Ten Simple Steps to Save 50% on Translation and Localization
For companies doing business globally, success in foreign markets can often depend on the availability of properly translated and localized
user documentation. But translation and localization process can be expensive, time consuming and cumbersome. Unable to cope with the localization costs, companies limit localization efforts or skip them altogether.
With proper planning, localization costs can easily be cut in half. However, this requires more than extracting the best deal from your localization vendor. It requires planning at the time of
developing user
documentation. Experience has shown that the following 10 steps can cut your localization cost by 50% or more without impacting the effectiveness of your content.
- Keep word count as
low as possible.
Translation costs
are calculated on
the number of words
– so it is obvious
to keep the number
of words to a
minimum. And, fewer
words have other
advantages such us
making user
documentation
simpler to
understand and
easier to translate.
And the effect is
multiplied by the
number of documents,
the number of
languages and the
number of future
revisions.
- Keep the use of
screenshots to a
minimum. Screenshots
are an effective way
to communicate the
user interface and
workings of a
product. For this
reason they are
widely used in user
documentation at all
levels. But
screenshots wreak
havoc on translation
efforts. Every
screenshot must be
redone for every
language. Not only
is this cumbersome
and expensive,
sometimes it is
outright impossible
as translators are
spread all over the
globe, with limited
or no access to the
application itself.
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