As translators, we worked with a .docx file. However, the original file was html. Please click the image to open a png screenshot of the original blog post.
This, and all projects begin when the client shares a source file with our project manager (PM).
But this can lead to problems with any translation, so we educate the client– extracting text from a PDF is time-consuming and can result in inaccurate formatting, poor translation, or loss of text.
Languages The original (source text) for this project was an English language tour guide for visitors to Paris.
In 2021, France announced plans to increase government funded educational initiatives in French-speaking Africa. So, French was chosen as the target language to reach the blog’s growing audience of French speaking students and tourists coming from Africa.
The document properties confirmed that the file originated from a word document (.docx), which the PM was able to get from the client.
Confirming the Project Deliverables With new clients we always present a Statement of Work. We find it is crucial to involve the client and their project reviewers from the outset, so they understand the translation process and why each step is essential.
The first meeting is a place where you can impress the value of your work and convince the client that skipping steps during translation creates unnecessary risk and can lead to dissatisfaction.
TRANSLATORS TIP | THINK FROM THE CLIENT'S PERSPECTIVE
A Statement of Work is like an invoice and a contract in one document. The clean, visual format encourages the client to actually read the text.
Remember to:
check spelling and grammar
show the client you’re saving them money by notating any and every discount(s)
be persuasive and professional with your presentation
ALWAYS get a signature before beginning a project
If the client insists on skipping steps, have them sign an “Acknowledgement of Risks” addendum
An Executive Summary or Table of Contents draws attention to the most important information. But, don’t forget to include the essentials!
TEnTs (TRANSLATION ENVIRONMENT TOOLS) |
Trados is considered to be one of the most versatile TEnTs (Translation Environment Tools) on the market. It is able to extract text from multiple file types so you don’t have to copy and paste.
We imported the English source .docx directly into TradosStudio 2021 for translation.
Trados is a powerful TEnT. It show well words in the translation memory match translations our company has already completed for this client. If the translation match is 100% and above, we won’t charge the client for those words. As the percentage of a match decreases, the charge increases because it will take the translator more time to determine the appropriate word choice or phrase.
Trados is considered to be one of the most versatile TEnTs (Translation Environment Tools) on the market. It is able to extract text from multiple file types so you don’t have to copy and paste.
We imported the English source .docx directly into TradosStudio 2021 for translation.
TIP | FOLLOW THE PROPER PATHWAYS
Every TEnT is a little different but they all have a prescribed project flow. Following the document flow will save you a lot of headaches in this TEnT. For example, if you don’t have a project manager to delegate tasks, your translator may not be able to edit a project package.
The Project Manager should act as a hub for all files. They send and receive files after translation or review. The project package is like a ZIP file that can be assigned to team members (with the “Create Package” function). After performing their tasks the translators, editors, and reviewers send “Return” packages back.
If you skip over the Project Manager you’ll notice that the Translation Memory doesn’t updated properly, tracked changes won’t appear in the project, or you could end up with a missing termbase!
These problems can also occur if you don’t save your files. To avoid problems always close the files to get Trados’ automated pop-up alert asking you to save your changes.
TEAMWORK & LESSONS LEARNED |
Frequently, the translation team is located in different time zones and countries. In a team like this communication must be clear and timely. Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp allowed us to stay in touch. Meanwhile, Google Drive and Zoom supported seamless engagement.
Project-flow obstacles and time constraints made it difficult to balance the workload. Luckily our team is supportive and when we didn’t meet internal deadlines, team members voluntarily took on additional tasks.
Developing and maintaining good team habits means a more efficient work-flow. We learned how valuable the Project Manager is. If they assign roles from the outset, according to the prescribes workflow, we save precious time.
A commitment to learn why we encountered problems resulted in our team learning a lot.
When our client increased the number of words for the translation, the Engineer had to restart the project. She followed the translators’ instructions to align the original shortened source document with the new full-length word document to preserve the Translation Memory.
TIP | MAKE IT VISUAL
The project integrator, created and modified the SOW using InDesign
The client appreciated the simplicity and the visual presentation of data.
CRITICAL SKILLS |
In addition to using Trados, we had to perform some post-editing.
Our Style Guide reminded us that French requires spaces before punctuation like colons ( : ).
While Trados has powerful machine translation, it doesn’t always catch these mistakes and it would have cost the translator valuable time to do this manually. Normally, we would perform a ‘find and replace’ to fix multiple similar errors but you can’t just replace all the colons in html because that would break the hyperlink code.
Instead, we used RegEx (Regular Expressions) to search for all the colons that were not part of hyperlinks, and then we replaced them with a space and a colon.
The RegEx we employed to perform this task will stay in the French translators tool belt for future projects.
We kept bast practices of localization (l10n) and internationalization(I18n) in mind.
Psuedo-translation was preformed early on. It showed us some issues to correct.
Based on the psuedo-translation we knew we needed to modify the source document – we cleaned up inconsistent formatting to save time in the future in the event that the client requests a new language-pair translation. This also avoids problems such as text flow issues (caused by orphaned lines), and includes adding kerning in place of multiple paragraph tags, or creating tables to keep data aligned.
The target file looks bad when you don’t start with a clean source document. Always modify the source to make sure formatting is consistent, hyperlinks are properly integrated, and paragraphs break as they should.Formatting inconsistencies are very important for this project. Check sizing of photos and make sure the source and target match.
Building and confirming the glossary during translation, and delivering an updated style-guide ensures that client preferences are met and their expectations are exceeded
CONTACT ROBIN |
How can we work together to provide access to education?
Did you know that Robin provides freelance localization and photography services?
. 
Please click the image to open the PDF.
Please click the image to open a PDF.
Please click the image to open a PDF.
