A Canadian international agency, specialized in aviation, selected wintranslation™ as its French translation partner to deliver highly technical aviation e-learning courseware consisting of more than 230,000 words.

The Challenge

• The modules that were translated are for aviation regulation purposes, are highly complex, and require very specialized subject area knowledge. It was therefore critically important that the terminology be correct and consistent.
• Significant time had to be allocated for term extraction and research.
• The resulting terminology data had to be easily accessible and retrievable in the translation process. There was some reference material available from the client but they were in PDF format which is time consuming for translators to access since it is read-only and the search function is limited.
• A quality assurance process had to be in place once the terminology was approved to ensure translators followed the approved terminology consistently.

The Solution

Phase 1: Working with source documents to extract key terms

• Converted the source PDF documents into editable format.
• The terminologist  identified the core technical terms, terms  unique to the client, and other terms that  needed to be communicated consistently using the following process:
  • Using a term extraction engine to do the initial round of term extraction, 9260 term candidates were extracted.
  • Out of the 9260 terms, the majority were considered “noise” and therefore eliminated.
  • Reviewed terms with at least 30 occurrences; also included those that were very pertinent but appeared less frequently.
  • In the end, 300 terms were documented into a terminology database.
• The terminologist researched the extracted terms using the context provided in the source documents as well as referencing official glossaries from sources such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
• Selected the data categories to ensure the translators and editors had enough information on the client’s specified terms and language. Common data categories include Part of Speech, Definition, etc.

Below is an example of a term entry:

Phase 2: Working with client-provided reference material to leverage past terminology

After wintranslation submitted the translated terminology database, the client reviewed it. Being a long-term aviation industry expert and employee of the agency, the project manager realized that certain highly relevant reference materials had not been provided to wintranslation. We then arranged to obtain the reference materials in PDF format and:

• Converted PDF files into editable format.
• Aligned translations – we used an alignment process where we paired up the English terms and the French equivalents and created a database based on the pairings.
• The final output was a searchable, electronic bilingual database of original source words and approved translations in French.

Figure 1: Translation alignment of reference material to create a terminology database.

Phase 3: Combining term entries from source documents and reference material

We combined the terms extracted from the source documents with the terms from the reference material and created a set of central terminology entries. The exported data was then sent to the client and went through revision and final approval.

The final approved terminology data was then imported into a project translation memory which was distributed to the translators.

Phase 4: Quality assurance of compliance of terminology usage

Once a client approves the terminology it is still critical to ensure  translators use it and do not deviate using their own translations. For this phase we used a quality assurance feature available in the translation software. Subsequently, deviations from the approved term list were corrected through the coordination between the project manager and translators.

The Benefit

• By successfully applying terminology management processes, wintranslation  ensured that the client specific terms were researched and documented accurately and consistently.
• Translation cost was reduced by identifying the main key terms and the translation team was able to easily maintain consistency in their translations by using the same terminology list.
• Number of revisions and  editors assigned to this project were reduced and kept to a minimum since the main key terms were already correctly utilized by the translators.
• Approved database can be used for future projects, helping the client keep costs low and improve the translation turnaround time.

The technical accuracy of the aviation training manuals were ensured and confirmed through a review by subject area experts from the client. The full 230,000 words were translated and edited in three months and the manuals were delivered by the deadline.

A Canadian international agency, specialized in aviation, selected wintranslation as its French translation partner to deliver highly technical aviation e-learning courseware consisting of more than 280,000 words.

The Challenge

The client provided the documents for translation in PDF format. This includes two different subject fields, each one containing two student binders, consisting of eight to 18 modules. In total, the client provided wintranslation with 44 PDF files and 1,285 pages of documents to be translated.

Translating PDF files directly is not an impossible mission, but it is a very laborious and time consuming process. Consequently, translators’ efficiency and consistency is very low in such situations.

The Solution

File formatting

wintranslation’s project manager assigned to this project worked with three different desktop publishing (DTP) teams in order to convert the PDF files into editable MS Word files – a format that allowed translators to work faster and keep the design and the content consistent throughout the entire project.

Terminology

During the same phase, an experienced terminology professional extracted the key terms from all the files and built the project terminology.  Read more about the terminology challenge.

Consistency

To maximize consistency, wintranslation leverages translation technologies that enable the use of terminology databases and translated content (translation memories). Each document is translated, revised and proofread by separate individuals, so that all potential issues (such as mistranslations and typographical errors) are corrected before releasing the final version of a document. For this project, wintranslation used MemoQ.

Translation and editing:

For this project, wintranslation employed an in-house full time translator, two freelance translators, two editors and one reviewer.

The Benefit

The full 230,000 words were translated and edited in three months and the manuals were delivered by the deadline.

Ross Video designs, markets, manufactures and supports a wide range of innovative products for use in broadcast, distribution, live event and production applications. We worked on their version 1.0 CrossOver Manual in Word format in 2008 and since version 2.0, we have been working in FrameMaker format. Version 3.0 CrossOver Manuals were finalized in 2010.

The Manual was translated into Simplified Chinese, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese and Russian.

wintranslation’s methodology developed for this project has helped the client save on cost and has also maintained consistent translations with previous versions.

1. Prepared the latest TM based on previous versions: The proofreading and QA changes were entered into the typeset FrameMaker files rather than the translated TagEditor files, so the latest TM was generated from the final typeset FrameMaker files of version 2.0.
2. Used Context TM to leverage the version 2.0 translations into new files.
3. Worked on the prepared files with the translations leveraged.
   • Translation: translated the prepared bilingual .ttx files for version 3.0, the output was translated .ttx files
   • Typesetting: converted the translated .ttx files back to .mif format through S-Tagger for FrameMaker and typeset them in FrameMaker, the output was typeset .fm files and PDFs
   • Entered proofread changes: entered the proofed changes into the FrameMaker working files. Applied the conditional texts to each book based on the client’s requirements and createed PDFs for QA
   • Final QA: There was lots of conditional text, so the PDFs were sent to the translation teams to make sure these parts were handled properly.
   • Finalizing: entered the QA changes into the working files and finalized all languages, the delivery format was FrameMaker files and PDFs.

We worked with their IT team to successfully create a user interface in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Spanish for their Automatic Bank Machines across Canada.

Since the English screens were created through a proprietary tool, the programming team at Scotiabank couldn’t provide the source files for localization into Chinese and Spanish. So, wintranslation received several hundred image files (BPM), each representing a different ABM screen and our engineers have manually recreated each string into Chinese and Spanish mirroring the English text.

I love the one-stop convenience. I did not hire you based on your size. You proved yourself and built trust over time. You have that ‘can-do’ attitude and entrepreneurial spirit.

Kevin Stewart, Director of Multicultural Banking at Scotiabank

The Gateway to Careers website (www.councils.org/careers/) provides essential information on careers in the key sectors of the Canadian economy. The site includes information about the vital contribution of each sector to Canada’s economy, the many different career opportunities in each sector, and the skills and training that is needed to work in a sector. We handled 9 languages – Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Urdu.

The Challenge

At first the client provided all contents in Word document format, which would have created a lot of extra workload to integrate the translation back into the 9 sites, and the launch time would have needed to be postponed accordingly.
Secondly, the client had difficulties entering the text for Right-to-Left languages (in this case Arabic, Farsi and Urdu) through an integrated editor in the system, so they asked us for help. This resulted in extra workload that they didn’t expect.

The Solution

For the first challenge, since the multilingual websites were deployed through a CMS system, we checked with their programmer who was deploying the to see if they could extract and package all the text/contents to be translated into XML or XLIFF format. We then carried out a test by providing Chinese characters in the XML file they prepared so they could test whether they could import the Chinese XML file successfully into their system. The client was satisfied and prepared the contents for the 9 languages in XML format. Both our teams and the programmer who was to integrate the translation back into the system were able to work on the files very efficiently.
For the second challenge, through research we found that the problem was a result of a compatibility issue in the integrated editor of the CMS. Our RTL languages team used a self-developed tool and ran a few tricks to help the client enter all the changes in these 3 languages.

The Benefit

The client’s multilingual websites were launched successfully as scheduled.

…We were very fortunate to have access to wintranslation’s expertise, especially in solving the unexpected issues with the R to L languages… all of which were key to TASC being able to launch the site successfully.

Weigl Publishers Inc, has been creating educational school library books for the international market since 1992.  Weigl produces about 100 new titles each year.

Scope

Translation into Canadian French of 18 books consisting of approximately 200,000 words to be delivered in 20 business days.  Delivery format was QuarkXpress.

Challenge

The source files were in QuarkXpress. Initially, the client asked for the translation as Word documents in a two-column format, with the English on one side and translation on the other.  Delivery in this format would require not only re-creating all the Word documents, but the client would also have to copy and paste the translation from the Word files back into the Quark originals. This would have resulted in a very large amount of extra work and time from both ours and the client’s ends.  This would also greatly increase the possibility of human error in the copy and paste stages.  The client was also on a short timeline and needed to go to print with these books in less than a month.

Solution

We recommended another process in which we would export the English source files, translate the text, and import the translation back to Quark.  The delivery would therefore be QuarkXpress.  This would eliminate the need to create separate Word files or copying and pasting the translation back into Quark. 

We used several translation teams to meet the mandatory deadline.  The teams were specialized in the material being translated and consisted of translators, editors, proofreaders, and QA checkers.

The Benefits

This solution developed by wintranslation allowed the client to save time and money. The project was delivered on-time and to the client’s satisfaction.

 From the time that wintranslation started working with Weigl, I was impressed with the company’s ability to handle a heavy workload with a tight deadline. (…) In addition, wintranslation proofread titles that had been translated by another company, providing exceptional feedback that drastically improved the overall quality of the books.

Wintranslation’s work is of the highest quality, and I am happy to recommend them to you without reservation.

Managing Editor, Weigl Publishers

Building A Global Web Presence for EWI Worldwide

Background

Exhibit Works is a market leader in developing exhibit programs, mobile tours, museum exhibits and themed attractions. The company wanted to reach a global audience by translating their website into Chinese, French, German, Hindi and Spanish.

The Challenge

The client was looking to implement a content management system (CMS) so the entire website could be better managed and would allow a large number of content contributors.
We did some research before the project officially kicked off to make sure that the CMS supported all the languages, especially languages such as Hindi. Not all regular Hindi fonts can be displayed correctly online, so we had to make sure that the translators used a Unicode Hindi font. The Unicode font selected was tested on Windows, Mac OS, and different browsers to ensure it displayed properly.
The web developer was still working on the site structure, so the content to be translated was not yet available through CMS. To meet client’s deadline, the files for translation were extracted out of a database into an Excel file to ensure maximum compatibility with translators’ word processing software.
As this kind of extraction is prone to complications, the text was checked by the project manager from wintranslation to make sure there were no missing strings.

The Solution

There were 10 translators involved in the process: 5 to translate and the rest to edit the files. All of them were asked to use a translation memory tool and follow the terminology provided by the client.
The translated files were then imported back into the database without any glitch.
After the CMS structure was finalized, an editor for each language was asked to do a quality check of the website online. The CMS generated pages were accessed and updated via a Web interface by multi-level users, and all the changes were entered and made live instantly by the editors.
Most of the design and consistency details were fixed during the QA process. The French and Spanish text was too long and did not work very well with the initial artwork. The editors addressed these issues by coming up with alternative translations for the source text.
An internal QA was also done by the project manager to assure consistency over all languages. In other words, the imperial system was used rather than the metric system. However, only the United States still uses the imperial system. To make sure audiences from other countries could understand the measurements; translators converted all the numbers into the metric system, but the converted numbers were not consistent.  Some of the translators converted 6.25 inches to 15.87 cm, some to15.875 cm, some used 16 cm whereas others wrote 0.16 m. Revisions were made to make sure all the numbers were consistently written in the same format.

The Benefits

The personalized translation process, cultural expertise and technical knowledge wintranslation.com delivered allowed the client to have the website up and running in time. The translations were accurate and culturally appropriate.