Suggestion for workflow modification : a new directory "Prepared for translation" with "cleaned" files

l10n
#1

Hi,

document 'cleaning' has been mentioned recently in several threads. It
is a necessary step for subsequent translation of the guides to
different languages. As it  is currently done 'on request', I suggest to
add cleaning as a compulsory step to the workflow (described here:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/DocumentationTeamInfo/UsingAuthorsWebsite).

Currently I put the cleaned files here:
https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/index.php/apps/files?dir=/Shared/SK%20community/Cleaned.
Probably nobody knows about them.

What is cleaning about:

For translation we use the OmegaT tool, which extracts strings for
translation directly from the document's xml. This means that the
character formatting tags are visible for her/him (tags in OmegaT are
abbreviated to <f0>...</f0> or similar). Usually there are too many
useless tags (tags seem to remain in the code forever, even if
formatting is removed), which complicates the translation process (too
many tags, words split by tags to pieces etc). In cleaning all direct
character formatting is removed (by a python script) which decreases the
amount of tags to the necessary minimum.

My suggestion:

Add an additional step in the workflow after "Published" (after it in
order to not to change to current authoring workflow) by adding a new
directory "Prepared for translation". From there (1) a translator would
take documents for translation and (2) these documents would be used to
start a new version of the given Guide.

Who will do that:

I volunteer to take care of the cleaning process. I will also create a
guide, how to do that and also will place the script to the nextcloud,
so that eventually somebody else can do that. As a part of the cleaning
process one has to visually check the documents and change eventual
direct formatting to the an appropriate character style.

thanks for consideration

Milos