May 26

Converting technical documentation from DITA to Flare is challenging. Although Flare converts topic and map files with ease, variables, conrefs, and glossary terms get left behind. Nick completely automated the DITA to Flare conversion process with Python and shares his best practices in this talk. Engineers, architects, and programmers, please join us to learn software development best practices and Python skills for handling conversion between DITA, Flare, and more.

Highlights: Attendees will come away from the talk better equipped to convert technical documentation formats by using Python. They will strengthen their technical knowledge of DITA, MadCap Flare, XML, Python programming, and software development. Nick will discuss the below points:
agile development; pain points of Flare’s DITA import wizard; differences between DITA and Flare: topics, conrefs, variables, TOCs, glossary, index; software development environment; Python libraries: lxml, pandas, pathlib, re (regular expressions); modular code; and creating a one-click application.

Challenges faced by translation and localization teams include not only outdated workflows and models, but human and material costs of switching between multiple internal systems. Drawing upon years of experience in providing service for enterprises, YiCAT has distilled users’ common needs into reusable core modules, and has created customized solutions through standardized processes. This workshop will start with the core functions of CAT and TMS tools, then explore the difficulties and effectiveness of implementing the GPT model in CAT tools. Ways for enterprises to build flexible translation and localization processes will also be discussed.
Our customer representative — Sangfor Technologies Inc., is specially invited to tell their story: the Sangfor I18N Team introduced YiCAT online translation management platform in 2021. Combining Sangfor’s VDI with YiCAT, they ensured information security through building tight connection between internal and external translation teams. Meanwhile, the centralized corpora management, real-time collaboration of translation and review, and corpus sharing provided by YiCAT also improved the efficiency of project delivery.

Highlights: 1.This workshop will provide a hands-on experience of the localization process for multilingual documents, and allows participants to appreciate the charm of ‘translation memories’, ‘term bases’, ‘machine translation’, and cutting-edge AI functions that assist in translation.
2.This workshop will help you discover how Sangfor Technologies Inc., the leading domestic network security and cloud computing service provider, leverages translation platforms and resources to deliver high-quality multilingual content with teamwork and collaboration.
3.Taking YiCAT Help Center as an example, the workshop will illustrate how to build a Help Center using open source code. In this way, the original text can be efficiently assigned to translators, and the translated text can be quickly published online. By presenting practical cases, the workshop highlights how enterprises can reduce costs and increase efficiency through YiCAT.
4.This workshop will also introduce flexible and configurable Open API solution provided by YiCAT, through which more possibilities for translation and localization are explored.

From document development to information design to experience design, where is the breakthrough of business value?
From the information that is easy to find to the one that no need to search, from people who search for knowledge to knowledge that search for people, how to define information experience?
From information experience to user experience, how can the traditional documentation realize the closed loop of business value?

The emergence and popularity of ChatGPT has had a significant impact on many industries, including technical communication. Rather than being concerned about potential job displacement, it’s beneficial to view ChatGPT as a tool for enhancing work efficiency. In this presentation, Lilan will discuss specific applications of ChatGPT in technical communication, its effectiveness in improving document quality and user experience, as well as any necessary precautions and limitations when using it.

Highlights: The application scenarios of ChatGPT in technical communication keep up with the current AI development trend. It applies the latest technology products to the technical communication industry, optimizes working methods, improves work efficiency, solves some pain points that are difficult for a single person to deal with, and explores possible opportunities and development directions.

The presentation explains the application of data analytics in content. As the last step of the content journey, data analysis is used to measure whether the performance meets expectations. It will help you to understand the deficiencies of the current content and the direction of improvement, so as to improve the entire user experience.

Still testing language quality with difficulties in software systems? Hundreds of pages of test plans still need to be written by the development teams? It doesn’t need to be like this!
After more than two years of research and development efforts, SAP Language Experience and partner company Rigi.io have created a new language quality testing approach with the latest technology. This process, AltaiR (Advanced language-test automation in Rigi), which has undergone more than 30 pilot projects, saw the light in September 2020. This solution addresses the pain points of many traditional language tests of the past, making language testing very simple, effective, and saving a lot of human resources and costs, which enables organizations to remain globally competitive in a fast-paced cloud era. This scenario enables more than 40 languages to be tested at one time. The Rigi technology captures dynamic HTML English previews, which can be used to provide context for translation, and can be used to generate multilingual screenshots with one click and embed them into documentation material to achieve “one picture over a thousand words”.

Highlights: 1) The presentation makes the audience feel refreshed and inspired. The audience would be curious about how SAP developed the solution and consider if its organization could learn from this process.
2) Speakers present many of the pain points of the previous traditional approach to linguistic quality testing and the difficulties of producing and translating screenshots in documentation.
3) The presentation includes cutting-edge trends and innovative perspectives. SAP and Rigi are using the latest technology to create new language quality testing scenarios.
4) The presentation includes best practices too. SAP has used this option for more than 30 pilot projects, which were put into production in September 2020. This solution addresses real problems and can become industry best practices.

S1000D is a structured technical writing standard that provides a systematic methodology for technical writing in the equipment support industry. Its revised version has been widely adopted by European and American equipment support industries, including major players like Airbus and Boeing. However, the standard’s applicability is not limited to this specific industry and can be utilized for policies, regulations, procedures, and organizational documents.
This topic covers the origin and development of S1000D, and an introduction to the standard’s structured technical writing methodology. The methodology includes key elements like business rules, information optimization mechanisms, and applicability strategies. Finally, some intelligent application scenarios are presented, such as the secondary use of data and automatic generation of circuit diagrams.

The market environment is constantly evolving, and companies must be agile in adjusting their business goals and strategies to maintain a competitive edge. Various business scenarios present unique challenges such as high upfront costs to educate customers about a new product or ongoing investments to ensure customer adoption.
To overcome these obstacles, the content team can develop strategies closely aligned with business goals, leveraging content to increase product exposure, improve pre-sales efficiency, accelerate customer learning curves, and reduce after-sales service costs. However, failing to align content efforts with business objectives can lead to wasted resources and diminished team performance.
To avoid such pitfalls, this workshop utilizes IBM Enterprise Design Thinking methodology and tools to methodically break down business goals, identify relevant content opportunities, and empower the content team to deliver maximum value. By approaching content from a business perspective, organizations can unlock the full potential of their resources and drive lasting success.

As automobile intelligence continues to develop, the voice interaction has emerged as the most popular human-computer interaction method in the automotive industry. Consequently, voice inquiry for car information has become a critical means for car owners to obtain assistance. This presentation will discuss Huawei’s in-vehicle voice question-and-answer service, which combines voice technology with information and applies it to in-vehicle systems. By integrating the smart cockpit with this technology, car owners are provided with intelligent information services, elevating their in-car experience.

Creating and implementing more visuals in the technical documentation is no longer a matter of decoration. It is a necessity. Therefore, we not only write about complex features, but also create various graphics types. What are the best practices when creating graphics for your publication? There is a list of aspects you should consider making sure that your visual content is consistent and will improve the customers’ experience.

Highlights: The presentation will start with a problem statement including a discussion on the following areas that represent the technical communicators’ pain points when creating graphics for their publications:
Low number or even complete lack of visuals in a technical documentation due to:
Technical communicators do not know where to start, what type of visuals to implement, and where is the most appropriate place in a document
Lack of skills to create visual elements – which graphic tools to use and how to work with them
Lack of knowledge about the common design principles
Lack of visual consistency that leads to bad user experience with the documentation
Various or inappropriate graphic tools being used when creating or updating visuals
The second part of the presentation will focus on identifying the best practices when creating graphics as follows:
Common design principles when creating diagrams – compositional flow, colors, shapes, font size, proportion of elements, whitespaces, alignment, proximity, arrows, legibility, and so on
Attributes that each visual element should consist of – titles, labels, icons, and so on
Ways to highlight important areas of a visual element
Ways to determine the complexity of a diagram and represent it in the most appropriate manner
The third and final part of the presentation will provide the audience with useful information about:
– What to consider and what questions to ask yourself before your start creating visuals
– Where and how to check whether the colors you use are compliant with the accessibility standards for people with sight impairment
– Additional information about how the visual elements in your publication improve your documentation SEO