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| Preparing your information for translation will help ensure it is translated effectively and correctly:
- Identify changing content on Web staging servers, in databases, or in other relevant repositories. Create a management process to decide what needs to be done before this information can be deployed to country Web sites. Possible choices include:
- Do nothing, because the information should not be deployed internationally.
- Do not translate but deploy this information to the country Web sites in English, as is.
- Translate and localize this information for a defined set of countries and languages.
- Re-author and adapt this information for each target country.
- Select content creation tools that will support the range of required languages and character sets that will support the translation process.
- Separate information from any executable code.
- Design the information layout with expansion factors in mind. Otherwise, you (or the translator) will be re-designing the user interface as part of the translation process. For example, the word "Industries" in the IBM universal masthead takes more room when translated into "Secteurs d'activité" in French. In the Asian double byte languages, the need for a larger type size creates vertical expansion. Be sure to leave vertical expansion room in graphical images and buttons. A good rule of thumb is to allow 30% additional space for horizontal expansion, but for keywords and small amounts of information, more room is usually required. Here is a guide:
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Number of characters in text |
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Additional physical space requires |
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Up to 20 |
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100% to 200% |
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21 to 70 |
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50% to 100% |
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More than 70 |
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30% |
- Provide for flexible variable order and position. When a sentence that contains substitution variables is translated into another language, the position and order of the substitution variables may have to change.
- Ensure that messages and other information are complete sentences. Do not construct sentences from parts of sentences. A phrase or word that can be inserted into several English messages may require a different case, gender, or plural ending when translated into other languages. Similarly, do not construct individual words from word fragments.
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Continue to Cultural sensitivity
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