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Software localisation as a first job Thread poster: Katrine McMillan
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Hello !
Recently, I have been contacted by an agency specialising in software localisation. Actually, they want some information concerning my experience and my work rate in this field. I have no experience at all in software localisation. All I know is that you have to bear in mind the local differences between the source language and the target language (for example, currency, time...) to render them in the proper way and that you have strings to translate and that therefore codes... See more Hello !
Recently, I have been contacted by an agency specialising in software localisation. Actually, they want some information concerning my experience and my work rate in this field. I have no experience at all in software localisation. All I know is that you have to bear in mind the local differences between the source language and the target language (for example, currency, time...) to render them in the proper way and that you have strings to translate and that therefore codes are characters are to be respected: IS THAT RIGHT ??
My questions are the following:
Even if I have no experience in software localisation, is it all the same possible to start right away?? Do I need an intensive training before or can I learn little by little and accept some little jobs in localisation for a start? Can I have an agreement with this agency as a novice at localisation?
I know that there are several interesting localisation software tools. Is it up the agency to choose them or must I buy one/some myself?
Supposing I was eventually offered a small job in software localisation, how much should I charge per hour? (or per character??) What work rate can I/they expect? (all I can tell you is that I have Trados 7.0). What main softwares/tools do I need? What must I bear in mind when asking this agency about the working conditions?
Thank you for giving me some advice !
Katrine ▲ Collapse
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Margreet Logmans (X) 
Netherlands
Local time: 15:31
English to Dutch
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There's a book you ought to read:
A Practical Guide to Localisation, by Bert Esselink.
It will answer most of your questions and give you a good idea of what you need to know.
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 06:31
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
Different operation systems use a different jargon (Mac, Windows, Linux..)
Try to stay concise and avoid exceeding the existing length of the text, especially with buttons. If the agency is good they will provide you with the number of characters allowed. Try to get screenshots of the existing software. CAT-tools are handy when it comes to consistency, however they don't make a translation better in quality. Personally, I prefer to write directly in the desired format. This way I ha... See more Different operation systems use a different jargon (Mac, Windows, Linux..)
Try to stay concise and avoid exceeding the existing length of the text, especially with buttons. If the agency is good they will provide you with the number of characters allowed. Try to get screenshots of the existing software. CAT-tools are handy when it comes to consistency, however they don't make a translation better in quality. Personally, I prefer to write directly in the desired format. This way I have total control and everything will fall into place automatically.
You picked a tough one for your first job. ▲ Collapse
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 07:31
English to Spanish
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In memoriam | No experience | Jun 7, 2008 |
If you have no experience at all in software localization it is unlikely that they will choose you. And in the unlikely event they did, it would be unprofessional to attempt something you do not know how to do.
Study up on it first and then try.
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| You must be right | Jun 7, 2008 |
Henry Hinds wrote:
If you have no experience at all in software localization it is unlikely that they will choose you. And in the unlikely event they did, it would be unprofessional to attempt something you do not know how to do.
Study up on it first and then try.
All in all, I think you are right. That's why I am going to study the book that Margreet talked about (thank you!) first ...Of course I intended to be honest with my customer, I was just wondering how tough it was and if I could do some small jobs in that field first...
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[quote]Nicole Schnell wrote:
Different operation systems use a different jargon (Mac, Windows, Linux..)
Try to stay concise and avoid exceeding the existing length of the text, especially with buttons. If the agency is good they will provide you with the number of characters allowed. Try to get screenshots of the existing software. CAT-tools are handy when it comes to consistency, however they don't make a translation better in quality. Personally, I prefer to write directly in the desired format. This way I have total control and everything will fall into place automatically.
Thank-you very much for these useful informations! You have been very helpful.
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Margreet Logmans wrote:
There's a book you ought to read:
A Practical Guide to Localisation, by Bert Esselink.
It will answer most of your questions and give you a good idea of what you need to know.
In fact I have already heard about this book, so I am decided to buy it this time! Thank-you.
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Marina Soldati
Argentina
Local time: 10:31
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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| other localization resources | Jun 8, 2008 |
You might find this course material from Kent State University quite useful:
You might also want to check the following Microsoft resources. Whether you like them or not, they have set some standards that those working in localizatio... See more You might find this course material from Kent State University quite useful:
You might also want to check the following Microsoft resources. Whether you like them or not, they have set some standards that those working in localization might need to be aware of:
Tobia
PS It look slike the BBcode adds a space to the URLs that point to a specific page, breaking them, so I'll paste them here:
http://appling.kent.edu/ResourcePages/Courseware/Localize/Default.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/getwr/steps/localization/loc_summary.mspx ▲ Collapse
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John Jory
Germany
Local time: 15:31
English to German
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| Consider this one | Jun 8, 2008 |
One of my customers asked me to use the following tool for translating an application. It works like dream
http://www.apptranslator.com/
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 16:31
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| I never thought about it | Jun 8, 2008 |
I got different software localisation jobs up from start in my career as translator and I never thought there were special problems before I encountered them. The first job was done in a DOS-application the customer provided, no possibility to use any other tool.
The biggest practical problem is to make sure the software strings are the same in the software as in the user manual. If they give you first the software strings to translate, mostly in Excel, you have no idea what the software r... See more I got different software localisation jobs up from start in my career as translator and I never thought there were special problems before I encountered them. The first job was done in a DOS-application the customer provided, no possibility to use any other tool.
The biggest practical problem is to make sure the software strings are the same in the software as in the user manual. If they give you first the software strings to translate, mostly in Excel, you have no idea what the software really does and what the best translation alternative is. If you translate first the manual, you often have to shorten the strings later when it comes to translating them in Excel.
A special problem concerns languages, that follow different rules, like Finnish. The customer mostly think sentences can be split at liberty and you just put a variable somewhere, when in fact the variable should obey the grammatical rules also. But this problem you don't have in FR-EN.
Regards
Heinrich ▲ Collapse
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Marina Soldati
Argentina
Local time: 10:31
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| My experience | Jun 8, 2008 |
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
I got different software localisation jobs up from start in my career as translator and I never thought there were special problems before I encountered them...
... The biggest practical problem is to make sure the software strings are the same in the software as in the user manual. If they give you first the software strings to translate, mostly in Excel, you have no idea what the software really does and what the best translation alternative is. If you translate first the manual, you often have to shorten the strings later when it comes to translating them in Excel.
Regards
Heinrich
This is my experience too.
The best approach is to have the Excel file and the manual in the source language, but usually when the client sends the Excel file with the software strings the manual hasn´t been written yet.
You can always ask for clarification when the meaning of the string is not clear.
Some clients send a third column with an explanation of what that command does, this is of great help.
I know there are special tools where you translate the buttons and menus directly in the software, but I´ve never been asked to use them.
Good luck
Marina
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| Learn, then offer | Jun 8, 2008 |
Henry Hinds wrote:
If you have no experience at all in software localization it is unlikely that they will choose you. And in the unlikely event they did, it would be unprofessional to attempt something you do not know how to do.
Study up on it first and then try.
This is exactly my way of thinking. Honesty as the first priority.
But maybe they take you on board if you are honest enough to say that you don't have experience but would love to learn. Localisation is not that very hard once you have been working for some months. After all, I don't think they will ask you to do engineering work, which is trickier. I started as a localiser with no experience in localisation some... er... 14 years ago. Oh my, I'm so old!! 
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| Very interesting | Jun 9, 2008 |
Tobia P wrote: You might find this course material from Kent State University quite useful: You might also want to check the following Microsoft resources. Whether you like them or not, they have set some standards that those working in localization might need to be aware of: Tobia PS It look slike the BBcode adds a space to the URLs that point to a specific page, breaking them, so I'll paste them here: http://appling.kent.edu/ResourcePages/Courseware/Localize/Default.htm http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/getwr/steps/localization/loc_summary.mspx Thank-you, I've just had a look at all this and it is obviously very helpful. Software localisation seems an extremely interesting field. I am going to spend the necessary time to study this all.
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| Thanks so much | Jun 9, 2008 |
John Jory wrote: One of my customers asked me to use the following tool for translating an application. It works like dream http://www.apptranslator.com/
I've just downloaded it and it it seems to be a pretty good localization tool !! It guess it will be very helpful for my self training.
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