Spark Content

You might think that most of your development team’s involvement in the translation process ends when the UI strings or documentation are complete. But, preparing content for translation isn’t just a matter of making sure that everything is complete in English. You also want to make sure that your translation company has the information and the context that they need to complete translations consistently and correctly. Here are three things that you can provide to your vendor to help ensure that your translated content meets your international users’ expectations.

Provide a list of terms that shouldn’t be translated

It might seem odd to prepare for translation by creating a list of things not to translate. But, this list can be important not only for legal reasons but also to ensure that your translated content uses terms relevant to your users. The main items to consider are product names, words or phrases that don’t have a translated equivalent, and terms that your users prefer to remain in English.

Your legal and marketing teams should be able to advise you on which product names can or should be translated to maintain your brand identity. If you have in-country technical sales members or partners, you can ask them for their insight into any technical or industry-specific terms that should remain in English.

Keep in mind that the list of terms might not be the same across all languages. Don’t assume that what is best for one language also applies to another.

Provide a list of previously translated terms that are important to you

Your translation memory, consisting of all previously translated terms, helps ensure that new translations match your existing translations. But, you might also want to keep a list of important translated terms outside of translation memory. This list gives the translators a convenient reference if they come across any inconsistencies. For example, if you have a specific way to translate a product offering, calling it out helps ensure that it’s the first option that pops into a translator’s mind.

You might also want to rely again on your in-country employees or partners to establish preferred translations for technical or industry-specific terms. Using these preferred terms avoids introducing less-desirable variations into your content.

Provide context for strings and terms

Translators are language experts, but they aren’t expert mind-readers. While the meaning of a string might be obvious to your team, you need to consider those who aren’t immersed in the product or those who don’t see the string in context.

Generally, individual sentences in documentation are considered in the context of an entire paragraph, so translators see the order in which they appear. The surrounding text becomes the context. Translators can also see whether the text is a title, if it’s in a table, or whether it’s part of a larger paragraph. These clues provide enough context so providing anything additional is usually only necessary if you’re documenting new technology or features. Sending a quick summary of the new feature and how it relates to the existing content allows translators to use consistent terminology for all related features. It can also help reduce questions that might otherwise delay the translations.

UI strings, on the other hand, tend to be incomplete sentences or short terms. They are usually arranged in the order they appear in the UI database. You might have one or two strings that come from one area of the product, but those will be preceded by strings from a completely different area. Translators can’t use the surrounding text to help them identify how the word is being used – and, therefore, what translation to apply. If a single word has multiple meanings in English, translators don’t have the necessary information to determine which translation to apply.

You can provide that context by including development comments in your strings. The comments are exported with the strings, giving translators access to this crucial contextual information. Examples of useful notes include a short sentence about what the string is referring to, a definition in the case of ambiguous terms, or information about where the string is being used. Knowing whether the string is a title, field label, or button can help ensure that your translated UI has a professional and polished look.

A little goes a long way

Providing translation instructions for important terms, along with basic context notes for strings, can greatly improve the quality of your translations and keep your projects on track. If you haven’t considered what terms should remain in English or whether there are any preferred translations for your audience, you might be missing out on branding opportunities or risking using an inappropriate translated term. And, if you don’t provide sufficient context for your UI strings, your translation project might be delayed while you provide answers to any questions from your translators. Or, you could end up with a term that is incorrect for the context where you use it.

Compiling these lists might seem daunting, but it can be done in parallel with your coding cycle so you don’t have a bottleneck at the end of the project. If you’re introducing a new product, prepare your legal counsel in advance so they can be ready to discuss product name translations. If you’re adding support for a new language, review your existing terms list and start asking if the same rules apply for the new language. And, as your developers add strings into your string database, have them add notes about how the string is used while it’s still fresh in their minds.

Whether you need help getting ready for translation, or want someone to manage the process from start to finish, Spark can help you meet your translation goals.