I'm Published! Multilingual Magazine

Hi readers, great news! for me at least. My article: "Internationalized desktop publishing difficulties" just came out in "Multilingual Computing Magazine" If you've read my previous blog posts, you'll know that I have written about the horrors of poorly constructed documents that still give me nightmares. This article highlights some basic tools and ideas that you should keep in mind when creating your next document. Check out the excerpt below:

Internationalized desktop publishing difficulties LIONEL LIM

The process of translating documents involves several specialized activities in addition to translating content from one language to another. A major step in the translation process is the desktop publishing (DTP) of translated content so that the final product closely matches its English counterpart. When you are ready to translate your document, provide your language service provider (LSP) with the name and version number of the DTP application and the platform (Mac or PC) you are using for the English document. You should include the source files for your English documents in the original application, and you should indicate ... To read this entire article you must be a MultiLingual subscriber. For immediate access to the current issue, subscribe to the digital version. Already a subscriber? Above excerpt taken from the March 2009 issue of MultiLingual published by MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864-1495 USA, 208-263-8178, Fax: 208-263-6310. Subscribe

March, 2009

ICD in Action

Recently, the ICD sales and marketing team (trade show warriors) attended (invaded) trade shows from DC to Montreal. They have been traveling so much, that some of them have packed their entire wardrobe and then some (Mads). Well, here are two pictures from a recent show in DC. The first one above is Catherine expressing the importance of translation and why it's important to consider quality over lower prices, while Sandy gives her winning smile and shows us what a true trade show warrior can handle.
Jeff is pictured below enjoying his time behind the booth after hours of walking the show, and collecting signed POs.


Well, here's to more successful shows in the future. ICD's trade show warriors are currently taking a much needed vacation from the floor, and they'll be back on the road this Summer.

French Canadian Week

Well, this week was unofficially "French Canadian Week" here at ICD. Catherine and Madeline went to Montreal for 3 days to meet with clients, and attend a Trade show. While I had to deal with some interesting French Canadian projects. No, we really don't have language weeks, but it might be fun to have a language week. Maybe we could sample food from that particular country where the language originates, blog about a particular project in that language, and even dress in the local costumes (this might be stretching it a little).

Anyway, the French Canadian project I had was placing French Canadian translations and English text for a bi-lingual label. First off, the label was designed for one language, so the bi-lingual label had to have smaller fonts so everything would fit. Secondly, the client wasn't familiar with the idea or concept of a bi-lingual layout, which is ok, and I fielded a lot of questions about it. So, the project was finished and it was English/French Canadian, and the client asked if it was appropriate for English to go first followed by French Canadian. Generally, this is the accepted layout, but I did ask my translator in Montreal, and his response was rather interesting: " The bilingual version made for Quebec is fine as-is, but could be made 'French before English', which would be more appropriate since the majority of Quebecois are French-speaking. However, Canadians, whether they are Anglo or Franco, are very used to seeing both languages side by side. This bilingual version for all of Canada would also address French-Canadians living outside Quebec."

Well, this comment is interesting because I found out today from Catherine upon her return from Montreal, that the government of Quebec requires that if a child born to two Quebecois (French Canadian speaking couple, both parents are from Quebec) are ONLY allowed to attend schools where French is the medium of instruction. The government does this to maintain the French heritage and culture in Quebec. I just thought this was an interesting way to sum up French Canadian Week, plus I learned a little fact about Quebec and the French Canadian culture.

How to Tango with Lingo

The ICD production room heats up every time there are files that are incompatible with SDLX™ or Trados™ . We have to find a work around, and it's usually more complicated or costly. Fortunately, the guys at MadCap Software™ decided to create Lingo that allows translation companies to work with files created by Flare™ and Blaze™ (MadCap's help file software). They were thinking ahead instead of waiting for SDLX or Trados to come up with a filter.

What it basically does is allow a translator to translate content from Flare into an SDLX environment without using SDLX. So you get the SDLX translation environment (left column source language segments/ right column target language segments) in Lingo, and it also allows you to create a translation memory for content reuse, and a TMX (Translation Memory eXchange) so you can import/export the file to SDLX or other translation tools. It also eliminates the problem of content transfer or extraction from a Madcap program into another software program. What it does not do is analyze the files for repeat content (saving you money), and build a memory from previously translated files.

One more thing, Lingo does not translate the content for you. Automated translations like Google translate are crappy and only work for very simple sentences or independent words. Technical terms and sentences with context value are usually inaccurate with automated translations. Therefore, if you are using Flare or Blaze, you can acquire Lingo, import the Flare or Blaze file, export your content as a TMX, and send the TMX file to the translation company. They'll analyze the file and translate the TMX. You get a translated TMX back, you import it in Lingo and you have a translated help file.

Well, thank you MadCap for thinking ahead, and reducing the stress for all of us in the translation and localization business.

Esprit d'ICD Winter 2009

The Winter 2009 issue of ICD's newsletter is out. The newsletter features a great article on recycling electronics. As we become a greener society, I think this article gives some helpful points about the process and how you can get involved. There is also a small article on DITA. This has become a hot topic in the documentation world as companies turn to CMS technology and XML based content. Madeline Clayton, my blogger in crime is featured in the Employee Profile. Madeline's mugshot is below for Visual representation as you read her profile. You can subscribe to the newsletter by emailing: info@icdtranslation.com

The Changing Face of Trade Shows

My last post got a lot of responses from people, and Jeff from sales decided to share his own experience from a recent trade show. In Jeff's own words and a picture of Jeff, so you can visualize him actually telling you about his experience.

"While attending a trade show in Las Vegas, I had a few observations on how America and thus the world is doing business. This show was traditionally among the top five attended trade shows annually in Las Vegas. This year attendance was down 35% from last year. Sad to say, last week the Las Vegas Convention Bureau announced that hotel occupancy for the first week of February was down 40%. Not good news for Vegas for now, but in the long run, maybe.

AHH, but not all is lost. When I was walking the show, talking with exhibitors I heard good news. The “Looky Lous” or in the construction industry, the “two fisted beer drinkers” were, for the most part, gone. So who was attending? Simple answer, the Decision Makers! As many exhibitors informed me, the number of leads may be down, but the quality of the lead is very high. Instead of construction companies sending a job foreman to the trade show for a week of vacation, the Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents or the Head of Purchasing were walking the floors and looking for deals.

More good news. Like the attendee’s, the exhibiting manufacturers did not have their Regional Sales Manager or National Account Manager working the exhibit booth. They were out working their territories and hopefully selling in this economy, or at the very least letting their customers know that they are still alive. The CEO’s, Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Directors of Corporation Communications, Directors of International Marketing and in some cases Senior Engineer’s were working the booths.

Bottom line, the decision makers from both sides of the isle were there, the equipment was carefully looked over, and pending projects were discussed and even the future was talked about. Maybe the attendance was down, maybe the exhibitors learned it doesn’t take key chains and drink insulators to sell equipment worth $2K to $2M. What it takes is getting back to the basics of doing business. Putting the correct parties together at one time. My comment as I walked away from talking with a VP of this or that company was, “Now lets sell, put America back to work and the World will follow.” To which I would see a smile and two thumbs up!"


Thanks Jeff.

On the Floor

ICD has attended and exhibited at numerous trade shows, and I'm always interested in what the sales team has to say when they return from shows. I know that it can be quite grueling and frustrating when you get rejected, but there are some really interesting conversations that happen on the floor. It's interesting how little people know about the translation and localization industry. I for one never realized how big it was until I started working at ICD. Translations were always on the back burner for most companies. It's on the: "We'll deal with it when we have to" list. No preemptive measures were necessary when exploring a global market because there was no reason to assume that people needed to read and understand the content. Companies didn't care about that, and they figured their distributors, or in-country sales personnel would deal with it.

Well, things have changed, and in our declining economy, translations are not on the back burner. Companies are branching out and trying to increase sales in different markets. They are doing it cautiously though, so prices are an issue, and translation is not cheap. Naturally, they start thinking about translating some marketing material, but they are afraid of spending what little they have on German brochures or a website when they don't know if they can make any in-roads in that market. Is translation and localization a waste of money? That's a question VP's of sales have to ask themselves every time they are approached by a rep from a translation company. It's a risk, but you've got to start somewhere.