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Subject: Acronym proposal
Hi Everyone, Acronyms are ubiquitous in technical documentation. Although there are similarities between acronyms and the glossaries, from the localization and presentation point of view acronyms are a special case. Acronyms need to be expanded in the first encounter within a printed document. In electronic published documents acronym definitions can also be made available in the form of a hyper link or 'tool tip' mechanism. For translation, acronym definitions need to be presented in the nominative case, without any inflection. The best way of doing this using an automated mechanism is to place the definition of the acronym in parentheses immediately following the first occurrence of the acronym, e.g. Your vehicle is fitted with an ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) and 4WD (Four Wheel Drive). My recommendation is to create an <acronym> element that can occur anywhere within PCDATA. The acronym will have an 'id' attribute that will be the acronym itself, e.g. <acronym id="ABS"/>. The <acronym> element will be resolved via a conref attribute to the full acronym text, e.g. <acronym id="ABS" conref="aconyms.dita#abs"/>. The entry in the aconyms.dita file will be: <acronym name="abs">Anti-lock Break System</acronym> At compose time, when you are putting together the publication you can print the full form the first time around, but in parentheses to get around any potential problems when translating into inflected languages: <p>The <acroym id="ABS" conref="aconyms.dita#abs"/> facility will prevent the car from skidding.</p> This will be published as: The ABS (Anti-lock Break System) facility will prevent the car from skidding. This is in reverse to what would normally be printed, e.g. Anti-lock Break System (ABS) But this is perfectly acceptable and gets around translation problems with inflected languages. Best Regards, AZ -- email - azydron@xml-intl.com smail - c/o Mr. A.Zydron PO Box 2167 Gerrards Cross Bucks SL9 8XF United Kingdom Mobile +(44) 7966 477 181 FAX +(44) 1753 480 465 www - http://www.xml-intl.com This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you may not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. Unless explicitly stated otherwise this message is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation or offer.
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