Unifying your Content Developement and Translation Strategies by Lisa Pietrangeli

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SmartDocs
Unifying your Content Development and Translation Strategies: What, why and how?
Presenter: Lisa Pietrangeli
Managing Partner and Executive Director of Operations and Business Development
ThirtySix Software
@36Software@LavaCon

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Questions for you:
Which of you are already translating content?
Which of you are already working with a content reuse process and/or tool?
Which of you are working with regulated content?

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Our goals for today – So much to do!!
•Define common translation technology
•Discuss component content and translation reuse
•Explore how tools can support and unify content development and translation processes
•Address challenges such as: review and approval, handling cultural differences, and working with remote teams

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Let’s get on the same page
We can all agree that component content reuse is a good thing. Some benefits are:
•Improved consistency
•Reliable reuse of already-approved content
•Ability to track usage and history
•Easy updates, automated document generation, reliable reuse across people and departments, centralization, collaboration, etc.
•Saves money and time and headaches and inconsistencies…shall I go on?

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Content Strategy First
What content will be reused?
Where will it be reused?
Who will need to reuse it?
How is it going to be reused?
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Identify Reuse Opportunities

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Your words…
Every word you choose impacts translation
Simplicity
Clarity
Consistency

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Choosing your words
Simplicity
•Simple sentence structure
•Self-contained sentences and phrases
•Avoid too many modifiers long-term surveillance test planning
•Avoid idioms and slang
Consistency
•Single term = single use
•Keep word choice consistent, avoid unnecessary synonym use or words with like meanings in the same context
•Terminology
Clarity
•Avoid nominative pronouns – restate objects for clarity
•Avoid unnecessary homographs, especially words that can be nouns or verbs
•Do not write negative words to represent a positive idea*
•Use words in the context of their most common definition
•When is an image or symbol a better option?

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Why does your content development process impact translation?
•$$$
•Consistency and quality
•Timelines
Tools of the Trade:
Translation memory vs. Translation reuse

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Translation reuse technology
Machine Translation (MT) – The application of computers to the task of translating texts from one natural language to another.
Translation Memory (TM)- A translation memory system stores the words, phrases, and ‘segments’ that have already been translated, in order to aid human translators.
Translation Reuse– Applying previously translated text on the component level that is contextually accurate regardless of document or output.

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•Human vs. Machine
•Quantity vs. Quality
•Tools and Translator qualifications
•Content development
•Resources and knowledge base accessibility
Why does translation have to be so *^!% expensive??

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Translation Memory:
•What do you send?
•What do translators see?
•What do they need?
•What is their process?
•What are you paying for?
How do translators work with your content?

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Matchmaker, matchmaker…
A 100% match is 100% dependent on the consistency of your source content.
Source: The cat is black.
Update 1: This cat is black.
Update 2: The Cat is black
Update 3: The cat is black!
Update 4: The cat is brown.
Update 5: The cat is black. (again)

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Example: 1000 word topic that you can reuse
•$.20 per word = $200
•$.06 for review every time it comes out of the TM = $60
•$.00 per word if it’s dropped into your document already translated
Your words in dollars and cents

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Translation Reuse
How is translation reuse different from translation memory?
–Cost
–Timing
–Quality
–Consistency
–Structured vs. unstructured
–Review

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What does your process need?
Three Key Elements
•In-Country Reviewers
•Terminology Management
•Language-specific style guides

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Some definitions of terms
Localization - The process of adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and desired locale
Translation - The rendering of something into another language or into one's own from another language
Internationalization – The process of designing a product so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without design changes.

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In-Country Review
•Who is qualified to act as reviewer?
•At what point in the process should reviewers be involved?
•How will they receive content?
•How will they provide feedback?
•How will you implement their feedback?
–Final content
–Updating CMS and TM

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Cultural considerations
•Different language pairs will have unique requirements
•Be mindful of cultural reactions to review
•Partner with your translation vendor for best results
•Treat ICR as an opportunity to bridge gaps

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•Before or after a writing project begins?
•Before or in conjunction with translation?
•Adding a new language to your termbase
•Translating terminology from scratch
•Mining a TM
•Identifying DNT (Do Not Translate) terms
•Translation team – collaborative approach
•ICR involvement
Creating and managing a termbase

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•Who needs to be involved?
•How should terminology be managed?
•What can be automated?
•How do you know terminology has been used accurately and consistently during authoring and translation?
Managing Terminology:
Making and enforcing the rules

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•Excel term base with all languages
•Stored on company server but with internal access only
•Distributed via email
•Monthly phone calls to review any potential changes, to discuss current projects, and share updated information if necessary
•Quarterly TM share
•In-Country Reviewers (ICRs) part of process
Example: Terminology and TM Maintenance

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Design Elements
•Text styles: Fonts, colors, sizing…
•Software references, screen text and buttons
•Notes, Warnings, Cautions
•Procedures
•Icons
Style Guide: Language Considerations

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Acronyms, Screen references, Company or Product- specific terms
•DNT (parenthetical translation)
•DNT (translated definition)
–1st occurrence or every occurrence
•Transliterate
•Quick reference guide
•Glossary
Style Guide: Handling DNT (Do Not Translate) Terms

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•Deviation from standard rules of the target language
–Example: Source language title case
•Approved fonts for specific languages
–Character languages
–Italics and bolding
•Measurements
–Provide Imperial and Metric? Change order?
–Example:
•US – 3.6 in (9.144 cm)
•Euro – 9.144 cm (3.6 in)
Style Guide: Making the rules clear

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•Maintaining pagination
•Blank pages
•Page number requirements
•Revision numbers
•Update document dates
•Include language code
•File naming
Style Guide: Making the rules clear (cont’d)

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Just do it…
If you don’t, it will hurt…and nobody wants that
A months-long project can turn into years
Project cost will far exceed budgets
Cultural issues cost companies millions
Content Development and Translation as One Strategy

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Lisa Pietrangeli Visit me at Booth #5 in the main exhibit hall
lisap@thirtysix.net
+1 585-943-5059
Contact me with questions and for handouts