Authoring assistants and content management strategy

[Gina Wadley]

I just installed SDL's AuthorAssistant for FrameMaker.  Does anyone have any experience with this or any other type of authoring assistant tool?  We're looking at this as part of our content management strategy.  We're testing DITA with FrameMaker as well.  We haven't committed to a CMS yet.

 

Thanks.

 

Gina G. Wadley, M.Ed.
Technical Writer

http://www.ifcatscouldwrite.com

Secretary, STC International SIG

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." -- Thomas Jefferson

[Bill Swallow]

I have a little bit of experience with AuthorAssistant. I assume you
already have a SDL TMS to reflect upon?

On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 2:40 PM, Gina Wadley <ginafr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I just installed SDL's AuthorAssistant for FrameMaker.  Does anyone have any
> experience with this or any other type of authoring assistant tool?  We're
> looking at this as part of our content management strategy.  We're testing
> DITA with FrameMaker as well.  We haven't committed to a CMS yet.

--
Bill Swallow

Twitter: @techcommdood
Blog: http://techcommdood.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommdood

[Gina Wadley]

Bill,

I just commented on your blog:  http://techcommdood.com/techcommdood/sdl-author-assistant-now-free-plugin-for-framemaker/comment-page-1/

I’m having a problem testing the AuthorAssistant 2010/FrameMaker plugin (I'm using FM 10). I’m trying to associate my translation memory files (tmx) that were created with Trados from Lionbridge. However, the AuthorAssistant is asking for a user name and password (even though my files are local on my hard drive). I’ve contacted Lionbridge and searching SDL's online help, Web site, and customer portal (knowledge base).  The only options in the AuthorAssistant for translation memories locally seem to me .tmw and .sdltm files.  I just have .tmx files.  If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Thanks!

Gina

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[Bill Swallow]

It looks like AuthorAssistant works with FM 9 (info on SDL's website).
Also, the login prompt is likely for SDL Global Authoring Management
System, which is what the AuthorAssistant needs to talk to in order to
work. I don't believe it functions as a stand-alone plug-in for
FrameMaker that you can use with individual .tmx files. It's a conduit
for leveraging the content you have stored in their management system.

[Gina Wadley]

Bill,

It does work with FM 10 (which I'm using).  This is where I found it:  http://www.sdl.com/en/language-technology/landing-pages/adobesdl/default.asp

It doesn't specifically say you have to have their Global Authoring Management System, but it apparently it only works with SDL TM files.  In the Supported TMs and Termbases help topic, it only lists SDL translation memories, such as SDL Trados 2009, and SDL termbases, such as SDL MultiTerm 2009.

This is from the online help in the "How Does It Work" topic:  "You can use both SDL Trados, SDLX and SDL WorldServer translation memories in translation memory checks. SDLX and SDL Trados translation memories can be local or server-based."

I found the dialog to associate the tmx file to be used as for the Auto Suggest feature. (In FM, select Auto Suggest Lists from the SDL AuthorAssistant menu.  Then click Add.  On the Welcome screen of the dialog, select your TMX file.)  This is what I really wanted to use. But you still have to enter the translation memory password on the Configuration dialog (Translation Memory tab). 

It would have nice to be able to use it with any tmx file.

Thanks for responding so fast.  At least now we know.

Gina

[Mazet, Jean-Luc (LES - Austin)]

I have experience with building rules and profiles for our company. So let me know directly if you need some guidance.

 

Regards,

Jean-Luc

[Bill Swallow]

Interesting. There seems to be some conflict with what it actually
does and how it should be used vs how they advertise it. I haven't
used it in years, and it was with their localization management
system. If you have a SDL TM product, you should be able to consume
the tmx and produce a SDL formatted TM file. AA's limitations in that
regard are likely to ensure you're already invested in SDL technology
in order to use their free tool.

[Gina Wadley]

SDL owns Trados, right?  I'll check with a colleague who has a license for Trados and see if she can produce the SDL formatted TM file.  (I was under the impression that most translators use Trados...)

[Bill Swallow]

SDL does own Trados. The market is shifting a bit as SDL consumes
technology and new technology pops up. There's a growing adoption of
MemoQ as of late. Regardless, if your company uses SDL TM technology
in house, you can consume pretty much any TM format.

[Gina Wadley]

Thanks, Bill.  I'm doing some quick research about authoring memory tools to compare with SDL's AuthorAssistant as it applies to the auto suggestion feature.  I was really trying to develop a content strategy where we can reuse our user docs content (we may be converting it all to FrameMaker from RoboHelp and Flare).  We're testing a DITA XML conversion but before we go much further, I want to make sure we can search and retrieve the content we want to reuse.  I'm not even sure if the authoring memory tool is what we need.  Maybe there are CMSs that have them built in.  

[Breeding, Todd]

The oxygen editing tool has very good capability for managing interaction with database systems (or CMS). If your goal is to have a metadata scheme or some other method to search for and reuse data, make sure something in your tool chain supports this. I don’t use Frame, so am not sure of its capability in this area.

 

I tend to think if Author Assistant and other tools like Hyper STE as Quality tools used to enforce use of terms and language rules (with focus on writing in preparation for translation), which help improve your translation memory, overall consistency, cost, use and attribution of trademarks, etc… We use these on the front end during the authoring process, not during translation. Good English authoring = good translation.  

 

Not sure this was exactly on topic, but I hope it helps.

 

toddb

[Gina Wadley]

I just posted the results of the SDL AuthoringAssistant test on my blog:  http://www.ifcatscouldwrite.com/2011/06/16/review-of-sdl-authorassistant-2010-for-framemaker-9-and-10/.  I didn't get very far without the SDL translation memory file types (I only have .tmx files).