Hello,

I'm a technical editor for a software company, and I'm working on
style guidelines to facilitate efficient translation. I hope that
subscribers to this list can help me by responding to a couple of
similar questions.

Case 1:

I'd like to know whether it is important for us to standardize which
punctuation mark we use in cases where any one of multiple
punctuation marks might be considered acceptable.

In the following sentence, either an em dash or a colon could be
used. Some of our writers even use double hyphens (ugh!) in place of
an em dash.

a) Every form has a current lock state—either locked or unlocked.
b) Every form has a current lock state: either locked or unlocked.
c) Every form has a current lock state -- either locked or unlocked.

Would the difference in internal punctuation cause these to be fuzzy
matches instead of exact matches in TM?

I suppose that em dashes, colons, or double hyphens -could- be
specified as segment boundaries, but would that typically be the
case?


Case 2:

In this case, the only difference between the sentences is that the
2nd sentence contains a comma before "such as":

a) JAR is a cross-platform file format that aggregates the files that
are associated with Java applets such as webEIS documents.
b) JAR is a cross-platform file format that aggregates the files that
are associated with Java applets, such as webEIS documents.

Would the comma cause these to be fuzzy matches instead of exact
matches?

In this case, I would hope so, because the comma affects the
interpretation (and hence should affect the translation--in some
languages, at least). The first sentence implies that webEIS
documents are an example of Java applets, which is false. The second
implies that webEIS documents are an example of "the files that are
associated with Java applets," which is correct.

Thanks.

John Kohl
Senior Technical Editor
SAS Institute, Inc.
Cary, North Carolina
john.kohl@...