Tips for Successful Web Site Globalization

Web site globalization can be a complex process if the proper groundwork has not been established in the planning stages. Without clearly established goals and proper planning, web globalization can easily be stalled by a wide range of technical obstacles and linguistic embarrassments.

The following suggestions can be used as guidelines for developing a successful multilingual web site:

TEST THE WATERS FIRST

When globalizing your web site, trying to do too much too soon before completely understanding the many challenges involved can result in failure. Focusing on one language at a time will allow you to experience the “learning curve” of web site globalization without multiple complications.

DEVELOP BEST PRACTICES

Since Finance, Customer Service, Legal, Marketing and many other departments are impacted by the addition of languages to your web site, it is in your best interest to develop best practices for those departments. Create a process whereby updates, feedback, etc. can be utilized by all. The development of best practices allows for smoother transition when additional languages are included on your web site.

HOW WILL YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE FIND YOUR SITE?

You must make sure all the signs (including the foreign markets) are clearly defined that lead to your site as everyone doesn’t always go through the obvious door to reach your site.

Using national flags as graphic pointers can be a problem when a French-speaking person from Canada only sees the flag of France. As your home page may need to greet visitors in several languages at once, it is usually best to allow users to select a language option instead of a flag option.

DON’T IMBED TEXT IF IT CHANGES FREQUENTLY

Scaling back to a less graphics-intensive site makes text management less complex and also allows the site to load faster in the native country.

TEXT EXPANSION

As English does not translate into equal space into other languages, text expansion and contraction must be taken into consideration. Some European languages expand up to 25% when translated from English and Asian languages contract. Therefore, enough space needs to be allocated so that the text can expand and contract without creating space problems that impact the overall design of your site.

THINK IN TERMS OF LOCALIZATION

Localizing the content to the specific requirements and needs of the local audience should include the following:

Time and date formatting

Currency

Writing style

Measurements

Color, image and photo selection

ESTABLISH A GLOBAL STYLE

Develop an international corporate style that will translate well abroad since some words translate better than others. Brand names, clichés and Americanism can be particularly troublesome. International style should:

Be clear and simple

When appropriate, make use of boilerplate terminology, legal information, and brand names that have been “pre-tested” for any translation/cultural problems

Avoid humor

Avoid analogies that don’t make sense in other cultures

KEEP THE SITE MANAGEABLE

Establishing standards for file organization and naming before you build a multilingual site will allow you to better manage files and images. Whatever works best for your organization, your web management tools and platform is basically the best rule of thumb to follow.

COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT FOR YOUR SITE

As you enter the web site globalization process, it is equally important to remember that a web site speaks to the world. Pay close attention to your email and phone support infrastructures. Be clear on your web site as to what types of communication support are provided and what types of support are not provided.

USE IN-COUNTRY TESTERS

The effectiveness of your newly globalized web site won’t be known until it is tested in its target locale. The safest way to do this is to use dedicated, independent testers who can view the web site with various modems, browsers, and systems. Utilization of in-country testers ensures quality and consistency in the verification process.

GO UNICODE!

Unicode is a 16-bit character set capable of encoding all known characters and used as a worldwide character-encoding standard. Unicode is a major component in web site globalization. Almost all operating systems support Unicode as do most major software developers and Internet Explorer.

SCRIPT ERRORS

In order to avoid script errors from occurring that would respond to an error with an English response, the developers need to build scripts that pull text from resource files based upon the language needed. Then, there would be no way that a Japanese user would be thanked in English after submitting an order!

And finally,

NEVER FORGET THE UNITED STATES!

Make sure you understand how translated pages will display on English web browsers. No matter how many languages you ultimately have on your site, remember that there will be a significant number of people within the US who may also want to view the site.

Best practices When Consolidating Translation Memories

There are 3 ways to consolidate Translation memories:

1. Using segmented translated files (Bilingual file) - It is a very simple process, which consists of feeding a translation memory with text segments from translated files provided by the client.

In case you have changed the source text of one or more document translation segments, Translator's Workbench automatically creates a new translation entry. If not, the translation memory is left unchanged.

2. Merging TMs from different vendors - Just open Trados workbench and import "exported TMs" accordingly. There are filters set depending on either client request or the files’ linguistic condition and volume. The most common filters used are:

Keep most recent - means that Translator's Workbench compares the creation dates of the existing translation and the external translation and keeps the most recently created unit.

Keep oldest - it has the opposite effect - the older translation is kept.

Leave unchanged - imported translated segment is always rejected, whenever it is already in the translation memory.

Overwrite - means that Translator's Workbench always imports the external translation and overwrites the existing translation.

Merge - means that if attribute and text fields are the only difference between the imported target segment and the target segment of the translation unit in translation memory, they are merged with the attribute and text fields of the translation unit in the memory. If the translation memory allows multiple translations of the same source segment, Translator’s Workbench creates a new translation unit with a different target segment.

3. Aligning files - This is the most expensive due to the amount of labor and people involved.

A text alignment tool (Trados Winalign) can be used to create a translation memory from previously translated texts (that were not done in a TM environment).

It is a process of creating equivalents, segment by segment, between a source text and the corresponding translated text. The resulting "table of equivalents" will then be imported to a translation memory. Alignment makes it possible to use previous translations that were done without translation support software. Even with the help of Trados Winalign, alignment operations nevertheless require a considerable amount of manual intervention. A linguist is involved to make sure the segments were aligned correctly, and use of filters might also be necessary to convert files into a translation memory friendly format.