Frequently Asked Questions – Professional Document Translation Services

Which file formats can you work with?

We can provide professional document translation for almost any format. As long as you provide us with the source files (for example InDesign for translation of pdf documents or robohelp project for help localization) we can translate and format your documentation and make it ready for online publishing or print.

We have an internal team for DTP (Desktop Publishing), can you only provide us with professional document translation and QA?

Our flexible service model allows us to address your individual needs as they arise. For example, we can provide you with translated text and after your DTP department creates localized files, we will perform a localization review and ensure that the final product is ready for release.

What do you need to translate the images?

For image localization, we need the source file of the image such as a .png or .psd. The localization effort will be minimal if the source images are created with best practices in mind. For example, keep the text on a separate layer as separating the image from the text is quite time consuming, especially when we need to do it for every single language. You should also keep in mind that translated text expands by 20 to 30 percent on average so leaving additional room in document design is always a good idea.

How can we make the document translation process easier?

They are several localization hints that are good to know while developing source documentation. Firstly, while you develop your English content make sure that there is consistency in terminology used across the document. For example, if you wrote “click Exit to close the program” on page 1, don’t switch to “to close the program click Exit” on a later page. If you use the same structure for sentences with the same meaning, you may be able to re-use the translated content in future professional document translation tasks. You should address any linguistic inconsistencies before you send the text for translation; fixing mistakes afterwards can be expensive, especially when you translate into multiple languages. Secondly, keep the text simple. Abbreviations, jargon, and idioms are hard to translate and therefore should be avoided whenever possible. If you need to use abbreviations, add the definition of abbreviation at the beginning of the document. Last but not least, remember to keep extra room for text expansion. Depending on the language, translated text expands by 20 to 30 percent on average.

Does the subject matter make a difference in the translation process?

Absolutely. Translation is an art and the process for translating marketing-oriented text is very different from translating legal text. Marketing translation will require close collaboration between our linguists and your product team to ensure the effectiveness of translated collateral. For technical translation, we may need to review related collateral in order to make sure that translation is consistent across the board (e.g if we are translating a help file, we will want to use the user interface as a reference).

Can you use our existing translation memories?

If you performed other collateral (such as a web site) or professional document translation in the past and have a translation memory on file, we can re-use the text to lower your translation expense.

Do you provide DTP services for documents in foreign languages?

We provide professional document translation and DTP services for more than 30 languages. Our engineering team has extensive experience working with foreign character sets including right to left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. Check our document translation services page.