I met up with a Technical Author at the Technical Communications UK 2013 conference whom I’ve been talking to on the phone over recent months. She’s been trying to convince her bosses that they should take a less chaotic approach to producing user documentation. I’d previously suggested she look at how much it was costing… Read more »
Category: translation tools
Translating and localizing documents – Cherryleaf interview with Lloyd International
Below is an interview between Ellis Pratt of Cherryleaf and Jill Fifoot of Lloyd International. In the interview, we discuss localizing and translating technical documentation. See also our Translation Services.
Does size matter for a technical author?
Pity the poor software project manager who needs to ship their product in ten languages, because today they are looking at roughly £1.20 ($2.20) per word* in translation costs alone. If they have a programmer delegated to develop the online Help or user guide, then every unnecessary phrase, sentence or paragraph they write can eat… Read more »
Manager’s guide to single sourcing: What’s the problem, why is there a need?
I thought it might be useful to look at a simple question: Why is there a need for single sourcing technical documentation? For people who aren’t technical authors, it’s often unclear why technical authors talk so much about “single sourcing”. Isn’t that just cutting and pasting? What’s the problem? In later posts we’ll look at the… Read more »
MadCap Lingo Beta offer
Just received an email from MadCap software announcing the beta programme for their latest application, a translation tool called MadCap Lingo. “MadCap Lingo offers an incredibly easy-to-use interface, complete Unicode support for all left-to-right languages, and a rich list of industry-first features for assisting translators throughout the localization process—including a built-in translation memory system and… Read more »