From English to Cyrillic to Chinese

The increasing number of languages that companies need to translate into requires careful planning when preparing translation projects. Thus, choosing appropriate tools, finding qualified project teams, and applying suitable concepts to avoid additional work become crucial tasks for the project manager. If all these issues are considered beforehand, a perfect balance can be achieved within the magic triangle of time, cost and quality.

Kreitmeier, Peter. tekom (2006). Articles>Documentation>Localization

From Plain English to Global English

Make your documents easy for EFL users to read and understand, and communicate successfully with people all over the world. About one billion people use English as a foreign language (EFL). You can avoid most pitfalls of cross-cultural communication by using global English.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2001). Articles>Writing>Localization>Minimalism

Global to the Core, or, Why IBM Can't Tell You How Much Money It Spends on Globalization

LISA is in the process of updating its Localization Primer, a publication read by people around the world interested in learning about localization. As part of this process LISA decided to update some figures about how companies spend their localization budget, so Mike Anobile called up Bill Sullivan of IBM to ask him how IBM spends its localization budget. Bill replied that he couldn't say, that he had no idea how much money IBM spends on globalization or what areas the money is spent in. What's more, he said that he was "delighted and indeed proud that [IBM does] not have that data".

Sullivan, Bill. LISA (2003). Articles>Language>Localization

Global Transitions   

This panel will examine continuous publishing movement from paper to HTML formats, and localization management, which are currently in global transition. Panelists from a translation agency, a consulting firm, and a hardware computer corporation will address how the technical communications organizations must transition in these areas to meet the global requirements of the industry.

Hackos, JoAnn T., Deborah Rosenquist and Jaap van der Meer. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Publishing>International>Localization

Glossary of Translation and Interpreting Terminology

This glossary provides an explanation to many of the terms frequently used in connection with translation and interpreting. Whether you need to communicate effectively with translators or translation companies, or just want to know what Unicode or translation memory are all about, you’ll find the answers here.

Kreuzer, Dominik. Trans-K. Resources>Language>Localization>Glossary

Going Global Gracefully: Strategies for Building the Global Gateway

The world speaks many languages, and so do an increasing number of Web sites. Yet with these languages and locales come a host of challenges for the Web teams who manage them, challenges that are not likely to go away. As companies 'localize' their Web sites for new markets and languages, they run into the navigational challenges of directing users to their localized Web sites. For instance, if your site offers a dozen localized Web sites, how do you ensure that users arrive at their intended sites without getting confused or lost along the way?  This article presents strategies for building a global gateway. A global gateway is much more than a 'select country' pull-down menu on the home page. It's an all-encompassing term for the devices you use to direct users to their locale- and language-specific sites. And, as you'll soon see, there are many ways to build a gateway.

Yunker, John E. WebWord (2003). Design>Web Design>International>Localization

Going Global with Technical Writing  

Despite your best efforts, it is not uncommon for mishaps to occur when attempting to localize documentation. Learn how to align your technical writing and localization processes and how to optimize the solution you choose for this alignment.

Hill, Nicholas. Intercom (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Localization

Going International

For many people, setting up a Web site is their first experience with publishing documents for an international audience. It's true (for now) that most of the computers on the Internet are in the United States, but the Net includes computers in more than a hundred countries. If you put information on the Web, people from all over the world can read it. At least 15 percent of the visitors to the EEI Web pages are from outside the United States. In the first few days of the new year, pages were viewed by people from two dozen countries, including Croatia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. It's not called the World Wide Web for nothing.

Ivey, Keith C. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Going Online: Helping Technical Communicators Help Translators    

What can technical communicators do to design documents that are easier, and therefore less costly, to translate without sacrificing quality? Nearly all writers/designers concern themselves primarily with the users of the document, the primary audience, when considering translation while overlooking the secondary audience-the translators. If the source document is not written with translation in mind, translation costs can escalate. Writers/designers can, though, help reduce the translators' cognitive load by supporting them in solving language and cultural problems. In this article, we will explain why technical communicators should help translators, and we will offer some tips to creating 'translation friendly' documentation. We will also describe the research and design process involved in creating an online tutorial on writing and designing for translation which was developed for a local Twin Cities company. Although we discovered during the course of our research that there is not one generic approach

Flint, Patricia, Melanie Lord van Slyke, Doreen Starke-Meyerring and Aimee Thompson. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Language>Localization

The Guide to Translation and Localization  

This is the fourth edition of a book summarizing translation and localization processes. We describe how you can successfully approach any type of translation and localization project. Learn how to address translation needs prior to and during the development of your project materials; the results will be reduced project timelines, lower localization costs, and improved quality and consistency for your localized products. This guide provides insight into documentation, software, and Web site content localization, including technical considerations spanning from document layout to e-commerce Web site and double-byte software challenges.

Lingo Systems (2002). Books>Language>Translation>Localization

Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness

Welcome to my Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. On this page, I list wacky, bizarre, surreal and otherwise strange examples of technical documentation, particularly illustration.

DarrenBarefoot (2003). Humor>TC>Technical Illustration>Localization

Honyaku Home Page

A resource for members of the Honyaku mailing list, and anyone interested in Japanese/English translation.

Honyaku. Resources>Language>Localization>Japan

How to Architect Sites Across Cultures Without Losing Your Mind

Ever since I started working formally as an information architect, I've clung to the belief that there's a universal set of conditions that we're trying to achieve. But what I've slowly begun to believe over my time working here in Japan is that there is simply no such thing as a universal good.

Greenfield, Adam. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>International>Localization

How to Localise Your Website: A UK Perspective on Usability

It's often said that a common language divides America and England. If an American says "I'm mad about my flat", there is something wrong with his car. If an Englishman says it, he likes his apartment. If the Americans and the English can't communicate without ambiguity, what happens when non-English speakers use your site?

Travis, David. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Localization

How to Prepare a Localization Kit  

Today, companies need to localize their products in order to compete effectively in the global markets. Preparation of a complete localization kit is the first step in a successful localization project. A localization kit serves both client and localizer to streamline the process from the onset and allow for optimum allocation of resource, time and budget management.

Olcer, Sedef. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Language>Localization

How To Select the Right CAT Tool Solution

This article lays out a framework for selecting the right Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool solution based on a number of characteristics of the translation environment.

SDL International. Articles>Language>Localization>Software

i18n Gurus

An open directory of links to internationalization (i18n) resources and related material.

i18nGurus.com. Organizations>Language>Localization>Unicode

The Impact of Globalization on User Interface Design

Did you ever try to use a machine that has been programmed in a foreign language? Or perhaps, even with an unfamiliar character set? Suddenly everything seems to be different although only the language has changed. This is the situation faced by many foreign users that work with German machines.

Zühlke, Detlef, Alexander Bödcher and Kersitn Röse. Tekom (2006). Articles>User Interface>Globalization>Localization

The Importance of TMX for Translation Tool Buyers

In June of 1997, a small group of individuals representing the major buyers and providers of translation tools and services began a process that will have dramatic benefits for the users of translation tools. With the momentum of Microsoft behind it, that group began defining a standard for exchanging translation memory data between translation tools. This definition has been recently published by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) as the Translation Memory eXchange (TMX) standard. Defined as a Document Type Definition (DTD) in SGML, this standard defines vendor-neutral conventions for storing translation memories in a manner that allows them to be uniformly exchanged between any tool of any vendor adhering to the standard. So how will TMX affect the translation tool market and what does it mean to current and future users of translation tools?

Briggs, Brian M. SDL International. Articles>Language>Localization>Software

Improving Translatability And Readability With Syntactic Cues  

'Syntactic cues' are function words and punctuation marks that indicate syntactic relationships. Research in psycholinguistics, reading, and reading in a foreign language has shown that readers rely heavily on these cues to help them analyze and predict sentence structure. Yet technical writers and editors routinely eliminate many of these cues from their writing in the mistaken belief that they are improving readability. This workshop will show you how to use syntactic cues not only to improve readability, but also to eliminate ambiguities that cause problems for translators. This approach does not require knowledge of grammatical terminology, and it will increase your sensitivity to many subtleties of the English language.

Kohl, John R. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Improving Translatability and Readability with Syntactic Cues    

More and more technical writing is being translated from English into dozens of languages for use worldwide by readers who have varying degrees of fluency in English. More and more technical documents are translated using computer-assisted or machine translation and are then post-edited by human translators whose first language usually is not English. As a result, more than ever before, technical writers need to be aware of syntactic ambiguity in order to ensure the most accurate, timely, and cost-effective translation. This manuscript explores an approach to writing unambiguously that is based on research from several disciplines. In addition to facilitating translation, the syntactic cues approach improves the readability of technical documents for both native and nonnative readers of English. The manuscript discusses considerations for integrating the syntactic cues approach into established documentation processes and also provides a procedure that helps technical writers learn to use syntactic cues effe

Kohl, John R. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Review: INDLISH: A Book for Every English-Speaking Indian

At last, a book on what ails English in India! Why do we speak the way we do? Why do we switch to the passive voice in English, though we keep to the active in our mother tongues? Why are our letters long and wordy and yet can't get the point across? Why are our textbooks so wordy, and yet so vacuous?

Srikumari, K.V. Indus (2007). Articles>Reviews>Localization>India

The Institute of Localization Professionals

The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP) has the primary aim of developing professional practices in localisation globally. TILP is a non-profit organisation, owned by its members and lead by a Council elected at its Annual General Meeting.

TILP. Organizations>Language>Localization>Professionalism