Two Years Later: The Triumphs, Trials and Tribulations of Life

Looking at escalating costs and short deadlines for foreign-language documentation, we decided over two years ago that the time had come for a hands-on study of translation tools and their practical benefits. Machine-translation systems such as Systran and Logos were not an option; instead, we directed our attention toward Translation Memory tools.

Kreitmeier, Peter. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Understanding Usability Issues of Bidirectional Bilingual Websites

Over the past ten years, there has been an ever-increasing amount of usability recommendations for improving website design. Much of the data has focused on navigation of single-language websites. But few studies have tackled the problems of bilingual sites, and virtually no information has been gathered about usability of bilingual or multilingual sites where the languages are not written in the same direction (for example, English, which is read from left-to-right, and Hebrew, which is read from right-to-left).

Guren, Leah. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Usability

Unexpected ROI (Return on Investment) from Terminology

Personal experience shows that all localization clients are interested in terminology--without exception. Only very large organizations, however, actually seem to maintain terminology databases.

Wittner, Janaina. Multilingual (2007). Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary

An Unfair Test  

Machine translation has improved greatly over the years, but one type of human communication, figurative language, remains difficult for computers to tackle. When we hear 'You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink,' we know that the speaker is probably commenting on human, not equine, nature.

Intercom (2004). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Unicode

Unicode resources and information.

i18nGurus.com. Resources>Language>Localization>Unicode

Unicode: Ein paar Anmerkungen

ISO 10646 ist ein Zeichensatz, der Schriftzeichen binären Codenummern zuordnet. Unicode hingegen ordnet den 2- bzw. 4-Byte-Code denselben Schriftzeichen zu, ergänzt die Definition aber um Zeicheneigenschaften, Implementationsregeln und Hinweise. Unicode ist eine private Organisation verschiedener kommerzieller Unternehmen, akademischer Einrichtungen und Anwendergruppen. ISO (International Standards Organisation, eine Unterorganisation der UNO) und Unicode arbeiten seit 1991 zusammen, um Diskrepanzen zwischen ISO 10646 und Unicode zu vermeiden.

Transcom. (German) Articles>Language>Localization>Unicode

United Nations Multilingual Terminology Database

This database was compiled over the years in response to diverse and wide-ranging demands of United Nations language staff for terminology and nomenclature. It is being put on the Internet to facilitate the efforts of people around the world who participate in the work of the United Nations but do not have access to the Secretariat's intranet.

United Nations. Reference>Dictionaries>Glossary>Localization

Use the Unicode Database to Find Characters for XML Documents

The Unicode consortium is dedicated to maintaining a character set that allows computers to deal with the vast array of human writing systems. When you think of computers that manage such a large and complex data set, you think databases, and this is precisely what the consortium provides for computer access to versions of the Unicode standard. The Unicode Character Database comprises files that present detailed information for each character and class of character. The strong tie between XML and Unicode means this database is very valuable to XML developers and authors. In this article Uche Ogbuji introduces the Unicode Character Database and shows how XML developers can put it to use.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2006). Articles>Language>Localization>Unicode

User Interface Design: An International Approach

A well-thought-out design and well-written content reduces the time required for good international products and saves money. As a bonus, most internationalization issues apply across all languages and usually help improve the quality of the American-language product as well.

Swain, Cindy. Boston Broadside (1997). Design>User Interface>Translation>Localization

User Interface Issues (part of Globalization and Localization Issues)

Loads of tips on how to design world ready user interface. It addresses issues that might occur in messages, menus and dialog boxes, icons and bitmaps, access and shortcut keys as well as user interface controls.

Microsoft (2004). Articles>User Interface>Localization

Users from Other Cultures than the U.S.

This paper introduces general recommendations and guidelines for website developers about accommodating diverse users, in particular users from other cultures than the US. The paper shows how cultural differences might affect the usability of the websites. It also provides sample for good websites and some useful links for practitioners on how to create universally usable websites.

Elnahrawy, Eiman M. Universal Usability (2001). Design>Language>Localization

Using Chopsticks and a Fork Together: Challenges and Strategies of Developing a Chinese/English Bilingual Web Site     

My paper discusses the specific challenges associated with designing a Chinese-English Web site in Taiwan for both local and English-speaking audiences abroad. My paper seeks to answer this umbrella question: How can we integrate the Chinese and English portions of the site into a single, consistent presentation? Using an extended case study of a Taiwan-based company, I explore how technical communicators working on this bilingual Web site project (1) developed content in English that is suitable both for native English speakers around the world; (2) reconciled different audience responses to visual communication strategies; (3) tackled the technological challenge of a bilingual Web site; and (4) addressed the cultural and political challenges of developing a Web site for diverse audiences.

Chu, Steve W. Technical Communication Online (1999). Design>Web Design>Localization

Using In-Country Reviews to Ensure Quality Translations  

Too often, in-country translation reviews are overlooked, even though they can document valuable feedback and save customers time and money on translation projects. The author provides several criteria for deciding whether such a review is right for your project.

Deschamps-Potter, Catherine. Intercom (2007). Articles>Language>Localization>Methods

Using Macromedia Flash MX as a Multilingual Authoring Tool

This tutorial offers procedures and strategies that allow you to adapt a Macromedia Flash MX movie to the language and culture of a target audience. Macromedia Flash MX supports localization through Unicode and the various ways in which you can include different languages in a movie.

Adobe (2004). Design>Web Design>Localization>Flash

Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software with CAT Tools

The function of OCR Software is to improve the scanning process with the transfer of hard copy documents into workable electronic text. Despite some high quality OCR software packages now available, the scanning process is still not perfect. This imperfection can greatly diminish from the performance of your CAT tool if it is not properly addressed. When combining these two processes (scanning and translation via CAT tools), it is important that you know which OCR software package to use and exactly how to use it most effectively. In fact, if you do not have the proper OCR software, or if you are using your OCR software incorrectly, you may actually negate the potential benefits that your translation software can offer.

SDL International. Articles>Language>Localization>OCR

UTF-8: Documents With a Lot of Character

Did you ever built a webpage in Homesite and then you didn’t encode the html-entities? Then, probably when the client has a look on it, all the german Umlaut characters look awkward on a mac? And did you figure out why? It’s because of the charsets and the encoding of the characters in the saved file!

Opitz, Pascal. Content with Style (2005). Design>Web Design>Localization>Unicode

Visibility in Italian Search Engines

Visibility in Italian search engines is a matter of content, design and organization just as it is in the English-language engines. As Jill often points out to us, the better your content is, the more targeted traffic your Web site will generate.

WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Search

Visual Communication: Crossing International Boundaries  

Technical communicators often produce documents that are then translated into another language. Much has been written about creating a text that is “translatable” by eliminating analogies and metaphors; using short, clear sentences; organizing information according to the cultural preference for order; and eliminating jargon. whenever possible. Because technical communicators often provide both text and graphics, such attention to the translatability of graphics is essential to producing documents that fit the cultural conventions of the country in which the document is to be used.

Bosley, Deborah S. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Language>Localization>Visual Rhetoric

Walking Backwards: Supporting Non-Western Languages on the Web

IBM apparently be building Hebrew support in the Mozilla project, but AOL/Netscape has of yet not said a word about their plans, if any, for including the BiDi support code in the upcoming Netscape 6.

Forbes, Shoshannah L. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Localization>Unicode

Web Design and Localization

Localization is the process of creating or adapting a product to a specific locale, i.e. to the language, cultural context, conventions and market requirements of a specific target market. In this chapter, we are assuming the English design will be the original design on the basis of which all pages will be localized. The Internet has eliminated distance as a barrier to sharing information at a worldwide level. Now the biggest barrier to communication is language. 2,113,000,000 Internet users speak languages other than English. They make up 70.2% of the world economy. Increasingly multinational companies have their websites localized into multiple languages to take advantage of the promotional and commercial values of the Internet. As they have found, the localization process can be very time-consuming, costly and frustrating if the English web pages were not designed for this purpose.

Sun, Lily. Elements of Information Design (2001). Design>Language>Localization

Web Globalization Strategies: Building the Global Gateway  

A 'Global Gateway' ensures that Web users from around the world quickly and easily find their localized Web sites. Too often, companies overlook the global gateway, resulting in lost users and decreased traffic to the localized sites. A global gateway is more than just a pull-down “select country” menu on the home page, it is a multi-layered strategy that relies on visuals, text, and technology. The best global gateways “degrade gracefully” to accommodate any user, regardless of browser, language or locale.

Yunker, John E. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>Localization

Web Site Localization  

The use of Web sites continues to grow in leaps and bounds. In business, these sites typically address marketing, sales, and information management for shared data across corporate Intranets and Extranets. Companies today realize that the Internet provides a window through which customers around the world can view products and services. For example, China’s Internet surfers increased to 20 million by the end of 2000, and could reach 30 million by the end of 2002. In fact, the entire Internet community is increasing so fast that accurate numbers change daily. Most recent figures estimate that there are 498 million users now, and future numbers are incalculable. Until recently, most Web pages were presented in English. As use of the Internet increases internationally, though, more and more companies are considering localization of their Web sites.

Watkins, John. Lingo Systems (2002). Design>Web Design>Localization

Web-Based Translators in the Technical Communication Classroom: What Use Are They?

The author discusses the usefulness of web-based translators in the technical communication classroom. He reports on the pedagogical application of web-based translators in a technical communication course. The author concludes that while web-based translators do not offer accurate translations, they do offer possibilities to the instructor who wants the students to learn about the benefits and hazards of using web-based translators to localize technical documents.

Tesdell, Lee S. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Articles>Education>Localization>Machine Translation

What a Technical Translator Can Do For You

I work with a small team of scientists, specializing in technical documentation and translation. In the following text I will look from a different angle on the work of a technical translator.

Zimmermann, Annegret. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Language>Localization