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.

Where are we headed? Integrated and Automated Translations

With technology rapidly changing and our need for instant gratification, the translation world as slowly evolved over the years to meet the demands of our fast paced life. The advent of CMS (Content Management Systems) has facilitated this process. It has allowed us to move content from one source to another with email exchanges and zipping files. However, these systems are not cheap, and smaller translations companies are finding hard to understand the integration aspect when a client says: "Can you work with our CMS?"

The complexities vary from one CMS to another, but the clients expectations are often the hardest for translation companies to meet. The integration process is usually the easiest part, if the client is willing to allow the translation company to access their CMS and "grab" approved content for translation. There are also integration technologies like "Global Link" by Translations.com that allow a "seamless" integration between Interwoven a popular CMS that is capable of dealing with translation and localization technologies and SDL Trados.

The bottom line is the amount of work and cost involved for both sides. Current FTP technology and Web based servers can create workflows that allow clients to export content form their CMS and get it to an FTP, and a notification is sent to the translation company, who then downloads the files. The translation company reverses the process for the translation (either through their CMS, or uploading files to their FTP). In this scenario most of the work is handled by the translation company. Overall, integration technologies are common palace and it's more about choosing he right fit then the integration process itself. The challenging part lies in having a editing module where clients can access the translation memory and get translated content as the create or update documentation. A simple integration/file transfer will not accommodate this process. Always test out new technologies first, most companies offer Free Trials, so it's a no brainer.

Multilingual or Not Multilingual, That is The Question? Right

Two weeks ago when it was ridiculously cold in Milwaukee, I had to jump start my car so I could get to work. While in the process of trying to jump start my car, the car's alarm decided to go off , and I frantically tried to disarm it. I could not find a way to disarm it, and I had to consult the owners manual. 8 minutes of deafening noise and evil-eyed neighbors later, I finally managed to disarm the alarm with a few coordinated clicks of the key less entry remote. In those 8 minutes of flipping through the owner's manual of my car, I was shocked to find that the bilingual manual was laid out in weird line by line sections without proper page breaks. So, as I continued to read a sentence at the end of one page and instead of continuing on the top of the next page, it continued to the middle of the next page, while the top section listed the instructions for operating the keyless entry for the trunk. This bizarre bilingual layout got me thinking about the best way to have multilingual layouts for manuals.

I think part of the problem was not planning ahead for a multilingual manual. The cover and index page were in English and since it was for the North American market and specifically the U.S., they decided to place Spanish translations below each English instruction and ignored the re-flow of text and page breaks causing text to jump from one section to another without re-adjusting the images that correspond to the instructions. I think the best way to create a multilingual layout is to have sections for each language. I have noticed that most manuals have this type of layout. The car company in question did revise the layout of the owners manual for the next model year to a trilingual sectioned setup. It looks much better, and it's easier to locate information. By the way, my neighbors still give me evil looks. Once again to those affected, I apologize for the noise.

ICD Christmas Party & Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year Readers. I promise to commit more time to the blog this year. Anyway, ICD had it's annual Christmas party/lunch at The Water Buffalo in Milwaukee. The restaurant was awesome and it was fun to relax and talk with everyone. We had a wacky waiter and Madeline got everyone to try a bottle of Pierre Jacques beer, from Goose Island Brewery. Apparently it had 10% alcohol content, and it was kinda sweet tasting. Besides that I would highly recommend trying The Water Buffalo, the prices are reasonable and the food is excellent.

2008 was a good year for ICD, we grew a little with the addition of Cheryl and Madeline. I got to know Catherine and Dany better and understand the business a little better too. Translation and localization just keeps growing, and the development of new industries and technologies will continue to impact the translation world. Here's to another great year. Welcome 2009.