Otometrics has been using Madcap Flare for their technical documentation production since 2010. A large volume of FrameMaker projects were converted into Flare and numerous new projects have been added since. At the time of writing (July 2014), Otometrics has 260 Flare projects, most of them translated into 17 languages. Within a foreseeable future, this number increases to about 400 Flare projects and the number of languages increases to 24. With such a high volume and so many languages, Otometrics has optimized and automated the entire documentation process with Flare. Not only are they using Flare’s powerful single sourcing features, but they have also created custom code using FinalBuilder and integration code to Perforce.

1. •Typographer, graphical designer, writer, train & teach
• B2B, U2U, Translation & translation management
• 28 years of documentational experience
• ACE: FrameMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop, CorelDRAW, InDesign
The
setup
The
challenge
The
solution
The
output
The
facts +
Thomas Bro-Rasmussen
Localization Manager, Otometrics
www.otometrics.com
computer-based audiological,
otoneurologic and vestibular
instrumentation
Automating and managing multiple
projects in a multilingual environment

2. The
setup

3. Who &
Where
The
setup
TechWriter
Software
Development
TechWriter TechWriter
Localization
Manager
Software
Development
Build license HQ

4. HierachyA project
The
setup
Product
Language
Language
Language
Project

5. Anatomy
of a projectA project
The
setup
Project

6. images
External
resources
projects
A project
css, vars, condi, layouts snippets
The
setup
Common design files
Project
Common content files

7. Perforce
The
setup
Content
Project
Project
Content
Project
Project
Output
Analyzer
Filesync
Reconcile

8. The
challenge
If any element exists
more than once it is per
definition not single
sourced any more – and
needs to be dealt with
accordingly
Single
source

9. Base infoOtometrics.CSS
The
challenge
p.x_note
{
background-color: #e3e4e4;
}
96%
common
content for
all projects
Common entries

10. mc-breadcrumbs-prefix: ':: ';
mc-breadcrumbs-prefix: ':: Astera2 >';
mc-breadcrumbs-prefix: ':: Xeta > ';
mc-auto-number-format: 'Caution';
mc-auto-number-format: '¡Precaución! ';
mc-auto-number-format: '小心';
Special info
Language dependency
Otometrics.CSS
The
challenge
Project dependency

11. In built file: <p class=“docnumber”>Dok. Nr. 7-50-1220-dk/03</p>
In built file: <p class=“docnumber”>文件编号 7-50-1220-cn/03</p>
On disk: 7-50-1220-dk_03.pdf
On disk: 7-50-1220-en_03.pdf
Other content
The
challenge
OutputFile="7-50-1220-xx_yy.pdf"
<p class="docnumber”>Doc. no 7-50-1220-xx/yy</p>
Target dependency
Content awareness

12. Realize that . . .
The
challenge
We have good rules & many exceptions

13. GOAL
The
challenge
Take single sourcing to the limit
Increase amount of projects
Reduce translation costs
Reduce human errors
Get better buildtimes

14. The
solution
We realized that we had to go beyond
Flare’s capabilities – yet using the open
XML structure for something good

15. Quickie
The
solution
Flare
Merged info
Builds

16. Software
Perforce
Final Builder
Flare Projects
Final
outputs
Common info
Flare projects
Workspace
Version
management
Build
Machine
PLM
(Agile)
Overview
The
solution

17. <Terms>
<Name>Caution</Name>
<Translation>
<BR>Cuidado</BR>
<CN>小心</CN>
<CZ>Upozornění</CZ>
<DE>Vorsicht</DE>
<DK>Forsigtig</DK>
<ES>¡Precaución!</ES>
<FA> ‫احتیاط‬</ FA>
<FI>Huomautus</FI>
<FR>Attention</FR>
<GB>Caution</GB>
<IT>Attenzione</IT>
<NL>Opgepast</NL>
<NO>Forsiktig</NO>
<PT>Atenção</PT>
<RU>Внимание</RU>
<SE>Försiktig</SE>
<TR>Dikkat</TR>
<US>Caution</US>
</Translation>
</Term>
Core information
The
solution
English source
Localized term
• All central information used in
various places in css, variables,
snippets, topics are drawn from
XML files
• Information is merged into
relevant files during build
Sections
<General settings>
<Projects>
<Products>
<ManualTypes>
<Languages>
<Terms>
<CSSTerms>

18. FinalBuilder
The
solution
FinalBuilder is an integrated tool for
carrying out software builds on the
Windows platform (wiki)

19. MANUAL BUILD
1: Starts Final Builder
2: Select options
3: Runs Flare in Command Line
4: Builds
Building targetsFinalBuilder
The
solution
AUTOMATIC BUILD
1: Starts at 4AM
2: Purges all data from previous build
3: Gets latest version of all from Perforce
4: Analyzes settings file
5: Merges all relevant data (XML)
6: Runs Flare in Command Line
7: Builds

20. FinalBuilder
The
solution

21. The log fileFinalBuilder
The
solution

22. The
output
Same procedure as . . .
due to FDA , regualtory and company requirements.
Except we changed from CHM to HTML5

23. Same file – different storage
7-50-1200-EN_01.pdf
7-50-1220-EN_01.pdf
7-50-1230-EN_01.pdf
7-50-1240-EN_02_color.pdf
7-50-1270-EN_00.pdf
7-50-1280-EN_00.pdf
7-50-1300-EN_00.pdf
7-50-1310-EN_00.pdf
7-50-1330-EN_00.pdf
7-50-1350-EN_00.pdf
AirCal User Guide.pdf
Astera User Guide.pdf
AURICAL Aud User Guide.pdf
AURICAL FreeFit User Guide.pdf
AURICAL HIT User Guide.pdf
AURICAL Visible Speech User Manual.pdf
Itera II User Manual.pdf
MADSEN Capella User Guide.pdf
MADSEN OTOflex 100 User Manual.pdf
All from
one source
The
output
Directly to software build (DVD)
(we have users off the web !)

24. Otometrics documents
The
facts
487
Apr Oct Types
33 90 User manuals
8 9 Service manuals
5 5 Quick Guides
3 11 Installation manuals
12 15 Reference manuals
32 117 User Guides
0 30 Help Files
42 43 Products
37 37 Languages (23 active)

25. Some factsRoom . .
We have to copy/control We need
Dec, 2012 March, 2013 October 2013
Design CSS 96 109 (1) 1
Tables CSS 542 665 (5) 5
Snippets 10,351 15,069 (195) 143
Variables 1,413 1,522 (19) 19
Cond tags sets 193 209 (3) 3
Include (.h) 90 102 (1) 1
Skins 111 122 (2) 2
Page layouts 494 538 (6) 6
Master pages 68 95 (1) 1

26. Manual vs automatic
If all of the substitution of
strings in the previous items had
to be done manually (with no
errors, substitutions, correct
placement in projects, etc) this
would require approx.:
± 240 minutes
The
facts
The automated setup does
all this in:
3,5 minutes
. . . on a good day – with no emails,
talks, lunch, tea, bosses, phone calls
. . . every day – while we email, talk,
write or even sleep (nights) . . .
Thursday
31
October, 2013

27. Goal
The
facts
Take single sourcing to the limit
Increase amount projects
Reduce translation costs
Reduce human errors
Get better buildtimes

28. Thomas Bro-Rasmussen
tbrasmussen@gnotometrics.com
The
setup
The
challenge
The
solution
The
result
The
facts
Thank you for
your attention