Obligatory summary
In the previous episode I joined a group of volunteers to translate Agile Testing Condensed from English to Dutch. I put the English text in a Note on my iPhone. Then I used VoiceOver to read the text aloud. Then I used Dictate to enter the Dutch text into another Note.
Reduction of navigation
For my translation, I read a sentence in the English source file. Then I opened the Dutch target file to dictate the translated sentence. Every time I had to close and open a file. A more annoying thing was, that I had to find the location in the file.
Some Windows apps have the option to open several files at the same time. Using the shortcut Alt + Tab, it was easy for me to switch between two different files. On my iPhone I looked to the Notes app, which I used for my translation work. Notes only could only open one single file at a time.
Time to use Windows again for finding a solution for my problem. Windows offers a way to open several apps at the same time. Also in this case, Alt + Tab is simple way to switch between apps. The iPhone has an App Chooser. I could use the Notes app for the Dutch target file for editing. Another app was needed to read the English source file.
If I would change between the apps, I would be on the same page.
Choosing Acrobat Reader
Now I needed a file reader to open the file with the English text. My obvious choice was Acrobat reader which could handle files with different formats,
Note to my fellow Dutch citizens: the basic version of Acrobat reader is free.
My first impression of Acrobat Reader on my iPhone was strange. The app showed the whole page on a small screen. The words were very small. I did not need to zoom in, because I used VoiceOver, I swiped through the file, until I found my next sentence to translate. It was like driving on hearing.
Then I added the translated sentence in the Note with the Dutch text. I swished back to Acrobat Reader for my next sentence to be translated. On my return in Notes, I got a wonderful feeling. My cursor was still at the end of the file with the Dutch text. This would save me a bit of time.
Finding the right sequence again
This led to the following actions. The first serie was:
- Open Acrobat Reader with the English file, set the language of the screen reader to English and go to the sentence to be translated.
Use VoiceOver to speak the sentence aloud. - Open Notes with the Dutch file, set the System Language to Dutch and go to the end of the file.
Use Dictate to enter the text.
The second and following series were:
- Switch to Acrobat Reader with the English file, set the language of the screen reader to English and go to the sentence to be translated.
Use VoiceOver to speak the sentence aloud. - Switch to Notes with the Dutch file and set the language of the screen reader to Dutch.
Use Dictate to enter the text. - Rinse and repeat.
Another obstacle
After dictating several sentences, I read some strange Dutch sentences. The words were Dutch, but the wrong were in the file. Somehow, Dictate could not handle my Dutch sentences. And, I am a Dutch native speaker.
Maybe Dictate was not trained or tested to write complete sentences about Agile Testing. This is quite understandable, but it was a great annoyance for my translation work, I needed to check all my sentences.
I felt a disturbance in the translation.
To be continued.