RE: Ampersands in TOC and headers?

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Janice Gelb wrote: 

> We go the other way: most contractions are
> ok but we don't use ampersands.

Kat Kuvinka replied: 
 
> Both should be avoided if you are localizing.
 
Why? I can't speak to ampersands (although I'm pretty sure the same
argument applies) and, admittedly, I have limited experience with
localization. But our vendor seems to have no trouble translating can't,
don't, isn't, it's, they're, and you're. 

I can't imagine why these common English contractions would present any
difficulty; even the initial machine translation should be able to
handle them. 

I certainly don't buy the idea that a competent translator would be
confused about what "don't" means. If you know what the contraction
means and know the target language, why would it be any harder to
translate "don't" than "do not"? 


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------










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