My workflow sucks! Please help.

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

I don't know if it's my workflow but I'm having a severe problem because there are going to be a lot more requests in the near future for changes in images that are placed in our instruction manuals.

This post was written with the intent to give you as much details as possible. I anticipate giving details will help you help me. What I would like to seize are some suggestions on what should be done to eliminate a links problem I am having with my publications.

Introduction

At my place of employment I'm a Technical Writer. My duties include project coordination of manuals that must be translated from English to other languages. To do this, I must take the InDesign 3.0.1 English version of our books and package them for a service provider. This is not a problem at this point but it becomes a problem when the finished product is returned in the target language.

File source

These publications include EPS images of diagrams created in AutoCad and exported as a PLT. The PLT files are then imported to CorelDraw where a new (English) layer is created and the call-outs are then re-typed as text (as opposed to using outlines). The CorelDrawing is exported to EPS which is what we use for our InDesign Publications since it can’t accept Corel files.

File naming

These EPS images are stored on a hard disk in our network. The naming convention used is related to the machine model number. Diagrams are stored under different paths/directories according to each different type to easily locate them when they’re needed.

The names of each diagram will contain an ISO language identifier key. File naming shall follow established conventions for uniqueness:
1. InDesign book and document files (Manuals and Product Specifications) — append filename with language ID.
2. CorelDraw files — follow filename with language ID.
3. EPS files (exported from CorelDraw) — follow filename with language ID.

File naming examples:
Original
32en.indb
11_05en.indd
11-53.cdr

English
32en.indb
11_05en.indd
11-53en.eps

Hungarian
32hu.indb
11_05hu.indd
11-53hu.eps

The end of the file name is the code letter of the language for the specific active layer. We append changes to the existing file in a separate layer so no CorelDraw files are created or deleted for each language.

The setback

Using this file naming technique and directory creation is efficient and proven to work for us perfectly when File>Package isn’t used. When a publication is saved for a service provider the linked files are no longer associated in any way to the files on our network.

The Good; we will no longer need to depend on the files stored on the network and if Indy says the links are lost or missing we can easily point to the “Links” folder and it will find and fix them all.

The Bad; when I am asked to make changes to a diagram for our manuals. The changes do not affect all publications using the same EPS file name because the publications are not linked to the EPS’s stored in the network.

Is there some way I can easily restore the references in the links manager back to native directories?

The Ugly; I think what I may have to do is copy the EPS files included with the returned publications, overwrite existing files on our network (if any) and re-link everything back to the files on our network manually for each publication returned. That just seems like way too much work! 8o There has to be another way!!!

Someone please HELP! I’m losing my mind with these requests for new changes in diagrams.

[Amy_Stewart@adobeforums.com]

Maybe I didn't understand this part: are the translated versions coming back with modified EPS files? If the EPS files are being modified by the translation service, then your cumbersome method seems the only way I know of to hook it all back together again.

But if they are only modifying the ID file, then how about not sending them any links at all-- just the ID file with the FPO screen images? Then when they send you back the ID file, just put it over your existing ones, all links intact.

My other thought is to not do the different language layers within CorelDraw, but rather within ID. That way, each diagram will have a link to a single Corel file, and all language versions will be contained within a single ID file using layers. Then you'd only have 1 image asset to manage instead of multiples.

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

are the translated versions coming back with modified EPS files?




Yes, the EPS images have call-out tags in English that need to be translated.

But if they are only modifying the ID file, then how about not sending
them any links at all-- just the ID file with the FPO screen images?




Unfortunately for me, not only do I need to send them the linked files but I also need to send them the CorelDraw files so they can edit the text, export to EPS and replace the existing EPS images with images containing text in the target language.

My other thought is to not do the different language layers within CorelDraw,
but rather within ID. That way, each diagram will have a link to a single
Corel file, and all language versions will be contained within a single
ID file using layers. Then you'd only have 1 image asset to manage instead
of multiples.




Huh? I don't get it. How are we supposed to change the languages in ID for the EPS images? It's not as simple as adding the call-outs (comments) in ID because I look ahead to someone requesting me to add or remove some lines of text from the manual. If and when this happens it’s going to cause the text in the story to flow more or less and everything will shift. That would mean that if the change was made someplace near the beginning of the chapter then all the text is going to need to be moved for that diagrams.

Open an instruction manual and look at the way it’s laid out. You may see these things. (a) Title page, (b) Summary and Keywords, (c) Introduction, (d) Materials and Methods, (e) Results, (f) Discussion, (g) Acknowledgements, (h) References, (i) Tables, (j) Figures and captions.

When you look at the figures/diagrams in the document you will notice that the text in those is not part of the story. When I put the story together in the publication, all the figures are placed as inline graphics in a style called “figure anchor”.

Please explain what you meant. I’m unsure I’ve understood what you’ve suggested.

PS
Making layers in ID for each language would be unreasonable.

A. It would increase the files size of each publication

B. When packaged for a service provider, the package will contain links from all the languages and may cause chaos.

C. If by some dubious chance a file becomes corrupt, I will lose all the languages and have to pay one of our translation service providers to re-do the lost chapters.

I know all this because I've tried that once and I saw the problems coming after completing the first chapter of a book in layers. I had to abandon that idea real quick. :/

[JohnO@adobeforums.com]

> Huh? I don't get it. How are we supposed to change the languages in ID for
the EPS images?

Gabriel,

We do call-outs in ID like this all the time, complete with arrows and such.
The images are NOT inline; the story flows around them. Add all the text you
want, the callouts stay in the same place, pointing to an image underneath.
I can send you an example...

-John O

[Michael_S._Flynn@adobeforums.com]

I'm not sure I'm following the workflow exactly, but it seems to me that the inefficiency is arising from the filenaming conventions for the EPS files. Rather than renaming the EPS files, couldn't you just rename the folder?

Suppose you create a manual in English. You have a folder named for it, ThisManual_en. Inside that folder is another folder called ThisManual EPS Files. You don't name the EPS files themselves with any language tag, or the folder they are in, just the primary folder that holds the ID file and the EPS files folder. When you're ready to send out the files for translation, you copy the ThisManual_en folder and rename it ThisManual_hu. Then you rename the ID file from ThisManual_en.indd to ThisManual_hu.indd. You send out the files for translation and when you get them back, you just copy the EPS files into the ThisManaul EPS Files folder that's inside the ThisManual_hu folder, overwriting the existing files. When you open the translated ThisManual_hu.indd file, all the EPS translated files are still linked because the filename wasn't changed.

[Amy_Stewart@adobeforums.com]

That sounds like a beautifully simple solution to me!

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

Add all the text you want, the callouts stay in the same place, pointing
to an image underneath.
I can send you an example...





I'm curious to see what you are talking about but this won't work for me in this particular situation (I will explain why later). You will have to send it to my personal account and I can check it out later. OmniFX @ email dot com

Rather than re-naming the EPS files, couldn't you just rename the folder?




No, there are diagrams used for different models of machinery therefore when one diagram is changed, it will change for all the manuals that have that diagram all at the same time.

If I create a manual for an X unit and another for an Y unit, there are some diagrams that can and are used in the manual for the Y unit.

A lot of these are used in several models and IMO it may not be the best idea to have a different folder filled with links for each of these manuals when the number of EPS files can be reduced to less than 30% of the files that would reside on the network if I were to save a folder such as "ThisManual EPS Files".

This is part of the reason why we have a rule to never re-size an image. This is due to the fact that we use the same images for different manuals.

Are you following me and does it sound like I am doing something wrong?

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

Maybe Amy was right all along.

your cumbersome method seems the only way I know of to hook it all back
together again




:(

What a pain in the @55! I need to take a vacation...

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

I can send you an example...




Are you using version 3.0 and did you send the file yet? You probably sent a PDF, if so never mind the version.

Thanks!

[JohnO@adobeforums.com]

> Are you using version 3.0 and did you send the file yet? You probably sent
a PDF, if so never mind the version.

Sent an v2 ID file, about 1.2 MB. It didn't bounce... send me a message and
I'll reply: johno <at> heathkit <dot> com.

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

Sent an v2 ID file, about 1.2 MB. It didn't bounce...




Ok cool, I can open that.

send me a message and I'll reply: johno <at> heathkit com




I can't do that until I get out of here. I'm at work right now so I'll check my mail tonight and try to respond by tomorrow.

Thanks!

[Michael_S._Flynn@adobeforums.com]

A lot of these are used in several models and IMO it may not be the best
idea to have a different folder filled with links for each of these manuals
when the number of EPS files can be reduced to less than 30% of the files
that would reside on the network if I were to save a folder such as "ThisManual
EPS Files".




I kind of thought that would be the case. Is adding space to the network a problem? If you were to do a cost analysis of the time it takes to do things the way you are doing now compared to the cost of more storage space, what would be more cost effective?

[Gabriel_Ayala@adobeforums.com]

Is adding space to the network a problem?




Actually the space provided for me on the network is 478GB. It's more than plenty for what I am doing.

BUT! I think I got this figured out.

When I put in a request for a document to be translated I am including a diagram of our directory structure explaining to the service providers that this is where InDesign will look for all the links.

The files I submit are going to be saved with a replicated version of the directory structure so when I get the files back all I have to do is copy the files in the directories back to our folders on the network.

If I get an error (I shouldn’t) from ID telling me that the links are missing all I have to do is update the darn things and it should go pretty smooth. All I may need to do is change the drive letter to match theirs when I am updating the links if I have to do that.

The directories are something like this.
K:\
-___TechnicalPublishing
……|
……+Corel
……|
……+EPS
……|
……-___ID
………|
………-___Manuals
…………|
…………+RS-50S
…………|
…………-___RS-68
……………|
……………-___Portuguese
……………|
……………-___Russian
…………|
…………+RS-2010S
…………+RS-3010S

Hope that weak attempt of a diagram in ASCII looks ok.