Going Global the Centralized Way

Creating a user interface that is consistent across a website isn't easy. But managers of sites that serve multilingual, multinational users are going to have to rise to the task, however daunting it may be.

Rosenfeld, Louis. CIO Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>International>Localization

Are You Cultured?

When a company decides to globalize its site, the Web team often learns the taboo colors and appropriate dress codes of a given culture, translates the text, and launches. But cultural differences run deeper than visual appearance or language; they reflect strong values. Rarely do globalized sites incorporate the nuances of a culture's social hierarchy, individualism, gender roles, time-orientation, or truth-seeking attributes.

Marcus, Aaron. Dr. Dobb's (2003). Articles>Web Design>Globalization>Localization

G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide

Glocalization is the ugliness that ensues when the global and local are shoved uncomfortably into the same concept. It doesn't sit well on your palette, it doesn't have a nice euphoric ring. It implies all sorts of linguistic and cognitive discomfort. This is the state of the global and local in digital communities. We have all sorts of local cultures connected through a global network, resulting in all sorts of ugly tensions. Designers who work with networks must face these tensions and design to take advantage of the global while not destroying the local. This is a hefty challenge and one that i want us to dive into.

Boyd, Danah. Danah.org (2006). Articles>Web Design>Globalization>Localization

How to Overcome Three Common Localization Challenges

The localization of information for regional markets and audiences is increasingly important for companies of all sizes. It’s required to more effectively engage customers, maximize revenue, and maintain global brand recognition. In this issue we focus on three common challenges found in early-stage localization projects and how to overcome them. We introduce approaches to address these challenges cost-efficiently.

Duhl, Joshua. Dynamic Publisher, The (2008). Articles>Document Design>Localization

Dynamic Publishing Makes Creating Localized Communications Easy

International growth is the target for most small companies and is indeed essential in many industries if you want to compete and thrive in this global economy; however, international expansion brings many challenges, especially in terms of communication. For example, how do you implement consistent, global communications that maintain your brand identity, values, and messaging while still allowing for local markets and cultures?

Malagnac, Stephanie. Dynamic Publisher, The (2008). Articles>Content Management>Localization>XML

Writing for an International Audience

Ideally, software and its documentation is localised (translated) into the languages of the target markets. However, in many cases, it is not cost-effective do this. Even if the target markets are the English-speaking countries, differences exist between the way English is used in the US, the UK, and Australia for example, and it is easy to cause confusion. This article examines some issues.

TechScribe (2007). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Localization

How to Correctly Initiate a New Localization Project    

Undertaking a localization project is a multi-step process. This article offers a step-by-step guide to localization that makes the project seem less daunting.

Freij, Nabil. Intercom (2008). Articles>Language>Localization

Anticipating the Impact of Content Convergence  

The nature of content has been undergoing a profound shift in the past several years, beginning with single-sourcing efforts and continues as the need for portable content increases. The portability of content is not a manufactured need, but an extension of the trend to create, manage and deliver content in more efficient ways. In turn, this shift affects content development and delivery, particularly localization, which feels the impact of source-language changes exponentially.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. Multilingual (2009). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Localization

Intersection of Content and Translation Management  

In today's global economy, multilingual communications are the conduit to multinational revenue profiles and global brand recognition. Buyers in countries large and small are increasingly demanding local language materials as a condition for purchasing products. Laggards that deliver multilingual products and services late to regional markets lose market share and see their global brand fragment and decline in value. Multinational business demands that organizations redefine the value of content to drive global customer experience, increase customer satisfaction, promote brand awareness and consistency, and support time-to-market goals.

Ciarlone, Leonor. Multilingual (2009). Articles>Content Management>Localization>Translation

Coping With Babel: How to Localize XML

Translating XML documents presents many opportunities as well as challenges. There are clear do's and don'ts when it comes to designing your documents regarding translation. You can use also use XML to your advantage to reduce costs and increase quality. One of the most exciting ways to do this is via the use of the XML Text Memory Namespace - xml:tm.

Zydron, Andrzej. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Language>Localization>XML

Evaluation of International English and Machine Translation

Machine translation often gives humorous translations or incorrect translations. Usually, a bad translation is because the source text is not clear in a way that a machine can 'understand'. If text is optimised for machine translation, machine translation gives excellent results. There are two sets of texts. The first set is written in standard English. The second set is equivalent to the standard English text, but it is optimised for machine translation. Google Translate was used to translate the texts into Bulgarian and into Spanish.

Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2009). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Why Qualified Translators Are a Must in Product Localization and Translation?

Money paid to qualified technical writers and translators in a localization project is money spent very well indeed. Why? Because the worst thing for a project is to have the customers or end users switch to another product since they either cannot understand the instructions and the way an interface works, or the localized copy contains embarrassing mistakes that damage the brand name and image.

Akinci, Ugur. Technical Communication Center (2008). Articles>Language>Localization>Technical Translation

Understanding Bidirectional (BIDI) Text in Unicode

A little-understood corner of Unicode is its handling for bidirectional text (The spec is a little dry). While English languages are read left-to-right, plenty of scripts (notably Arabic and Hebrew) are read from right to left. When only a single direction of text is used in a document, it's fairly straight forward, but when texts with different directions are mixed in one document, some difficulty arises in determining direction. This document attempts to explain how bidirectional text in Unicode works and what this means for the web. In the Unicode standard, characters have a representational order in memory (which English speakers tend to think of as left to right, but is really start-to-finish in a file), which the bidirectional algorithm then operates on to determine the display characteristics.

Henderson, Cal. Iamcal (2009). Articles>Language>Localization>Unicode

Guide to the Unicode Standard

This document is mainly intended for “ordinary” people who read the Unicode standard in order to get information about some particular characters or character processing issues that are important to them. The standard, though available online, is difficult to use without some help, and you can easily miss essential information when looking up things in it.

Tampereen Teknillinen Yliopisto (2005). Articles>Language>Localization>Unicode

Tips for Writing a Document Destined for Translation    

When writing a document that is going to be translated, writers should avoid certain terminology, take into account various aspects of a translation vendor, use a style guide, and more. Rimalower provides tips on how to create successfully translatable documents.

Rimalower, George P. Intercom (2009). Articles>Writing>Localization>Translation

Preparing Text for Translation: One Translator's Perspective, Reliable Translations

Provide a glossary of terms specific to your product and/or industry. Consider other languages' space requirements and writing conventions (e.g., right‐to‐left). Provide context, especially for translating interfaces only. Provide original (Word, Excel, ...) documents rather than PDFs.

Jungwirth, Barbara. STC Proceedings (2009). Presentations>Language>Localization>Technical Translation

Multilingual Sandbox

This website is a sandbox to show how the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and the Open Toolkit can be used to create multilingual websites. DITA is an OASIS standard.

Multilingual Sandbox. Resources>Web Design>Localization>DITA

Content Management and the Production of Genres    

In this paper, I suggest that granularized content management introduces as-yet-unexplored issues to genres of technical communication. I argue that content management, while it can, as advertised, free content and make it easy to reuse that content in multiple genres, that flexibility can create new problems for genres and genre systems, leading to problematic reuse, inflexible genre systems, rigid and proprietary genres, and uncritical internationalization.

Clark, Dave. ACM SIGDOC (2007). Articles>Content Management>Genre>Localization

How to Save Money on Translation By Editing the Source Text  

If translators had a list of FAQ's, the number one question would undoubtedly be "What can we do to cut the cost of our translations?" There are a number of answers to this question, but the simplest is to reduce the number of words in your documents before translating. Translation is usually priced by the word; therefore the fewer words for translation, the less it costs.

Smith, Jackie. STC International TC SIG (2001). Articles>Editing>Translation>Localization

Taming the Translation Alligator: Or How to Facilitate Document Translation without Getting Eaten Alive  

When the cost for translation on support documentation for a foreign sold machine continues to go up, what can be done to minimize the cost of this EU mandated requirement?

McDowell, Elizabeth C. STC International TC SIG (2001). Articles>Content Management>Translation>Localization

Overview of Localization

Internationalization is the basis for ease of localization and includes support of international character sets, separation of localizable features such as translatable character strings from the code, and provision for locale-specific features and functions.

STC International TC SIG (2001). Articles>Language>Localization

Bug Reporting in Localization Projects

Don't turn down a project just because part of it requires work in another language. With a little forethought, you'll see that it's not "rocket science" after all, and that it's not so different from testing the original version of the product. In fact, the quality assurance team that works on the original version of the product is the one best suited to testing the localized versions.

Watts, Edward. STC International TC SIG (2005). Articles>Language>Localization

Designing for a Non-English Audience

Through experience, I've discovered that foreign language typesetting can be very challenging--even when using the right software and platform, or having the help of a very experienced foreign typesetter. Through solving the problems encountered in the process, I also developed a new appreciation for simple, "internationalized" designs that are much easier to "localize" than others. Many problems can be avoided if the graphic designer keeps in mind that the document may be later translated into other languages. Sometimes, an attractive and very professional design in English can be a "nightmare" in other languages.

Bratu, Felicia. STC International TC SIG (2005). Articles>Document Design>Localization>Language

Effective Update Management in the Localization Process  

Whether one is localizing documentation or translating Web sites into multiple foreign languages, managing updates is a major component of the localization process. Content development often involves constant updates. Therefore a localization methodology must have the infrastructure to manage change seamlessly, efficiently, and accurately. It must also offer complete flexibility to accommodate each project’s unique schedule, requirements and development cycle.

Shapiro, Tom. STC International TC SIG (2003). Articles>Content Management>Localization>Translation

DITA in Localization  

It is critical to address localization as part of the DITA adoption early as it may significantly impact your localization process with potential schedule and cost implications that could negate many benefits of XML.

Lionbridge (2009). Articles>Language>Localization>DITA