It's complicated enough having to design, develop and implement e-learning solutions but when your company requires that all documentation and training be translated into the "other" official language your job just got a lot more challenging. My workplace uses Lectora to create our e-learning SCORM packages that integrate with our LMS. Now, I'm not a programmer, I am an instructional designer, which makes me very aware that there is likely a technically more savvy way of doing this – but I don't yet know what it is. I worked with an E-Learning course vendor over the last 9 months and they were able to use some type of scripting to extract the text from a module, the problem however is that they wanted the translators to use WORDPAD (not Word, or WordPerfect, or OpenOffice) because any "real" word processor would cause formatting issues and cause their developers more man hours-so for the inconvenience we did as they asked, but I have paid the price with one translator who will now no longer work with us because the project was, in their words "HELL". My big problem was that with the exception of some Office 2007 Word SmartArt that I used, I created everything in Lectora. All the text is in Lectora text box objects. If you are not familiar with Lectora, think of creating a PowerPoint presentation. You may use text box objects and graphics and layer them to create the look you want. Each box is an independent object and each box would need to be translated and then put back where it belongs. When you create text in Lectora, there is not an easy way to export that text or, for that matter, to IMPORT the translated text into the correct location. For those of you that know me, you know I like to cheat when it comes to working with computer applications. I'm always looking for shortcuts and I've had to do a fair amount of tweaking to my process, so here is what currently works for me. I'm sure this process will continue to evolve for me as I become more familiar with Lectora, or develop programming skills, or find another E-learning tool to assist me, but for now, I'm happy and my translators are as well! If you have some tips on helping to make translation processes successful or streamlined, please leave us a comment and let us know your tips!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Translation Blues
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