Preparing Text for Translation

How do I prepare text for translation?

1. Tell us what you are going to use the translation for. Your specific requirements will dictate how the translation is processed. Are your translations going to be printed? Are they going to be posted on line?
2. Think before you start writing. Make a note of the points you want to make.
3. Ensure the text can be easily understood by a native English speaker.
4. Proofread and finalise the source text before submitting it to be translated. Last minute changes, revisions or corrections may delay the translation process and incur additional cost.
5. Use plain English where possible. Keep your sentences short, use active verbs, provide clear instructions and use lists. Avoid jargon, abbreviations, slang, technical and legalistic terms.
6. Keep your sentence length down to no more than 20 words, sticking to one main idea.
7. Be concise, sincere and imagine you are talking to your reader.
8. Use consistent fonts and formatting throughout your document.
9. Provide context for your main ideas. For example, Intake Officer could mean anything. Ask yourself whether a lay native English speaker could easily understand it.
10. Define acronyms, job titles and department names.
11. Confirm what doesn't need translating and which words need to remain in English.
12. Provide us with a list of fonts used in the source text so that they can be easily matched.
13. Allow for text expansion or reduction of up to 30% of the original.
14. Provide as much explanation and background material as possible, including a glossary of terms or previous translations.
15. Ensure that you can be easily contacted in case of queries that arise during the translation.

How do I proofread my source text?

1. Ensure sure you have a good knowledge of punctuation and grammar.
2. Avoid distractions. Find a quiet spot to do it.
3. Take frequent breaks so that you don't lose concentration.
4. Read the text out loud as this may help you to spot bad grammar.
5. Watch out for inconsistencies in style and formatting, such as font type or size.
6. Read a line at a time using a ruler to guide you without skimming the text.
7. Always do a final proofreading on the hard copy.
8. Get another person to do a final proof of your own work.

How do I internationalise my website?

1. Get to know your audience, their needs and expectations. Where are they from? What languages do they speak? What do they buy from you?
2. Structure your website in a way that is easy to navigate, with headings, subheadings, short paragraph and succinct sentences.
3. Ensure the text is written in a simple, easy to understand language that does not contain ambiguities. Avoid culturally specific graphics and language that contains acronyms, idioms, abbreviation and slang.
4. Maintain consistency of terminology throughout the text, especially when referring to the same concepts in different areas of your web site.
5. Use a variety of date, currency, tax, measurement, sizing and postage formats.
6. Design forms to accommodate various address formats, including telephone numbers, post codes and states or provinces.
7. Provide your international visitors with Frequently Asked Questions or Fact Sheets that aim to answer most of their questions in simple, concise and easy to understand English.
8. Translate essential parts of your website.
9. Test, review and monitor your enquiries and conversion rates.

How do I localise my website?

1. Discuss your project with your website developer. Better still, put them in touch with Polaron so that the various technical requirements can be discussed and resolved at the initial stage of development. For example, your webmaster will need to make a decision on the character set code, which will depend on the languages you intend to have the website translated into.
2. Appoint one person to be in charge of the project, communication and fielding questions between the translation company and your website developer.
3. Plan the management, centralisation and version control of files to ensure consistency.
4. Ensure the source text is written in a simple, easy to understand language that does not contain ambiguities. Jargon, acronyms and colloquialisms can be very difficult to translate.
5. Maintain consistency of terminology throughout the text, especially when referring to the same concepts in different areas of your web site.
6. Prepare a Glossary of Terms and include a list of items such as titles or names that you don't want translated.
7. Depending on the language, allow for text expansion or reduction of up to 30%. This is especially important for graphic files such as buttons containing text.
8. Separate text from graphic files and the code. Indicate whether graphics contain text and will need to be translated.
9. Provide a list of fonts so that they can be matched with the original text fonts.
10. Consider issues of dates, currencies, tax, measurements and sizing and postage.
11. Avoid using apostrophes, ampersand, exclamation and quotation marks in strings.
12. Allow plenty of time and budget for quality assurance and testing.
13. Keep meticulous records of your project detailing what's worked and what hasn't, and measure the outcome of your efforts, once the website goes live.

Free translation resources

You're welcome to use these resources on your website, provided you:

• don't change them in any way
• quote the source (including a link to www.polaron.com.au)
• agree to indemnify Polaron against all losses, claims, damages and liabilities arising out of their use