German Translation Possible?

[jhamlet]

Received a request via email to translate the character sheets to German:

Hi Jerry,

I am from Germany and absolutely fascinated about your SW EoE char sheets. Really nice work and not comparable to other examples of sheets.

The point ist that there’s not much official stuff translated in German, so our group has to rework all sheets and additional chars avaiable in english on www . That’s a lot of work, but also fun in working together and splitting the tasks.

My question is: Would you be so kind as making a german version of those char sheets – i could handle the translation wich is almost done already. So you „just“ have to fill in the correct words ^^

This would be a big big thing and could ease things up!

Greeting from Germany,

Chris

[jhamlet]

And my response:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the interest in the work I did for the Star Wars EotE character sheets.

I created an issue on Github to track your request.

With that, having worked in both the international print and web industry, I know this is no small task. Especially with something like this, where the layout and placement of things was based on the length of the various labels (in English).

Also, there are two different layouts, with three different themes, color and monochrome versions, and not to mention the form-fillable versions for each (that's 24 variations of the file). If we start multiplying that by language variations, that's a lot of work to do by hand.

So, I'm making no promises, but i'm going to investigate Illustrator's scripting ability, and see if I can come up with something that will make this easier to do. I have family members that are French, and other friends of German, Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, and other heritages, so I'm no stranger to internationalization.

Thanks,

;-j

[11Chris11]

Hi there,

thank you for your answer. I am aware of the work this means. Perhaps you'll do it - so...let's see. I'll stay tuned, thank ya.

Chris

[jhamlet]

Hey Chris,

After some investigation into Illustrator's scripting capabilities, I've decided to take on the challenge of making my character sheets i18n scriptable.

The first step is to catalog all the strings. I've opened an issue for that.

When that is done, I'm going to write a little documentation on how to change that from English to another language.

I can then update this for you to do the translations.

;-j

[11Chris11]

Hey Jerry,

the internationalisation of your scripts would be a nice solution. I am not really capable of programming in Illustrator, though i am interested in such things. Am I right that you try to change your solid strings in the source code into variable string? I really mention that I am not versed in that stuff.

For sure, the translation itself is the part i can help then. So please take your time for this.

Many thanks again,

Chris

[jhamlet]

Chris,

I've created the base strings file and copied it for 'de' in the lib/i18n/strings directory.

I wrote up some instructions for the general flow of how this should work.

You might find it easiest to fork my repository, and then in your fork just edit the file here on github.

When your done, issue me a pull request.

In the meantime, I'm working out the script to make this possible.

;-j

[11Chris11]

Alright, will be done later the day after work

[jhamlet]

Chris,

I just merged your changes into my master branch. Thanks.

Question: Do you have a preference for a specific theme/color?

The reason I ask is that this Illustrator scripting is a big pain in the behind. I've had to do some work-a-rounds on their antiquated JavaScript engine (it's worse than one in Acrobat!) just so I can get some of the features from modern browsers to work (which some of my code libraries require).

I'm working on a HTML5/SVG online/offline character sheet application. Something that would be fillable without the headaches that Adobe software seems to cause. So, if I'm going to do a lot of scripting, I'd rather the time go towards that project. (And, it will be international friendly.)

However, I'm sure you do not want to wait that long.

So, if you have a particular theme (aurebesh vs imperial) and whether you want a colored or gray theme (EotE, AoR, or FaD), I can go ahead and do that one by hand and get it up as quick as possible.

;-j

[jhamlet]

Chris,

Just did aurebesh-eote-g (look for files with '.de' just before the '.pdf') -- Only took about an hour and a half to do it.

Please review it and make sure I got everything in the right place. Once I get the base one correct, I can move on to other versions.

The others should be quicker. So, I figure in a week or so I can get all versions done.

The form-fields are a little off... had to change the position of some of the fields for weapons and armor... but that shouldn't be too hard to change either.

Let me know when you've had a chance to look them over.

[11Chris11]

Wonderful work, Jerry!!

With my first overview i noticed that there are no substantial mistakes, so we can say this is an almost perfect first Version. Only the part with the characteristic/ Eigenschaften could be updated in shorten them up all the six, so "Willenskraft" will be "Will" and "Charisma" will be "Cha". But this is just an optical upgrade. I could do another pull request for this change.

For now i will say many thanks for the whole work on this!

Chris

[jhamlet]

Chris,

Updated the PDFs for the signature ability change -- however, I decided to go back to the full characteristic name. I didn't like the boxes being 'too open' with just 3 or 4 letters in them.

Let me know if it works for you, then I'll slowly get the other versions adapted for 'de-DE'

;-j

[11Chris11]

Hi Jerry,

i like the way you re-implemented the full designations of the characteristics. For the whole sheet this is the best solution for not loosing overview.

I can't find any more to complain so i think the sheets are ready for final version release.

Greetings from Germany,

Chris

[jhamlet]

Chris,

I've incorporated the latest strings from you into the illustrator file and produced some new PDFs.

Take a look and make sure they are correct.

If you have any more changes, I'm willing to do one more round of changes. After that, I'm very reticent to do any more as it will mean doing them across three files and having to produce 24 more PDFs each time a change is made.

[11Chris11]

Sure, i am sorry about it. I take a look at the latest versions. I am not that experienced with the rules of eote so far and this lead to missunderstandings in some case. But i will take a look last time.

Thank you,

Chris

[jhamlet]

Chris,

First set of sheets is complete (Aurebesh EotE color and grayscale versions).

I've moved German specific PDFs into their own directory: pub/de/

[11Chris11]

Jerry, is the last round of changes still possible or did you close work for german files? I would have done one last pull request on monday if you agree.

Many thanks,

Chris

[jhamlet]

Go ahead and do the pull request.

I'll have to review the changes before deciding whether or not I can get to them.

;-j Jerry 510.432.4317

Grammar and spelling (mistakes) brought to you by iPhone.

On Nov 16, 2014, at 14:41, 11Chris11 notifications@github.com wrote:

Jerry, is the last round of changes still possible or did you close work for german files? I would have done one last pull request on monday if you agree.

Many thanks,

Chris

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[jhamlet]

Chris,

I just uploaded the Aurebesh versions to the pub/de/ directory.

I'm going to considered the issue closed at this point -- not sure I want to commit the effort to converting the Imperial versions over.

Eager to concentrate on the next project.

I hope you get good use out of these.

;-j