RE: [docbook] Re: Change proposal for swedish localization

["Kenneth Johansson" <ke-joh at sectra dot se>]

"Observera" might be seen as an alternative to "Notera", but I don't think
it's very good specially for software documentation where we use DocBook. 

I don't think "se upp" is a very good admonition. It's not formal enough,
but I can't come up with a better name.
  

I've found these explanations in our regulatory documents, which I think are
good:

Note:
Information the user should be aware of, but is peripheral to the actual
task being described. Notes does not contain information that is crucial to
the documentation, though it may be interesting. A user can skip this
without losing anything essential. A note should NOT be used as an English
word for ?OBS!? .

About Caution:
A note of caution. Use this for example when there is a possible danger to
equipment, when the reader may lose easily recovered or replaceable
information, e.g. user settings, or when they could cause data loss if they
don't correctly follow the procedure being outlined.

Important
Use important when there is no danger of data loss, but you wish to make
clear to the reader a consequence that isn't immediately obvious, e.g. when
changing the font for one instance of a program also changes the default
setting, and this isn't clear from the GUI. The correct translation for in
Swedish is "Viktigt" or "OBS!".


My list is:

Note -> Notera
Important - > Viktigt or Observera
Caution -> (I'm not sure about this one but the dictionary says
"försiktighet", "varsamhet" or "varning") "Se upp" is the obvious choice but
has the wrong level of formality to it. 
Warning -> Varning

/Kenneth

--------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth Johansson	Technical Documentation Manager
Sectra Imtec AB
Teknikringen 20		E-mail: ke-joh AT sectra DOT se
SE-583 30 Linköping	Phone:	+46 13 23 52 00
SWEDEN			Web:	http://www.sectra.se 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robin Rosenberg [mailto:robin.rosenberg@dewire.com] 
> Sent: den 1 februari 2004 23:08
> To: docbook@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: [docbook] Re: Change proposal for swedish localization
> 
> lördag 31 januari 2004 22:49 skrev Steinar Bang:
> > >>>>> Robin Rosenberg <robin.rosenberg@dewire.com>:
> > 
> > > "Obs." or "Observera" is often used to call the readers 
> attention in 
> > > swedish text, where "Note" would be used in english.
> > 
> > Used in the Norwegian localizations for <caution> 
> ("Observera" is used 
> > for <caution> in sv.xml).
> 
> "Caution" is stronger, isn't it? That should be "Se upp". 
> "Observera" (sv) is like "Märk", or "Notera". Though "notera" 
> means the same as "Note", it is not commonly used in that context.
> 
> These are the related ones (from docbook documentation) as I 
> think they should be: To sum up.
> 
> Note: => Observera (I actually looked it up. Obs!  in Swedish 
> should be note in English). The abbreviated "Obs!"
> (note the exclamation mark, is the common usage. "Notera" (as 
> the root of this thread suggested) is still better (but not 
> good) than the current translation "not". (which was 
> obviously translated out of context, unless there are several 
> contexts).
> 
> Caution => Se upp (could be translated as Varning, however 
> that one is taken and assuming "caution" in English is more 
> severe, I think "Se upp" is appropriate.
> 
> Important, Warning and Tip are correctly translated.
> 
> Since translation is so hard, I wonder if there is a sample 
> document that uses everything in docbook, just to explore the 
> effects of translation?  There are many (yet untranslated) 
> words that I might translate, if I could verify the context 
> easily. The document wording would  not have to contain 
> localized text, I could figure the difference out. It would 
> only be for testing. It only has to sample everything in the 
> different contexts. I've only tried docbook in Swedish once, 
> and the "other" 
> guys weren't impressed and I didn't have the time to fix all 
> known and unknowns. The translations are not of production quality.
> 
> I also noticed. "Glossary => Gloslista", something school 
> children use when training languages. In technical documents 
> it's "Ordlista" (also applicable to the study of languages).
> 
> -- robin
> 
> 
> 
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