In general, people tend to think of translation as the translation of contracts, manuals or medical reports, as well as many other straight forward documents. However, the translation industry has expanded way beyond its original and more traditional paper format, and these days, texts come in various formats, such as websites and many different user interface (UI) strings for different types of software.
These formats present their own challenges and difficulties, and most importantly, the software strings used for the above formats are usually sent to the translation agency without any context, which makes it hard for us to understand, and therefore, translate the strings appropriately.
Key points to keep in mind when preparing your software strings for translation:
- Use appropriate English
- Keep in mind text expansion in other languages
- Be consistent with your messages; this way, consistency will also be maintained in the target language
- Use sentences or phrases that are grammatically correct
- Keep noun gender in mind when creating your English strings, other languages have female/male noun markers and therefore, the correct gender will need to be used
- Avoid unusual markups and control characters
- Provide helpful context when necessary and/or screenshots of your software
- Localise your software for the target language, including graphics, cultural correctness and format
- Once the translation and localisation process is ready, test your software in the target language
How TTS Can Help
The Translation Studio has been translating User Interfaces and Software Strings for over 10 years in multiple languages. We have an expert team of linguists who specialise in software strings translation in most key languages, including Arabic, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Mongolian and many more.
TTS also provides multilingual software testing services and localisation services to help you take your software abroad with an appropriate and relevant message and addressed to the right audience.
For a free consultation on our Software String Translation Services and Localisation Services please contact us for a free quote or discussion via email at info@thetranslationstudio.com or visit www.thetranslationstudio.com and fill in our quote form, and we will be happy to discuss your translation needs.
Would you like to find out more about our services? Click here for a free quote.