Translations

:: Translate - why?

Software - It's a fact that offering a software product in different languages increases sales on the international market. User interfaces like masks and menus are often written in the programmers or software company native tongue. If you are not based in an english-speaking country you most likely have to translate your software into English to reach the global market. But in some countries to really get a broader acceptance your product has to be offered in the native language.

An example: In Germany, Austria and Switzerland nearly every movie shown in cinemas or on TV is translated and synchronized by German speakers. Being spoiled the same service is more or less expected for other media products as well. If your software already made it onto a pre selection list in those countries, having a German version is a big advantage to get the deal! By the way, German is spoken by 100 million people which includes parts of eastern France and Northern Italy as well.

Website - To translate your website into different languages is one of the most cost effective methods to get globalized and to open international markets for your company more quickly. Various institutes made researches on these subjects and their results show that users:

IF the pages can be read in their language!

About 50% of the Internet users do not have English as their native language. Nearly 100% of the 50 biggest companies in the world have an English website, more than 50% additional a German and more than 40% of them have French site as well (source:Goethe Institute, Germany).

:: Our aim

is to be your partner for your translation requirements in the IT sector. We can deal with websites, software, manuals, training material or any other type of digital documentation. You will get the translations back in time and in any digital format you require. And of course we guarantee that the result are of prime quality!

In-house we provide translations for the following languages:

What should be translated around a software product? Here a list of common points:

• menus and information bars
• masks, list headers and forms (field names, buttons, dates etc.)
• text in graphics
• help files
• error messages
• manuals and tutorials
• installation program
• advertising texts, folders, flyers, emails, newsletters
• information on packages, CD's and CD covers
• support informations

To get a perfect translated version of a product all those parts should be processed by the same translation team. It is important to use the same terms and descriptions for the same object in all documents and texts. Otherwise users easily get confused and blame the whole software of being difficult and user-unfriendly.

If you use special hardware drivers or 3rd party tools you also should consider getting a language-adapted version.

:: Website Translation

We can process various file types like HTML, XHTML, XML, CGI scripts, Java scripts, ASP files and more. Text within graphics also can be translated if the graphics are sent in vector-based files like PSD from Adobe Photoshop. If you have special file formats, please email us (include a sample) for clarification. We use Macromedia Dreamweaver and various Adobe products to build and maintain web pages.

Translated text can increase or decrease by 10-20% depending on the languages involved. For instance in English often less words are necessary to express the same than in German. Single words (e.g. on buttons) can vary in length up to 50 %. Keep the various text lengths for different languages in mind when you start to plan the web page layout and the graphics.

When writing a text that will be translated into a foreign language a certain awareness of the various cultures, their habits and standards is benefiting.

Many web pages are frequently updated and the new content has to be online ASAP. For regular customers we keep a database of their specific terms and phrases in several languages to enable the shortest possible cycle time for translations.

:: Translation Process

Behind the screens - Once you send your request for a quote the following steps will be taken:

:: Quality

Choosing an agency for translations is a matter of trust and quality. After all you are giving your software product or your marketing slogans into the hand of a stranger! We will commit to guaranteed quality levels, we will proof our reliability!

To ensure the best service for you our translators are translating into their native language only. Each document is getting cross-checked by another native speaker before it is released.

Translations are always subjective and depending on individual style. While a software text has to be translated literally, the power of a marketing text in a web page should be brought over as well.

At the WEBWORKs FACTORY we have a true commitment to quality and the continuous improvement of the service we offer to our clients.

:: References

Some of our clientes are:

Time Warner Cable, Time Warner, USA
Connex-Gruppe, Germany
NFive Software, Portugal