Re: Controlling translation costs

[Betty Keddy <bkeddy -at- MC -dot- COM>]

About five years ago while
I was writing for Digital Equipment Corporation's
International Systems Engineering group
(before I was "right sized"), they
published "Developing International
User Information," a book for writers,
editors, and graphic designers.  It provides
help in planning for localization and translation,
as well as designing, writing and illustrating
international user information.  The ISBN
number is DP ISBN 1-5558-84-X  if anyone
is interested.  I think it is still available.
 I know that another book from that group
on developing international software, which
was created about the same time, is still
available.

Regards,
Betty

Barb
Philbrick wrote:
>One
way to keep costs down is to have a well-prepared
document.
>
>A few years ago,
there was an article in the STC journal titled
>something
like "Improving Translatability Using
Syntactic Cues."
>
>Unfortunately,
I can't find the article in this mess I
call an office,
>but one of the things
I remember was to leave in cue words that
we
>sometimes take out as native speakers.
For example, we often leave out
>noun
markers such as "an" and "the.
(There's also a situation where we
>leave
out "that," but I can't think
of a good example right now.)
>
>By
leaving in all the cue words, you can reduce
the number of
>questions and potential
mistakes the translator could make.
>
>Another
consideration is layout. If the translation
firm is doing the
>layout, make sure
you leave enough room for callouts and in
the layout
>for potential increases
in text length in the new language. I've
heard
>this is a particular problem
with German.
>
>That's all the
wisdom I can scare up today.
>
>Good
luck,
>
>Barb
>
>On
Sat, 8 Nov 1997 20:51:48 -0600, you wrote:
>
>>
Tom Lange wondered about how to control
translation costs.
>> Here's the
best tip of all: edit the documents rigorously
>>
beforehand. A clear, easy to read and understand
document
>> is also easy to translate,
and that means lower costs.
>>
>>
--Geoff Hart     @8^)     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
>> Disclaimer: Speaking
for myself, not FERIC.
>>
>Barbara
Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
>Technical
Writing