Hi,

we use PO files for translation of help. There are too many pieces like this:

#: 08020000.xhp#tit.help.text
msgid "Current Size"
msgstr "Aktuální velikost"

#: 08020000.xhp#hd_id3154011.1.help.text
msgid "\\<link href=\\\"text/simpress/02/08020000.xhp\\\" name=\\\"Current
Size\\\"\\>Current Size\\</link\\>"
msgstr "\\<link href=\\\"text/simpress/02/08020000.xhp\\\" name=\\\"Aktuální
velikost\\\"\\>Aktuální velikost\\</link\\>"

These strings come directly from the GSI file (1:1 mapping between GSI and PO file).

Can we define some mechanism or automated process to make it easier/consistent
to translate? If the string in the title of the page is already translated, why
do we have to translate it again?

Can't we re-use it somehow? What about e.g. (meta-diff):

 <title id="tit" xml-lang="en-US">Current Size</title>
-<link href="text/simpress/02/08020000.xhp" name="Current Size">Current
Size</link></paragraph>
+<link href="text/simpress/02/08020000.xhp" name="$title">$title</link></paragraph>

As you know, I like clear evidences, so:

pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> grep helpcontent en-US.sdf | awk -F'     ' '{if ($2 !=
PREVHELPFILE) { print $11; getline; print $11 ; PREVHELPFILE=$2} }'|grep -B1
"link href"|grep "link href"|wc -l
829
pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> 

In English, we have 829 occurences of this (title and exactly the following
string - link - contains the same string).

pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> grep helpcontent en-US.sdf | awk -F'     ' '{if ($2 !=
PREVHELPFILE) { print $11; getline; print $11 ; PREVHELPFIL
E=$2} }'|grep -B1 "link href"|grep "link href"|grep name|wc -l
739
pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> 

And as the same string is used also 739 times in the "name" in the link, we can
save 1568 strings from translations. Right now, we have 69559 strings in en-US
GSI file. This means, that by implementing this, we can save up-to 2.25% of the
translations.

The above applies for <link ...> being just after the <title in the GSI.
Sometimes, the link is the third line, so have to add them too:

pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> grep helpcontent en-US.sdf | awk -F'     ' '{if ($2 !=
PREVHELPFILE) { print $11; getline; getline; print $11 ; PR
EVHELPFILE=$2} }'|grep -B1 "link href"|grep "link href"|grep name|wc -l
991
pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> grep helpcontent en-US.sdf | awk -F'     ' '{if ($2 !=
PREVHELPFILE) { print $11; getline; getline; print $11 ; PREVHELPFILE=$2}
}'|grep -B1 "link href"|grep "link href"|wc -l
1118
pavel@linux:~/.ooo/cs> 

-> another 2109 strings saved.

So total numbers for this improvement would be: 3677 strings, 5.28% of the
complete translations (8.5% of the complete help). This a huge improvement!

Of course I can implement some mechanism in our tools for generating PO files,
but I'd like to solve this directly in the source also for teams who do not use
PO files. How does this affects Sun's translation mechanisms?

Giving this Prio 1 because it could save *a lot of time/money* for translators.