Everyone needs a little help sometimes. That’s why no software product release is complete without user assistance and support documentation. And any software release that includes multiple markets in multiple languages will, of course, require technical translation of the help section. User assistance documentation translation is usually is the last step before product release, yet this final stage of the release process is complex enough to warrant a process of its own, which can be costly and time consuming if you don’t plan for it. Here are some of our best tips for smoothing the process.
The goals of software localization are pretty clear cut: If you really want to capture the minds of consumers in new international markets, you must speak the language. For over a decade, Acclaro has done exactly that, helping brands large and small localize their software for markets across the globe.
But what’s really under the hood of a smooth-running software localization machine? Quite a bit! To make sure it all works together in perfect synchronicity, we bring an array of tools and talent to each project.
Curious about the nuts and bolts of software localization? Read on, and let our localization mechanics give you the executive tour.
Localized software, like its English counterpart, benefits from pre-launch testing to ensure a smooth release. You may need to look beyond your English testing scope, however, as different languages present their own testing challenges, and there may be code-level variables that need to be adjusted for specific global markets. In today's post, we will cover the most common types of testing we offer and why they're important.
Are you launching your next global app for Android? Android currently holds the lion’s share of global markets, with a whopping 59% of global operating system share and a healthy lead in device share. (Google revealed earlier this year that there are currently one million Android device activations and fifteen billion Google Play app downloads per day!)
One of the well-known downsides to Android is how fragmented its market is, being that it’s multi-carrier, multi-OS, multi-device, multi-screen resolution, etc. However, you can alleviate some of these challenges with a little preparation.
As you begin to craft a localization strategy for going global with your application, let’s take a look at four Android-specific tips that can help you plot your course.
If you're considering creating a mobile app but aren't sure if a global audience will respond, let us reassure you: they will. Mobile apps are hot, and especially so outside the US. In fact, a majority of the fastest-growing mobile markets are found beyond American soil, and mobile app localization has moved from nice-to-have to an absolute must.
However, localization of mobile apps requires some unique considerations, such as the screen size and how much "real estate" it will afford, how much your content will expand or contract in translation, fonts, styles, images, and the various operating systems on which your app will be displayed.
But fear not. Read on for our tips on how to tackle mobile app localization with confidence.
In this cost-savings blog series, we offer tips from our in-house localization experts on how to shave dollars off of your translation budget. Software localization can be especially unruly when it comes to managing costs. This post reviews four ways to set yourself up for serious savings and keep your software localization project on track with your finances.
2012 marks Acclaro’s 10th anniversary and we’re taking a look back at how the translation industry has changed over the past decade. This month, we’re all about software. Mobile devices, in particular, have changed the way software is developed and presented, and our localization and testing procedures change too, as more and more companies offer software to global users. Read on to find out more about the changes we’ve seen and how we’ve adapted.
Unless you work at the UN, real-time translation isn’t always easy to find. Mobile translation apps make it easy to take a translator with you wherever you go. Unlike language apps that teach you a foreign language, translator apps can help you have a face-to-face conversation in an unfamiliar tongue, decipher street signs, and decode foreign phrases without having to acquire an entirely new vocabulary.
When is a software localization project truly done? Is “satisfactory” in the eyes of your user truly enough to protect and promote your business globally? A savvy translation partner will make sure you’re covered in all aspects of going global with your software, not only with the basics of localization, but also with the devilish details described in today's post.
Complete software localization means taking the time to go beyond code prep, translation, editing, cultural analysis and mission-critical testing. In this post we’ll look at six often neglected aspects of software localization and explain why leaving these areas out of your localization project could be a costly mistake.
Launching your software in new languages within global markets doesn’t have to be a “break the bank” proposition. While many companies fear that localization will meet or exceed the costs of their English release, sensible strategic preparation, a little enlightened testing, and a streamlined process can help ensure your software localization project is on time and under budget.
In this post we’ll provide an overview of the top ten tips from our Q4 2011 newsletter article to help you tackle technical translation projects affordably. Taken directly from our experience working with clients on global releases, each tip is designed to minimize headaches and maximize your localization dollar.
When thinking about translation, we know idioms commonly used in English (like "it's raining cats and dogs" or "lame duck") are difficult to translate. But what about simpler things such as names and dates? As it turns out, they’re not so simple when it comes to software localization, as LinkedIn found out in this post on their website. With languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Russian you must understand not only new character sets, but also date ordering (month/day/year? year/day/month? day/month/year?) and even spacing — in our world, these fall under the umbrella term of "internationalization". Let’s take a proper look at proper names in translation.
A localized mobile application is a great way to reach your global customers. However, it's not always as simple a process as making sure your app's language matches that of your user's mobile device or smartphone. There are some things to think about on the development side, which we've neatly summed up in our full newsletter article from earlier this year.
The First Three Steps
of Software Localization
Now that you’ve decided to enter into the rich global software market (after internationalizing your product, of course), what’s next? Well, it’s a fascinating – and fairly complex – process. You’ll definitely want to partner with a localization company that’s skilled and experienced in adapting software to make it easy to use and appealing to your future customers around the world.
Let’s take a look at what goes on behind the scenes at your vendor as they localize your software. We’ll sketch out the first three steps below. And if you’re serious about your pending software localization project, we invite you to read our more thorough explanation here, complete with all six major steps.
Step
1: Preparation and Analysis
The first step is to identify the source files that contain the localizable
text, zip them up and send them off. Your source files may be in formats such
as java properties files, .net resx files, traditional windows resources, xml
or even just text or table formats. Your agency will prepare them for
translation, carefully locking down the non-translatable code to ensure that
the localized software functions exactly as it does in English.
If you’re developing, selling, or
marketing web-based software, standard desktop software, or mobile 
apps, you’ve
probably already heard about internationalization, and you know why it’s
important. If not (or if you’d like a quick refresher), read on.
Internationalization is the process through which you enable your software to handle the language and conventions of your target global markets. Internationalization wipes your product’s slate clean of language bias and removes the assumptions of a “default” culture.
Why is it so important to internationalize your product?
Once upon a time,
a chicken and a pig met and decided to open a restaurant that served only the
best ham and eggs in the land. The pig would supply the ham, an assignment she
took quite seriously as the ham would come literally off her own back. The
chicken would supply the eggs, naturally without the same sense of sacrifice as
our friend the pig.
This charming fable is often used to explain the characters involved with agile software development, with its continuous software releases, self-organizing teams, and fluid team assignments during sprint times.
Scrum masters and
facilitators, dev team members, and product owners are the pigs, with a lot of
skin in the game. Vendors, customers, and managers are the proverbial chickens,
who can 
continue their normal, day-to-day lives.
To understand how localization plays into agile software development, let's imagine that our chicken and pig will soon be opening a restaurant in Mexico that serves chicharrones and huevos.
How can they localize their product for the new language market in a way that makes sense? What questions do they need to answer ahead of time? And what role will each play in the process?
Read on for our quick take on the question of how to get your software localized when developing via the agile model. And get the whole story in this full-length article.
If you’re ready to tap into the growing global mobile app
market, we invite you to sign up for our
upcoming free webinar, designed to help you localize and take your apps to the
world.
Mobile app stores experienced explosive growth last year – and not just for iPhone and iPad. Android, BlackBerry, and Nokia apps increased by huge percentages (up 544% for Android alone), in every category from business and medical apps to entertainment, comics, and casino games.
World-ready has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Interested in learning how to take your software global by making it world-ready? Join us this Thursday for a complimentary software localization webinar and take your first step towards tapping into new international markets.
The global software market today is valued at $272 billion. Europe (key languages include French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese) generates 36% of global revenues, while 22% is generated by Asian-Pacific markets (key languages include Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog and Thai). How can you get your software into these lucrative, international markets?
Our webcast will break down the internationalization and
localization processes into bite-sized, manageable pieces perfect for the
amateur or “localization newbie”. Consider it akin to Software Localization
101. If you have the desire to go global but not a clue as to where to begin,
this is a must-see presentation for you.
Through a series of basic steps, we will highlight the best way to approach the process of internationalizing your software and then adapting it to new foreign cultures. From initial preparation to linguist/cultural adaptation and finally testing/QA, we will demystify this seemingly convoluted process.
Computers across the globe speak the same language – a dialect composed solely of zeros and ones - but we humans make numbers much more complicated. If you are in software and have global ambitions for your program, sooner or later you will have to tackle international treatment of numbers.
Whether
dates, financial figures or something as simple as the time of day,
global-ready software must accommodate different linguistic protocols for handling
numbers. The earlier you approach this
process in your software development cycle, the more money you will shave off
of your production costs..jpg "Software Localization Locale-Awareness")
Let's take time for example. Did you know that there are time zones with half hour increments? New Delhi is currently 10 ½ hours ahead of New York. Time zones in Europe are more standard but time is told differently there than it is in the U.S. 15:30 would seem like a ratio in the States (i.e. there are 15 children and 30 people total on the bus) but in Italy, this number would be interpreted as a time of day: 3:30 pm.
Take today’s date as another example: February 14th, 2011 (Happy Valentines Day!). Here are three different ways to transcribe this date, according to country:
USA: 02/14/11
France: 14/02/11
Japan: 11/02/14
Getting time and date to display correctly in each language market is essential.
The mobile app market is quite literally exploding, and developers are discovering that there is a fountain of new revenue streams from downloads and advertising outside of the US. Are you ready to capitalize on emerging markets? Do you have a mobile app localization strategy?
To make sure you do your mobile app software translation in the most efficient way possible, we'd like to share some tips to guide you through the process...
The mobile application economy will be worth $17.5 billion by 2012, with much of the growth driven by users in emerging markets of the Middle East and Africa, according to a report (pdf) released earlier this year by Chetan Sharma.
In terms of overall download share, Asia was ranked as the top worldwide market in 2009, and North American users accounted for about half of global mobile app revenues.
But these emerging markets — many of which are "skipping" the broadband revolution altogether and going straight to mobile — will account for the majority of revenue generated by the year 2012.
That's big enough news as it is, but when you look carefully at the numbers, you'll find it's an even larger divide. As Sharma points out in the report, per unit revenues are smaller in emerging markets, for both paid downloads and advertising. Volume, therefore, must not only surpass that of Western markets, but by much more than it would with a comparable pricing structure.
Smart, fun and useful. Acclaro shares news and tips on translation, localization, language, global business and culture.