Druckansicht | © 2002 – 2025 tcworld GmbH | Seite drucken

Internationalizing your content: Authoring with localization in mind

Localization is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language and culture. Internationalization is the precursor to localization and involves the process of planning, designing and implementing a culturally and technically neutral product, which can easily be localized. Internationalization helps decrease translation cost and speeds up time-to-market by addressing crucial technical, aesthetic, cultural, and linguistic issues at project start-up. It also has the unique advantage of streamlining not only the localization of your content but authoring in general.

Text by Lisa Pietrangeli

Inhaltsübersicht

Internationalizing your content: Authoring with localization in mind

Your company has a product slated for international distribution. Accompanying your product is a complete documentation set that needs to be written, including:

  • Labels
  • Datasheets
  • Installer Guide
  • User Guide
  • Quick Start Guide
  • Training documentation
  • E-Learning
  • Website content
  • etc...

Once all of this content is written, it needs to be translated into several languages. The question is: How can your team write effectively in a short time frame, allow for simultaneous shipment across all regions, and keep the cost down as much as possible?

For starters, involve your Language Service Provider (LSP) from the beginning. True localization renders the translation of content completely transparent, making it appear as if the content was originally created in the target language. Your LSP will be able to offer you valuable advice on images, wording, and layout so that you don't have to ...