technological challenges

    Having a totally different nature compared to Latin languages, Arabic faces many challenges when it comes to technology. It usually requires special handling on all levels, starting from the layout of the software windows to the workflow system. The direction of layout items (dialogs, buttons, scroll bars, rulers, columns, menu bars and tables) has to be reversed; to be right-to-left aligned. In some cases, photos and images require flipping. In addition, most software used, whether for localization or for desktop publishing, is Latin languages-oriented. This entails creating workarounds to solve issues. Coupled with the fact that Arabic has a different nature in handling, some tools do not support BiDi languages. This poses extra challenges. DTP work has always been a major concern in Arabic as it requires intensive labor. Automatic features made for Latin languages usually have to be done manually on Arabic. Glossary sorting, indexing, links & cross reference creation are good examples when speaking about manual work. Furthermore, some testing features for errors (duplicate hot keys, spelling checks, corrupted characters, translation quality, etc.) are not working in Arabic or do not give an accurate result. In terms of machine translation, Arabic translation quality is poor. Up until now, many attempts have been made for a proper machine translation tool, but the results never met the expected level. Being a highly inflectional, complex language at both the morphological and syntactic levels, it becomes difficult to adapt tools used for other languages to translate Arabic texts. As tools are also underdeveloped, words may be incorrectly translated, translated in a disparate manner or missing the context. In addition, to the above-mentioned challenges, some standard character sets do not support Arabic. Consequently, Arabic characters don't appear correctly. Unicode and UTF-8 are the most common encoding standards that fully support Arabic. The latest version of Unicode includes rules for the correct display of BiDi languages.

    Arabic business culture

    To conduct business in the Arab world, it’s equally important to understand the Arabic business culture, which has its own set of unspoken rules and expectations. Neglecting these rules and customs of the region can be detrimental to your business. A conscious awareness of how the Arab culture is different from other cultures is essential for business and to facilitate client relations, media training, and message appeals. Arabic communication relies on symbols, emotional resonance and language used to create social experience. Arabic culture is a high-context culture which depends on how much meaning is found in the context versus in the language code. Thus, the listener must understand the contextual cues in order to grasp the full meaning of the message. The Arabic culture also prefers indirect, ambiguous communication styles, and words may be tied more to emotions rather than concrete realities.

    Business opportunities

    There is a rising demand for e-commerce and Arabic content services in the Arab world. According to Google, only 2% of web content is in Arabic, although Arabic speakers account for 5% of global Internet users. The majority of investments that emerge in the IT sector are related to developing content in Arabic and promoting e-commerce. In addition, there are also other fields with opportunities for growth, such as animation and mobile apps. There is a huge potential for the growth of Arabic mobile applications and localization in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) due to the following reasons:
    • Most mobile applications today do not support Arabic encoding or Right-to-Left text.
    • Mobile apps with Arabic UI will be increasing rapidly as smart phones (iPhone and BlackBerry currently lead the region’s market for smart phones) are growing in the Arabic market. Smart phones will have a 50% market share in the region by 2015 for mobile devices.
    • iPhone, BlackBerry and Android support Arabic reading and typing. Google is working on native Arabic support for Android.
    • Google has promised the development of a paid Android market for the MENA region, as a free app market is already available.
    • Mobile application usage and downloads in the Arab world: 50% from Nokia, 30% from Apple phones.
    • Saudi Arabia is the number one mobile broadband community in the Arab world based on subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.
    The Arabic market is classified one of the fastest growing markets in the world. The number of Arabic Internet users has grown by 2,500% since the year 2000, and currently Arabic is the seventh most important language on the Internet based on the number of users. The Arabic market has an increasing demand of IT hardware and software, and lots of investments are made in sectors such as education, infrastructure, health and real estate. Arabic governments are annually investing billions of USD on IT, automation, e-learning, e-government, and Arabic content programs. Recent revolutions (Arabic Spring) in many Arab countries were initiated by youth and are expected to bring up new revolutionary governments that will tend to re-construct their countries during the next few years. The youth and middle aged people who used the latest technologies in initiating and managing the revolutions are expected to use the same level of technology to build their dream countries. ]]>     business culture Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100