Document Reviews: Web-sites Thread poster: Ritu Bhanot
|
|---|
Hi,
How often does it happen to you that you complete a project and are well into another project, with tight deadlines, when this old document comes to you for a review eg. a website (it takes a few weeks to get it working and you don't know when will you receive it for review, so it is not possible to plan it in you schedule).
How do you manage this?
Do you accept the deadline for review although you are in the middle of something else?
... See more Hi,
How often does it happen to you that you complete a project and are well into another project, with tight deadlines, when this old document comes to you for a review eg. a website (it takes a few weeks to get it working and you don't know when will you receive it for review, so it is not possible to plan it in you schedule).
How do you manage this?
Do you accept the deadline for review although you are in the middle of something else?
Do you wait for payment till the time you've finished reviewing, even though payment is long overdue?
Or do you consider that the payment is due according to the contract eg. 30 or 60 days after completion of the translation work?
I'd like to know what is the general practice in this case that most of us follow.
Thanks in advance,
Best Regards,
Ritu Bhanot
[Edited at 2007-06-09 07:27] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Schnell 
United States
Local time: 01:16
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
I love reviews. I am translating a lot of websites and to get to see the final product "live", after working on this ever-growing thing for months, and to be asked to take care of the final touches is a little bit like Xmas. Paid Xmas, because this review time is paid by the hour.
Don't wait with writing invoices. Agencies appreciate immediate invoices to be able to be on top of their monthly bookkeeping.
If the payment is overdue already - that's a different story an... See more I love reviews. I am translating a lot of websites and to get to see the final product "live", after working on this ever-growing thing for months, and to be asked to take care of the final touches is a little bit like Xmas. Paid Xmas, because this review time is paid by the hour.
Don't wait with writing invoices. Agencies appreciate immediate invoices to be able to be on top of their monthly bookkeeping.
If the payment is overdue already - that's a different story and you shouldn't lift a finger until the original invoice has been paid.
However, review (i.e., the final check if hyphenation was done properly or if the typography of the headlines looks okay, in a nutshell: if this site is ready to be presented to the public) is an additional job.
Unless otherwise agreed, a final review is not part of your translation work.
Edited:
I forgot about the deadline. Don't allow any pressure. The IT-people might give you a virtual hug if they get an additional day. In addition: if you did a terrific job in the first place, the review will go in a snap and will make your day.
[Edited at 2007-06-09 07:45] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thanks Nicole | Jun 9, 2007 |
Actually, I translated a few web-sites some time ago and the payment is actually overdue.
I thought that payment for review was included as what I translated were all .resx files and segmented in a way that when put together they'd look really strange in Hindi. I informed the PM about it in the beginning and had requested for normal html or xml files but was told that this was what he had.
And seriously, this review is a real headache because somehow I can see char... See more Actually, I translated a few web-sites some time ago and the payment is actually overdue.
I thought that payment for review was included as what I translated were all .resx files and segmented in a way that when put together they'd look really strange in Hindi. I informed the PM about it in the beginning and had requested for normal html or xml files but was told that this was what he had.
And seriously, this review is a real headache because somehow I can see characters that are overlapping and obviously the sentences when joined look really strange (so lot of extra work).
And payment, too, is overdue for some time now. According to our understanding it was to be made 30 days end of month from the date of delivery of final work. And I have actually sent the invoices (though it does not really matter because the payment date is from the date of delivery of translated work).
Anyways, I'll discuss it with the PM and let's see.
But as I am actually sick and busy at the same time I find it really tiring to do a lot of it in a day... so it is taking me some time to do it.
Another thing that is a bit of a problem is that no one in the team there knows Hindi (French to Hindi)... so correcting in word (which will be the most suitable thing to do) may actually end up in a lot of mix-up.
Thanks once again for your help.
Ritu
p.s.: I too love reviews when it is not of a text that is segmented the way this one was because this sort of work means extra work in Hindi. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 01:16
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | All this sounds so familiar | Jun 9, 2007 |
I see.
I had similar problems when I started working with an agency that specialized in web site localization a couple of years ago. I don't know about the Hindi alphabet, but we had quite some problems with German umlauts (special characters that wouldn't show properly) and I was a complete idiot in terms of web-design at this time. Over the years we kind of learned from each other and this great client and I have been producing at least a dozen of huge websites since. However, we... See more I see.
I had similar problems when I started working with an agency that specialized in web site localization a couple of years ago. I don't know about the Hindi alphabet, but we had quite some problems with German umlauts (special characters that wouldn't show properly) and I was a complete idiot in terms of web-design at this time. Over the years we kind of learned from each other and this great client and I have been producing at least a dozen of huge websites since. However, web-design IS NOT OUR JOB and the client has to pay your work - i.e., translation.
I nearly broke my back to figure out what I could possibly have done wrong and I even invested insane amounts in web-design training. The most important thing I learned? That it was not my fault.
Since then the client (those guys are neat!) provides all the software needed to make sure that I can meet the technical requirements. I receive the software (they own the licences) at no charge.
However, they never failed to pay me even when technical problems occurred. Such problems are not within the responsibility of a translator. Our job is to provide great translations and great writing.
Doesn't help much, I assume, but that's my experience.
Good luck!
Let's see what colleagues have to say.
Best regards,
Nicole
[Edited at 2007-06-09 08:54] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| Make some pressure on them, too | Jun 10, 2007 |
I cannot decide for you, Ritu, if you should accept revising these webpages, as I don't know how tight your time schedule is...
As a rule, I don't do another translation for a client until the previous invoice has been paid.
You can rest assured that they have received their money by now, so don't run up the invoice....there is too many crooks out there...
Tell them that you would like to help, but you would like them to pay first, full stop.
... See more I cannot decide for you, Ritu, if you should accept revising these webpages, as I don't know how tight your time schedule is...
As a rule, I don't do another translation for a client until the previous invoice has been paid.
You can rest assured that they have received their money by now, so don't run up the invoice....there is too many crooks out there...
Tell them that you would like to help, but you would like them to pay first, full stop.
Another point to consider, as there are problems arising with the type-setting, your invoice is going up and their profit is going down.
Unfortunately it is a bit of a poker game because if you refuse flat to accept, they may refuse to pay you, because they won't find anybody else in a hurry...
In for a penny, in for a pound. From my experience, it is better to see things through to the end than starting to panic, but you also need to draw your line somewhere, I am getting the feeling, you are not so sure about yourself or perhaps the services you provide...
Any feeling like that can be easily picked up by your "partner/opponent" in business... ▲ Collapse
| | | |
Martin, Thanks for your comments.
Regarding my service (or translation), I'm sure that it is of excellent quality.
But I am also aware that these segmentations (the way it was done in these files) do not result in quality results. It is the basic language-structure that is different and such segmentations may give good results in other languages but from experience I know that with Hindi the results are not so good. For Hindi, you need complete sentences.
... See more Martin, Thanks for your comments.
Regarding my service (or translation), I'm sure that it is of excellent quality.
But I am also aware that these segmentations (the way it was done in these files) do not result in quality results. It is the basic language-structure that is different and such segmentations may give good results in other languages but from experience I know that with Hindi the results are not so good. For Hindi, you need complete sentences.
And of course, if I tell them that there are words that are overlapping in the final version (and I did)... they do not understand what I mean because no one there knows the language.
This whole thing was in unicode. And I suspect that they worked on it in a system that did not work well with unicode (eg. below windows XP and word 2003) because there are strange spaces that were not there in the translation I provided.
Anyways, I didn't translate the web-page. I translated a couple of .aspx files. And they eventually somehow merged these segments to get the final web-page.
I am sure of the quality of my translations but I'm not happy with what they did to it
Yes, I'm a perfectionist. And I love Hindi. It would really help if there was someone who understood Hindi at their end as that person would actually understand the intricacies as well as the problems.
Of course, I know I've earned my payment because this was difficult stuff and I did a quality job. But... this review thing is actually bothering me.
How do I explain certain things when they don't know what I'm talking about. For them, all are letters they don't see much difference if there is an extra symbol somewhere resulting from some sort of overlapping on some previous text or something.
For the time being, I've started copy-pasting the text to word files and working in track-changes mode. I've provided the link to the page on top. This is the best I can do... I guess.
Anyways, I've already written to them. So let's see. And no, it's not so late for payment either. But if you give quality work on time, including some extra files that cropped up in-between, then you expect to be paid on the exact date.
Not so difficult to understand, is it?
[Edited at 2007-06-10 12:13] ▲ Collapse
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Document Reviews: Web-sites | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
| | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
