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> These softwares are quite complex and each
> manual requires
> at least 30-40 screen captures in the reference section of
> the manual to
> explain all menus and dialog boxes in detail. Each manual will also be
> translated to up to 10 languages, which means that I will
> need to carry out
> approx. 600-1200 screen captures in total (all translations
> included). I am
> not looking forward to it.
.
> Two questions:
.
> 1. Is there an easier way to do this, one that I am
> overlooking? I can't
> imagine that Adobe or Microsoft or any other large software
> company have 10
> persons sitting in a room all day doing screen captures for
> their manuals,
> in 25 different languages?
>
> 2. If there is no easier way, does anyone know if there is
> there a screen
> capturing software around that creates an autonumber when you save the
> image? That would save me some time, since I save all image files (and
> document files) with a prefix + a sequential number.
Would it make any sense to "fake" your own
screen-shots with a drawing program -- or
even with the toolkit that the developers
used? With that approach, you'd use just
a few re-usable "picture" elements, plus
the text that populates those elements
(buttons, fields, labels...), and then
you -- or someone -- could do the same
when that text was translated.
Using that approach (usually with a vector-
based tool) also gives you the option of
"zooming" selected portions of your fake
displays without loss of quality, as might
be expected with bitmaps.
After all, when your company's developers
create their screens and dialogs, they don't
make much use of bitmaps. They use lists,
tables and databases of text, which they
associate with tags and other markers of
graphic elements, and then the toolkit
(or Windows...) draws the result on the
screen.
There's got to be some approach less numbing
to the soul than capturing hundreds or thousands
of screens... and trying to keep track of them
all.
If your work is going to be translated, then
may we assume that the software is also being
translated? That's another argument for the
approach I'm outlining above, since the translated
text gets put into the GUI-magic-making-toolkit
at some point, to make each of those other language
versions. No reason it can't be applied to your
task.
/kevin
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