The document summarizes a case study where a medical device manufacturer used Adobe FrameMaker 9 and DITA to reduce costs of multilingual documentation and translation. They created a single structured template that could publish documents in 27 languages by controlling formatting with XML attributes for elements. This allowed automatic publishing of manuals through processing instructions and saved chapters in native XML format. It reduced project time and costs by 25-50% compared to previous processes.

1. Reduce multilingual DTP and translation costs with FrameMaker 9 and DITA October 12, 2010 Highlights of a case study by Globalization Partners International www.globalizationpartners.com

9. Traditional vs. new FM workflow Project A: “traditional” model of Docs saved as binary structured FM files with formatting w/in FM files Project B: “new” model of Structured FM book has docs saved as XML files with formatting drawn from external files

12. Traditional FM template solutions for multiple languages One template with multiple, language-specific prefixed-paragraphs mapped to elements or 27 language specific templates … both solutions lead to high maintenance with multiple, “look alike” formats

13. EDD Format Rules automate DTP w/o language-specific tags One set of paragraph styles get modified on language basis to change prefixes, indents, fonts, etc. Hungarian text for “Note:” Indent is modified on language basis for text expansion

14. Paragraphs used by new EDD: Lang Attributes controls para prefixes Eliminated use of 189 language-specific paragraph formats

28. Summary, Q & A