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If you’ve ever received a request to quote on a project that included Adobe InDesign or FrameMaker files and felt a panic attack coming on, this article is for you! If you haven't worked with either of these programs you might assume that translating content on them is very difficult or time consuming. However with a few simple steps, and even without owning either of these programs, you can deliver a translation to your client.

The first thing to be completely clear on is whether or not you are going to accommodate any extra text in the final file. What does that mean? For example, when translating from English to Spanish, the translation is going to be longer than the original. The final file might require some minor adjustment, such as moving text, reducing the font size, fixing hyphenation issues, etc. If you don't have the program, or are not comfortable working with it, then you should make it clear to the client that while you can deliver the file in the same format, you cannot provide DTP services so they will have to accommodate any additional length in the translated text, deal with typesetting issues, etc.

Now, let’s get onto the specifics. Many CAT tools list InDesign or FrameMaker files as a supported format, but what does that mean exactly? Both these tools use a proprietary native format; it is not an open format, which is why it can’t be translated directly, by any CAT tool. How are you supposed to translate these files then? Well both programs have an interchange format, which is basically just a method used to save the file, with all its information, in an open format that many CAT tools do support. However in this article we're going to cover translating files in these formats using Across. The advantage is, if you've already translated anything else in Across, such as HTML files, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc., then part of the process will be familiar.

FrameMaker files

The default file format used in FrameMaker is .fm, you'll also come across something called book files, which are basically just a collection of .fm files that have been grouped together to form a book. The table of contents and index files in a book are generated automatically by the program, which means you don't have to translate them. That is one of the advantages of using book files.

To translate .fm files in Across they need to be saved as MIF files, all of the formatting and information in the file will be preserved in this format. If you don’t have FrameMaker there is nothing wrong with asking the client to send the documents in MIF format. If you do have FrameMaker, you can save the document in MIF format in the File menu, using the Save As option. In the Save As dialog box select MIF format from the Save as type drop down list.

From here the procedure is identical to translating any other format supported by Across. You can add the document to an existing project, or create a new project. Once you’re finished translating use the checkout feature to generate a new MIF document, it will have all the formatting intact. The MIF document can then be opened in FrameMaker by you (or your client) and any final adjustments, such as font size, text spacing, or hyphenation can be made.

InDesign files

InDesign saves documents in INDD format by default. Just as with FrameMaker files, an additional step is required before this type of file can be translated in Across. In this case the file needs to be saved in InDesign Interchange (INX) format, which will preserve the format while making it possible for you to translate. If you don’t have InDesign you can ask the client to do this for you. There is even an incentive for the client to use INX files; the advantage to them is that INX files are significantly smaller than InDesign native files, so whether the client is emailing the files to you, or making them available via FTP, they will save quite a bit of uploading time.

If you happen to have InDesign, saving the files in INX format is not difficult. Go to the File menu, then the Export option. In the dialog box that appears, select the InDesign Interchange format from the Save as type drop down list. It's as simple as that. From here the procedure is the same as FrameMaker, you add the file you just created to an Across project and start translating. Once you're finished use the checkout feature to generate a new INX file in the target language, this file can then be saved back to an InDesign native file by you or your client.

There is absolutely no reason to be intimidated by the prospect of translating Adobe InDesign or Adobe FrameMaker files. If these files are saved in the proper format they can be translated in Across with the same ease as a Microsoft Word file.