WordsFlow at Eastern European Mission
Scott Hayes at the Eastern European Mission (eem.org) writes eloquently about how WordsFlow has transformed their incredibly challenging multi-lingual workflow. Key insight:
For us WordsFlow was a revolution in technology unlike anything we have implemented in the last 10 years.
We produce books 100-400 pages long in 19 different target languages.
All of the layout is done in house by two people. Neither is proficient in any of the 19 languages.
Each book requires translation/review by 5 different target language experts. We refer to these steps as 1. Translation, 2. 1st edit, 3. 2nd edit, 4. 1st correction, 5. 2nd correction. In between each of these steps a managing editor reviews the work.
To reduce the load of entering corrections in InDesign on the layout team, we initially kept the file as a Word document until after the 2nd edit.
We were forced to find ways to enter the corrections that would allow someone who does not know the language to enter the corrections made by a native speaker. We tried Adobe InCopy, but because we work with over 200 individuals, we could not justify providing everyone a license.
Typing in of corrections was immediately ruled out because of the huge potential for adding additional errors. PDF commenting was also tested, but did not work because we are working with 200 different individuals and everyone used it differently. At the time there was no automation option for adopting the comments.
After a lot of trial and error we settled on a method where the corrector would provide us with a search and replace list (search for “Sentence A” and replace it with “Sentence B”).
We used some automation to step through the search and replace process, but it remained tedious and 1,000 corrections could take several days to enter.
Since 2016 we have been using WordsFlow.
When we began implementing WordsFlow our work flow changed dramatically. Two days of entering corrections was suddenly done in 5 minutes + another 30 minutes of cleaning up unintended formatting issues. We were able to dramatically improve the number of projects that one person can handle. On the average we spend less than 10% of our working time dealing with corrections. This freed us up to greatly increase the number of projects and to have more time to focus on improving the layout and doing other quality control steps. For us WordsFlow was a revolution in technology unlike anything we have implemented in the last 10 years.
Because the WordsFlow software is such an integral part of our workflow and we are dealing with many types of books in multiple languages, we have run into software issues from time to time. In the beginning there was a sickening feeling of what if we cannot solve this? However, the trouble shooters at Em Software have never let me down. Multiple times they have even done an update of the software to solve my problems. I no longer wonder will it be solved? At the most I wonder how many hours will they need? Rarely has a problem extended beyond a couple of days. Several times, the issue turned out not to be the WordsFlow software, but a problem on our side. Even in these cases I was give the necessary tips and suggestions to get the projects back online. I can only give the highest praises for the WordsFlow programming/support team and their responsiveness.
As a suggestion for others I would like to mention one other integral part of our workflow. Now that we have WordsFlow, we generally do the layout immediately after the translation. This allows the next 4 reviews to be in a finished book format and increases our end quality.
Because we are working in 19 languages we have a “managing editor” in each language who reviews each step to make sure that the editors and correctors did the work we expected and not more or less.
For this control process we use a PDF comparison software called PDiff. With this software we can produce very detailed reports showing exactly what changed between each step of our process. This is similar in principle to track changes in Word, but is much more powerful and can be fine tuned to meet our exact specifications. This software has given us a much greater control over quality, and WordsFlow has been the provider of efficiency, both for our in-house team and for our editors and correctors.
I am very thankful for the innovation and skills that went into the design of these products.
