How to translate your website. An overview of the steps to take if you are about to embark on a website localization project.

Transcription

1 How to translate your website An overview of the steps to take if you are about to embark on a website localization project.

2 Getting Started Translating websites can be an expensive and complex process. How it ends up can really depend on how you start. Here are some points to consider before you get started: Content Maintenance: If you are continually updating your primary language website, how will you keep the other language versions of your website in sync.? User Technology: How do your local customers connect to the Internet? Do they have high-speed connections? Will most visitors use mobile devices or desktop screens? Brand Identity: Do elements such as colors, imagery, or icons create negative impressions within the local market? Are there specific regional preferences you need to consider? Navigation: Is the site layout and navigation intuitive for users across locales? Search Engine Optimization: Which search engines are commonly used? How do rankings and experiences differ across regions?

3 Multilingual Content Management Nearly all modern websites are powered by a content management system of some sort, but very few support multilingual content. At Straker Translations, we actually started out life as a technology company, building multilingual content management, so we know a bit about this. In most cases what we see is that customers use their CMS to create multiple versions (copies) of their website and the normal process is something like: Export the source language content from the original web site in a structured format Send for translation Content is translated Get the translated file back Import the translation into the new copy site Structured Content Most CMS systems will export content in XML format. The most common XML formats are XLIFF (a global standard for language structures) and RESEX. Glossaries and Reserved Words A lot of web content is marketing related so it s important that glossaries and reserved words are surfaced to the translator during the translation process. In Context Review After the translated content is imported into the copy site it is important to get the translators to do an in-context review. Even better though is for the translators to use a tool like the Straker Transl8 workbench, that allows translators to see the translation in-context as they work!

4 Keeping Content Up To Date Once you have completed the first round of translations, the next issue is how you keep content synchronised. Ensuring that every time content is updated in the source language of the website, translations flow through to the target languages in the site. Content is changed on the source language website Your CMS fires an event and sends the content off for translation The content is translated Issue #1 What happens if only a small part of a page is changed? How does the translator know to only change the segment that has changed to keep the cost down? Issue #2 How are plurals and male/female verbs dealt with? In many languages there is a big difference in how sentences are articulated based on the gender of the person it is being directed at. The translated content is imported back into the target language CMS (normally via an API) Issue #3 Images and digital assets - are these also made multilingual?

5 Instant Multilingual Websites If your CMS does not make it easy to support multilingual content, there are now tools to create clone websites that display and synchronize translations and require minimal changes or development on the client's website. These work by first creating a clone of your website for each language and giving it a unique URL (e.g. de.myclonesite.com), then exporting the content to be translated and adding a marker for each segment of content so the translation can appear in the same location on the translated site. Once the translated content is completed, it is imported (or directly translated in the site) into the new language clone of your website. For some websites this is a very easy and powerful way to create professionally translated versions of your website with no technical requirements at your end. Content is changed on the source language website An event is fired in the system that notifies it to get the new content translated The content is dispatched for translation The new language content is imported into the foreign language site

6 API An API (application programming interface) is the way that web applications talk to each other across different computers. They are the wrapper around an application that makes it easy to send data between systems. Most CMS systems have an API to enable the automation of data movement between platforms. With the speed at which content is created and needs to be translated, it is very difficult and cumbersome to do this without the use of an API that connects the web CMS with the translation platform you are using. Common Language To make it easy for different systems to understand each other, data is sent in formats that both systems can understand. The data structure for these formats is called XML, and there are several standard XML formats for sending and receiving language data. Here are a few of the more common formats: XLIFF - (XML Localization Interchange File Format) is an XML-based format created to standardize the way localizable data is passed between tools during a localization process. XLIFF was standardized by OASIS in RESEX - is a Microsoft format for language exchange but is very popular for other software vendors and systems. At Straker Translations (where we run Mac and Linux servers), we think RESEX is the best language exchange format..po - a php localization file format.

7 Translation v Localization Localization is the process of producing or adapting your company s software, documents, marketing materials, and websites for the target market you desire to enter. This is one of the most important components of successfully taking your products and services into international markets. Localization is the process of adapting all aspects of a website to meet the language, cultural, and other requirements of a specific target environment. The goal of the localization process is to provide a product with the look and feel of having been created for the target market to eliminate or minimize local sensitivities. When visitors arrive at a website that has been well-localized they should be comfortable and know that it was designed specifically for them, rather than feeling that the people in their market were simply an afterthought. Often we find companies have developed reasonably generic content that can be used across countries and geographies so a standard translation is enough. Translation is a key part of the localization process but physical page modifications, color and graphics may also need to be changed to fully localize the website.

8 Multilingual character encoding You have probably seen websites where some language characters appear as?????. This is due to character encoding. For Latin based languages such as English, French, German and other European languages, this is not an issue but, for what are called double byte character languages such as Chinese or Japanese, this can be a problem. Why does it happen? It happens because somewhere in the content chain (either display, transport or storage) the encoding is incorrect. There is an encoding format called UTF-8 (UCS Transformation Format 8-bit) which is a variable-width encoding that can represent every character in the Unicode character set. At the very minimum, UTF-8 should be used for when developers are building websites. For some languages UFT-8 may have issues - particularly Japanese and Hindi, and using a language specific encoding such as Shift JIS (Shift Japanese Industrial Standards) for Japanese would be recommended.

9 Do you need a perfect translation? One thing to consider is whether you need a perfect translation for your website on the first iteration. The great thing about the web is that content is relatively easy to update, so you can treat translations in much the same was as you might a software build cycle. The major upside in using an iterative approach to translating your website is that it saves on both cost and time. It also allows for input from in-market partners or customers who speak the language and can give constructive feedback. Consideration has to be given to the fact that a less than perfect translation could have some affect on your brand but we have found quite the opposite. We have found customers are grateful that the site is translated and understand that not everything would come across exactly as intended early on. We are not talking about obvious typos, spelling errors or incorrect grammar, more about the context of the translation not being the best it could be in some cases until it has been through a few iterations and had some feedback. The main thing is to consider an iterative approach as an option.

10 About Straker Translations Straker Translations is a world leading translation service provider and uses its pro-priority cloud-based translation platform to deliver translations faster and more cost-effectively than traditional translation providers without compromising quality. info@strakertranslations.com