Posts Tagged ‘software’
International symbol, icon blunders can be avoided
Some of my European colleagues still remember when the old Macintosh operating system of the 1980s used a trash icon that Apple’s European users confused for a postal box. Why was the icon confusing? People across the globe have different cultural ideas and assumptions about what things are supposed to look like. In other countries, trash cans [...]
Clinic: How to Create International-Ready Websites and Software
UTC International Clinic: Thurs, April 21st, 2:00 - 4:00 PM Internationalization 101: How to Create International-Ready Websites and Software Without proper preparation, various challenges can arise when localizing websites and software applications into Português, Русский, Français, Italiano, Español, Deutsche, [...]
Preventing Mistranslation is Easier than Retracting Translation Blunders
Benjamin Franklin said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This is true in translation. As illustrated when a magazine ironically added Google mistranslations to an article about translation quality in bold, red print, it is easier to prevent mistranslations than it is to retract mistranslations and fully recover from [...]
Can Companies Obtain Free Professional Services through Crowdsourcing?
Twitter launched a Twitter Translation Center Monday in an effort to obtain volunteer translation services from users and localize its user interface into other languages. For years, Facebook and other companies have also been turning to users for volunteer translation in what is often called “crowdsourcing.” These high-profile examples have [...]
India Ban of Microsoft OS Costs Millions
Tom Edwards, former head of Microsoft’s geopolitical product strategy team, has openly shared some of the international blunders that led to the creation of his team and the tightening of controls surrounding international releases. One of these, involving image localization, was recounted in the international business column "We all benefit [...]
Microsoft Game Banned in Saudi Arabia
Tom Edwards, former head of Microsoft’s geopolitical product strategy team, has openly related some of the international blunders that led to the creation of his team and the tightening of controls surrounding international releases. One of these anecdotes was recently referenced in the article "We all benefit when global business leaders share [...]
Samsung Acts Fast to Avoid Misunderstanding about Translation
The blogosphere has been buzzing this month about the Romanian version of the soon-to-be released Samsung Galaxy Tab, a product to compete with Apple's iPad. Apparently, the "home" icon on the product was translated as "Porn." Bloggers have had a good laugh about the potential damage this might cause, but this is not a mistranslation. "Porn." [...]
Internationalization Benefits
Localization is not only translation, but also adaptation for a particular locale. If your website, software, online course, or other product requires localization, you should internationalize it first to avoid costly and time-consuming re-engineering. Internationalization is preparation that ensures your localization process will be [...]
Microsoft Language Portal Update Includes Office 2010 International Terminology
The Microsoft Language Portal has recently been updated to include International Terminology from Office 2010 in 90 languages. As mentioned previously, Microsoft has produced great free resources for download and/or search that include all of its style guides and glossaries, which can double as translation memory.
Bad Photoshop Is Not a Substitute for Localization
Sometimes images need to be localized to reflect the ethnic diversity of a target market, otherwise marketing materials may look too foreign without using Asian models in Asia, Middle eastern models in the Middle East, etc. Unfortunately, Microsoft got a lot of flack for amateurish use of Photoshop in an attempt to localize one image for [...]
