8 Simple Rules to Globalize Your Content Now!

Transcription

8 Simple Rules to Globalize Your Content Now!
8 Simple Rules
to Globalize Your
Content Now!
By: Val Swisher, CEO & Founder, Content Rules
http://twitter.com/contentrulesinc
www.contentrules.com
http://www.linkedin.com/company/
content-rules-inc
About this eBook
Years ago, one of my favorite
television shows was “8 Simple
Rules for Dating My Teenage
Daughter” starring John Ritter
- a huge star in China BTW.
Maybe I liked it because I had a
daughter just entering puberty
at the time that the show
debuted. In the spirit of that
show, I created 8 simple rules
on how to take the content you
have and make it global-ready
now. My goal with this eBook is
to have a personal conversation
with you about easy things
you can do to support global
readiness as you create content.
Def. Global readiness. The ability of
your company to take the content you
create for use in one geography and
reuse that content everywhere in the
world, without losing your shirt in the
process.
Global readiness is important. Today,
companies must launch their products
in multiple geographies more or less
simultaneously. If they don’t, they’ll
soon find that the market opportunities
and profits are capped, as more nimble
competitors launch “me too” products
in the markets they don’t penetrate
quickly.
Again and again, clients tell me that
they face one major roadblock when
attempting to launch their products in
multiple geographies. Can you guess
what it is? It’s not regulatory affairs.
It’s not adapting the product to the
requirements of the local geography.
It’s content. If your content isn’t
developed from the get-go to be
global-ready, you’ll find that localization
takes way too long and costs way too
much.
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© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.
Luckily, there are 8 simple rules you can follow to
reduce the cost and time required to localize your
content. And here they are:
#1
Not All Errors Are Created Equal
#2
Creative Writing is A Myth
#3
Real Editors Don’t Do It Without A Terminology Manager
#4
Use a Red Pen on That Content & You May Lose Your Job
#5
No Complaining About the Quality of Your Tech Writers
#6
Flabby Content Will Cost You Dearly
#7
Delay This Product Launch & There Will Be No Next
Product Launch
#8
Content Development is a Team Sport
Read on as I explore each of these rules in detail.
Simple Rule #1
Not All Errors Are Created Equal
Last week, I attended the Inbound Marketing
Summit. At the summit, a very intelligent
and friendly person sat down with me at
lunchtime. She had a number of questions.
Among them was this:
“What is one thing that I
can do to make my content
easier to read?”
Write shorter sentences.
This is my single piece of advice. If you do
only one thing, write shorter sentences.
By the way, here is how I was originally going
to write the three short sentences above:
cheaper to translate multiple short
sentences?
• Reviewer provides comments and
sends them back to translator
The translation savings is not in the
number of words. In fact, the true
cost of translating long sentences is
usually hidden, not monetarily
quantified. Here’s what
often happens when a
translator encounters a
long sentence:
• Translator makes another attempt at
translating the long sentence
• Translator tries to
understand the author’s intent
• Translator
may ask for
clarification
“If I were to pick just one thing that you
can do to make your content easier to
read and, by extention, cheaper, easier,
and faster to translate, it would be to
write shorter sentences.”
See how much easier my three short sentences are
to understand than the 35-word sentence? The short
sentences are also cheaper, easier, and faster to
translate.
Hold on a minute, you say! Often, if we take
one long sentence and break it in half, we end
up with more words. More words means a
higher cost for translation. So, how can it be
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• Translator takes an
educated guess as to the meaning of
the long sentence
• Translator translates the sentence as
accurately as possible
• Translated content goes to in-country
reviewer for review
• Reviewer also takes an educated guess
on the meaning
Iterate with reviewer until the reviewer
is satisfied.
Lather, rinse, and repeat these steps in
as many languages as necessary. By
the end, the process of translating the
long sentence has wasted a lot of time
for both the translator and the reviewer.
Wasted time costs a lot of money. And
wasted time can also mean delayed
go-to-market, which costs even more
money.
In addition, because the long
sentence had to be interpreted and
re-interpreted, it is possible that each
translation has a different meaning.
It is even possible that none of the
translated sentences even resemble
the author’s original intent!
I’m not saying that this scenario
happens all the time. I am saying that
if you keep your sentences short, the
likelihood of wasting time and money,
and ending up with different meanings
is greatly reduced. I have never heard
a translator complain about content
having too many short, simple, and
easy to understand sentences.
Just so you know, every time I wrote a
sentence in this post, I kept going back and
counting the words. Writing short sentences is
a learned technique to be sure!
Simple Rule #2
Creative Writing is A Myth
Back in the dark ages, when I
was growing up in New York
City, I was taught to be creative
when I write. Even in science
reports (the equivalent of
technical writing for someone
who is 9), the rule was, never
say the same thing the same
way twice. Always use different
words. And use a lot of
words. Using a lot of words
shows off your vocabulary.
I took these instructions to heart. I
also think that many of the writers I
know took these instructions to heart,
too. Consequently, I have seen the
simple phrase, “Click OK” written at
least 12 different ways in the same
documentation suite. Not sure what I
mean?
Click OK.
Click on OK.
Click the OK button.
Click on the OK button.
Click the button.
Press OK.
Press on the OK button.
Select OK.
… you get the gist.
When it comes to spending money
on translation, saying the same
thing many different ways, using as
many words as possible is the kiss
of death. I’ve discussed this before,
and I’ll say it again, you need to
say the same thing, the same way,
every time you say it.
Standardizing both your
terminology and your sentences
makes your content much easier
to read. It also makes your
content easier and faster
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© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.
to translate. And, it saves a lot of money. You can achieve the perfect trifecta –
cheaper, faster, better – by standardizing your content.
Whoa you say! It’s SOOOOO boring! Well, yes. It can be boring to say
the same thing, the same way, every time you say it. But, if you are someone for
whom English is a second or third language, or if you are an average American
with a 6th grade reading level and you are trying to configure your VCR, boring is
good! Boring is great! Especially if the boring sentence is simple, straightforward,
and easy to understand.
Whoa again you say! I write marketing material. I’m not supposed to be
boring! Well, I understand. And I don’t disagree. Marketing copy is supposed
to pack an emotional punch. It is supposed to keep the reader engaged and
interested. Saying the same thing, the same way doesn’t always allow for the
type of creativity that most marketing writers want.
But let's remember how you pay for translation
# of
words
price per
word
# of
languages
cost of translation
Once a segment has been translated into a particular language, the translation is
stored in translation memory. As long as you use the exact same words next time,
you will never have to pay to have that segment translated into that language
again.
So, if you are a marketing writer, you need to find some middle ground. You
need to balance the emotional punch and creativity you want, with the cost of
translation. Keep in mind that much of the emotional punch cannot be translated
anyway. In fact, the phrase “emotional punch” is not translatable. What good is
a brilliant marketing message if the rest of the world outside of the U.S. does not
understand what it means?
Simple Rule #3
Real Editors Don't Do It Without A Terminology Manager
Let’s talk about managing terminology. Why bother? Well that’s
easy. If you are in the content creation business, your product is
your words/pictures/movies. And if words are your product, you
need to care about them. You need to select them carefully and
consistently, and you need to manage them.
By this I mean you need to make sure you have a consistent lexicon that is
simple, straightforward, and makes sense. And the most important word is
consistent. Consistent terminology is critical for so many reasons. It:
• Makes your content much easier to read
for people of all reading levels.
• Preserves your company trademarks,
service marks, copyrights, and so on.
• Safeguards your product and company
branding.
• Ensures that everyone in your
organization uses the same words to
describe the same things.
• Allows you to use different XML chunks
in a structured environment without
having to rewrite for consistency.
• Lowers the price and time it takes to
translate the content into multiple
languages.
• Helps to ensure the quality and
consistency of the translations.
Sure there are additional reasons to
manage terminology, but I think you
catch my drift. Once we’ve established
why to manage terminology (which
MANAGE
seems so obvious to me, but often
doesn’t occur to other people), the task
becomes how to manage it.
The two most common ways I’ve
seen of managing terminology are
Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft
Word tables. Usually there are at least
two columns: allowed terms and
prohibited terms. Sometimes allowed
terms are called preferred terms.
Sometimes prohibited terms are called
deprecated terms. Regardless of what
the terms are called and regardless
of what application is used to create
the list of terms, this type of system
for managing terminology is simply
a nightmare. I rarely see a company
that can grow and scale using lists or
spreadsheets as their management
system for terminology.
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© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.
Why do term
lists fail?
So, what does work? The best way
your
There are many
reasons. In
my opinion, the
main reason term
lists fail is that they
require a pull mechanism
for people to use them. By
that I mean, the author or
editor needs to:
• Know that the term in question is
managed (the company cares about
correct usage).
• Know where to find the list of terms.
• Get the list of terms.
• Search for the term and determine if it
is allowed or prohibited (or if it even
exists in the term list at all).
• Make the correction, if necessary.
There is no way that this system can
work. When I’m in the middle of writing
a document, even this blog post, I am
simply not going to remember if a term
is managed. Moreover, I am not going
to stop what I am doing every 10 or 15
minutes (or more frequently than that)
to go and look up the term in the term
list. Pull management of terminology
just doesn’t work. And if it works at
your company, consider yourself the
exception rather than the norm.
to manage terminology is to have:
• A database that is shared
with everyone in the entire
organization, corporate-wide.
• A mechanism by which incorrect
terms are flagged automatically.
• A mechanism that pushes the
correction to the writer or editor
for consideration.
In other words, an automated
way of having the lexicon
pushed to the developer, rather
than expecting the developer
to go and pull it. By sharing the
terminology database across the
company, you can make sure
that everyone has the same list
of terms. And by using a push
technology, you can make sure
that errors are identified and
corrected each and every time
they occur.
There are various terminology
management software packages
on the market. And without
making this post a commercial,
I want to mention that Content
Rules uses a sophisticated
terminology management
system that makes sure your
content is consistent each time
and every time.
t
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r
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y
Simple Rule #4
Use a Red Pen on That Content & You May Lose Your Job
I know some people who don’t
have a computer. I honestly
don’t know how they live
without one, but somehow they
manage. I know companies
that don’t have any systems
for managing their workflow,
content, publishing, and so on.
I honestly don’t know how they
live without them either. And
in today’s global world, I’m
not sure they are managing
too well.
Using the right tool for the right job
is extremely important. And if you
are creating content that is going
to be localized and translated into
many languages, it is even more
imperative to use tools to help
manage your process. Tools abound
in the marketplace right now and
more are being created every day.
So, do your homework.
Three of the tools you must implement to be
competitive in today’s world include:
1. A content management system. A content management system
provides so much structure for your work, it is hard to under-estimate the value
of having one. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about content management
systems:
A content management system (CMS) is the collection of procedures used to manage work
flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based.
The procedures are designed to do the following:
• Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
• Control access to data, based on user roles (defining which information users or user
groups can view, edit, publish, etc.)
• Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
• Reduce repetitive duplicate input
• Improve the ease of report writing
• Improve communication between users
“But wait!” you say! “I’m
a lone tech writer. I’m not
collaborating with anyone!”
Well, you might think you are
working all alone. But, you are not. You are (hopefully) working with
engineers, QA testers, product managers, editors, illustrators, and others who
are part of the process of creating your content.
And even if you create content all alone in a dark cave without any help from
anyone, if your content is going to be translated, you are now automatically,
defacto, collaborating with your translator(s). You may never see them or
communicate with them (which is a problem unto itself that I’ve written about
many times), but believe me, you are collaborating. They are going to take your
content and work with it. If they can communicate with you, they’ll do an even
better job. So, do yourself and your company a favor. Implement some type of
CMS system.
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© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.
2. A sophisticated authoring tool.
Okay, I’m going to be controversial. In
my experience and opinion, Microsoft
Word is not a sophisticated authoring
tool. It is ubiquitous. It is easy to use for
simple documents. But, it is definitely
not sophisticated. I have yet to meet
anyone who authors large documents
(like multi-chapter books) in MS Word
who does not complain bitterly 100%
of the time. Just try typing “Hate
Microsoft Word” into the search function
in YouTube and you’ll see what I mean.
There’s even a group on Facebook
devoted to hating Microsoft Word. I’m
sure someone reading this eBook is
going to tell me they love Word, but
whoever you are, you are in the minority.
Yet it amazes me how many companies,
even medium-sized businesses, are still
using Word to create their content. There
are many tools on the market now that
provide advanced features for writing.
A fairly comprehensive and updated list
can be found on Wikipedia.
About 10 years ago, I was interviewing
a consultant who wanted to do a writing
project for one of my clients. I asked her
what type of computer she used. Her
response? “Oh, I don’t use a computer.
I use legal pads, take my notes long
hand, and then type them up.” This was
10 years ago. I swear. No, I didn’t hire
her.
3. A terminology manager. I wrote
about this in Simple Rule #3. I won’t
bore you with the details again.
Simple Rule #5
No Complaining About the Quality of Your Tech Writers
I hear a lot of complaining these days about the quality of
technical documentation being written offshore. I hear it mostly
from the people who are responsible for making the decision to
move tech docs offshore to begin with. Let me try to elucidate the
problem from end to end.
As time has gone on, and technology
has become more commonplace and
less mysterious, the information that
we create to explain how to install/use/
administer technology products has
become less important in the eyes of
our upper management.
Ease of use has morphed
into “Do we have to
provide instructions?”
Technical writing as an
art form has become
commoditized. As with
all commodities, the
most important
aspect from an uppermanagement perspective
is to get the docs created as cheaply
as possible. I have actually heard
upper-level managers say, “Good
enough is good enough. I don’t care
about quality. Just make it cost less
money.” Scary, no?
commonplace now that I cannot think
of one large customer who isn’t using
offshore writers for at least a portion
of their documentation creation.
And, from an upper-management
perspective, it is compelling. Last time
I checked, you could
hire 3 writers and a
manager offshore for
the same dollars as a
single senior technical
writer in the U.S.
“Good enough is
good enough. I
don’t care about
quality. Just make
it cost less money.”
Scary, no?
Budgets for technical documentation
have been slashed and much cheaper
alternatives to the U.S. tech writing
market have popped up. Offshore
creation of technical manuals is so
However, almost
across the board, I
have heard complaints
about the quality
of the content that is being written
offshore. Sure, there are exceptions.
I know a few managers who, after
searching for months and hiring/
firing many offshore writers, are finally
very happy. This is the exception
rather than the rule. Most of the time,
asking writers who have English as a
second (or third or fourth) language to
create technical instructions does not
work out well for the documentation
manager responsible for the project.
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french
english
german
chinese
japanese
spanish
The same problems are described over and over again:
• The documentation is difficult to understand or it makes no sense grammatically.
• Managing the project is difficult. To have a phone conference with everyone on the
project means someone is always in their pajamas; managers here in the US feel like
(and do!) work around the clock.
• The culture clash between the offshore groups and the U.S.-based team presents work
issues.
• The loyalty of offshore writers is almost non-existent. As soon as you have them
trained and doing a good job, they leave for a better paying opportunity elsewhere.
Now, I am not saying that all offshore situations fail or that there is no such thing
as a loyal, competent offshore writer who gets along famously with the U.S. team
and is willing to work odd hours. These people do exist. And as time goes on, the
quality of offshore content has risen and more managers who I talk to have found
adequate offshore help. But, I am saying that, overall, I hear more complaints than
compliments.
Simple Rule #5
Continued...
So, what’s a tech doc manager to do?
There is no magic bullet to solving
these problems. Usually, it takes a lot
of patience and time to find an offshore
writer (let alone an offshore team) that
produces to the level most technical
documentation managers would like.
Trying to explain to upper management
that penny-wise is dollar-foolish only
works to a point. If the economy
has tanked and budgets are being
slashed, getting upper-level managers
to pay for quality documentation
is a Herculean task at best.
Sometimes, if customers complain
loudly enough – usually to technical
support departments – and if the
costs of technical support skyrocket,
you can get upper management to
listen. Customer satisfaction scores
(known as “CSAT” scores) can be
very compelling. Unfortunately, I
don’t know of many companies
who measure CSAT scores for
documentation. “Ease of installation”
is often correlated to the product itself,
rather than the instructions that ship
with it. I also don’t know of many
companies that have metrics for the
correlation between poorly written
documentation and number/cost
of technical support incidents. We
intuitively know that if the instructions
are confusing, the customer is going
to reach out for help. But we don’t
have actual numbers to support it.
Now that many people are using
social media communities and
forums to voice their complaints,
the possible brand damage from
unhappy customers is more risky.
In the past, I could complain to a
manufacturer. Now, I can complain
to a forum and have many people
echo my dissatisfaction. Unhappy
customers can do a lot more harm
as a community. This argument
might be compelling and upper
management might listen, but if
customers are already complaining
in droves, you have a PR nightmare
on your hands and it might be too
late.
Here are a few ideas on how to handle the mandate
to use offshore resources that are underperforming:
• Work with other groups, such as
technical support and training, to
gather metrics on customer satisfaction
as it relates to technical documentation.
Be careful that this tactic doesn’t
backfire, making you or your
department look worse for pointing out
the problem. There is always a danger
in pointing out weaknesses on your
team.
• Consider onshoring your content.
There are areas of the U.S. where salary
requirements and hourly rates are
much lower than in high-tech meccas.
While I’ve never seen rates that are as
low as offshore countries, you might
be able to find qualified writers here
who are willing to work for compelling
wages.
• Examine your quality control/quality
assurance processes to identify holes
that you can plug. For example, see if
you can implement QC/QA tools and
processes to help catch and fix errors
before the docs are released.
• Look for tools and processes that can
help your offshore team perform better.
• Solicit help from the community. If
customers are starting to complain,
reach out to them and find a way to let
them help make your content better.
User-generated content is a blessing
and a curse. Think about what you can
do to incorporate community content
and ideas to help. It is amazing the
goodwill you can garner by listening to
your customer base.
And when your management finally wakes up and comes to you
complaining about the quality of the documentation, do your best
to stay calm and remind them that you always get what you pay for.
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© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.
Always.
Simple Rule #6
Flabby Content Will Cost You Dearly
I have said this so many times before: When it
comes to localization, keep your content short and
sweet. Mainly short. The sweet part is up to you.
That’s real money. If you can trim
even 10% of your words, you will start
to see significant savings:
A savings
of $60,000.
500,000 – 10% = 450,000 words
450,000 words × 15¢/word × 8 languages
Why? Because flabby content is expensive
to translate. Let’s review the way you pay for
translation. Translation companies charged by the
word/by the language. For example, you need to
translate 1,000 words into 8 languages. The average
cost per word is $.15. The math looks like this:
= $540,000
To make your content skinny, remove all needless words. A needless word is any
word that does not affect the meaning of the sentence. Here are a few examples
of flabby sentences:
• Our software is absolutely the simplest to install.
• This software is very easy to install.
• It can be seen that the installation is simple.
1,000
words
15¢ per
word
8
languages
Another place to trim your copy is to substitute single, simple
words for phrases.
$1,200
That doesn’t look too bad, does it?
But, let’s say you have 500,000 words.
Here’s the math:
500,000
words
15¢ per
word
• First, create a new form.
8
languages
$600,000
For example
Instead try
Our software works on a variety
of platforms.
Our software works on various
platforms.
If you eliminate needless words
and simplify your writing, your
readers will have a much easier time
understanding your content. Increased
comprehension is a side benefit of
writing skinny copy.
I have analyzed over 5 million words
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from over 40 companies. I have found
that it is easy to eliminate 10% of the
words. Often, we can eliminate 20% of
the words. The savings really start to
add up.
So, put your content on a diet. Your
wallet will thank you.
Simple Rule #7
Delay This Product Launch & There Will Be No Next Product Launch
Time to market. Those three
little words can make the
difference between getting
ahead of your competition
and being just another maker
of a smartphone (or whatever
product or service your
company sells). As product
managers and marketeers will
tell you, time to market is one
of the crucial aspects of a
product launch.
Nowadays, there is a mandate to
launch products in multiple markets
simultaneously. It is no longer
acceptable to go to market in English
and follow up with other languages
later. In fact, I know of products that
have been launched in non-English
speaking markets before ever being
available in the United States or other
English speaking countries.
The need to launch in multiple
languages from the beginning puts
a heavy burden on the content that
ships with your product. Whether it
is the user interface, the online help
system, product documentation, or
marketing collateral, it is critical to have
the appropriate content translated into
all of your languages as efficiently as
possible.
Unfortunately, the typical workflow for the writing and translation process rarely
affords enough time to do a quality job of creating, localizing, and translating
content. Usually, content is being created alongside the product itself. As the
engineers finish aspects of the product, writers scramble to create content for
each part. Once the writing is complete, localization and translation takes over.
Then, the content is translated into all of the languages. Each translation is sent
to the region for local language review. And, in many cases, this is where the
iterations start to occur.
It is very common for each in-country reviewer to cycle through multiple costly
and time-consuming review iterations with each individual translator. Back and
forth they go correcting the translations and making them appropriate to each
specific marketplace. This process can take days or even weeks to complete.
All the while, the product team needs to launch on the scheduled date. In the
end, what happens most often is that the materials go to market in a form that
represents the best the team could do, given the timeframe they had. Rarely
does the launch get delayed. But the quality definitely suffers.
LA
UN
CH
START
There is one way to get ahead of the review iteration
curve: creating global-ready content from the start.
By this I mean writing the content from the very first word on the page with the
knowledge and expectation that it will be translated. I’ve written in detail about
the specific things writers can do to make their content global-ready. In brief, here
are things you can do to make your content easy and quick to translate:
• Eliminate unnecessary words
• Keep sentences short
• Use nouns with the words this, that, these, and those
• Use correct grammatical structures
• Eliminate idiomatic phrases
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© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.
If your content is global-ready from the
start, the localization and translation
process is easier. If the translation
process is easier, it is more likely
that translators will understand and
accurately translate the content on the
first try. If the translation is accurate on
the first try, the number of in-country
iterations decreases. And if the number
of in-country iterations decreases,
the time-to-market is significantly
faster. Your product launches on time.
Your content is accurate and easy to
read. Your customers are happy. And
everyone wins.
Simple Rule #8
Content Development is a Team Sport You Want to Work Alone? Become an Accountant
Silos. Everyone talks about
them. Disparate groups of
people in the same company,
working on the same content,
with absolutely no knowledge
of each other. For example,
technical documentation and
localization. Or, marcom and
localization. Or, technical
support knowledge-base writers
and localization. Pretty much
any group creating content
is a separate silo from the
group responsible
for localizing and
translating that
content.
better, quicker, and cheaper. How
about a brown-bag lunch every now
and then?
translation. They certainly
know when a marcom
campaign has flopped
because the content either
didn’t translate accurately,
wasn’t translatable to begin with,
or lost that emotional bang that
marcom materials try to achieve. But,
in general, content creators usually
have painfully little interaction with
localization and translation teams.
content
creators
Sure, there are some companies
who have figured out that content
creators and content translators
should at least know each other’s
email addresses. I’ve seen companies
where the marcom group understands
(and has a large stake in) the process
and end product of localization and
Let’s take the
average technical
writer. I know a lot of
them. In fact, I used
to be one. Technical
writers are usually extremely smart,
able to figure things out from poorly
written specifications (or able to
create documentation from absolutely
no specifications), and most have an
excellent command of English. Many
of the writers I know spend a large
amount of time working alone. Sure
they are willing participants in team
meetings, they meet with subject
matter experts to clarify points, and
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they play well together. But,
when pencil meets paper,
most technical writers I
know (myself included)
prefer to have the lights set
just so, the music playing just right,
and block out the entire world. How
many times have you walked by the
cube of a technical writer to find a
piece of “caution”
tape stretched across
the doorway? You
get the picture.
For a long time, I have advocated
having content creators sit sideby-side with the localization team.
Share a cube wall. Have a chat at
the watercooler. Find out what each
person is working on. If we spent
a bit more time collaborating, we’d
spent a lot less money translating.
We’d get content to the marketplace
faster and the quality of the
translations would be much
better. In fact, the quality of
the English source would
also be improved. Afterall, if
content is clear enough to be
translated easily, it is clear
enough for just about everyone to read
and understand it.
How about
a brown-bag
lunch every now
and then?
I don’t advocate
writing by committee.
Technical writing as a task is usually
best done by an individual. However,
if the content is going to be localized
and translated, it makes a lot of
sense, and a world of difference, if
the writer and the localization team
communicate. Perhaps including
localization in the review process or
post-review process would help. Or
having a translator available to consult
with on certain sentence structures
or idioms would make the writing
and translation of the content
So, let’s throw caution [tape] to
the wind! Let’s chat. Let’s work
together. Let’s create the best
content that we can, translated
accurately into every language
we can think of.
translation
Who’s in?
OK, Enough with Global. Let's Talk About Next Steps.
No eBook would be complete without a short
commercial for our services. So here goes. And
don’t worry. This won’t be painful. I promise.
Since 1994. The Experts in Global Content. Every day, Content Rules
works with Global 2000 companies to create content and execute their global
content strategies. Our services span the entire content lifecycle, from content
development to global readiness. The types of projects we regularly take on
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Project Sourcing. We have a
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Our network includes copywriters,
editors, graphic artists, coders,
production editors and project
managers. Many of our clients are
technology companies that ask us to
source people who have experience in
the specific technologies they sell.
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Managed Services. Content
Rules can help you set up an entire
department from scratch. Often,
we handle this kind of work as a
managed service for our clients. We
can hire all the personnel, set up
the department, and establish the
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can be successful that much faster.
At the end of the project, when all
content has been developed, we help
you staff down to a core team that
can maintain your content. Clients tell
us that this no fuss/no muss way of
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on what they do best, leaving us to
sweat the details involved in content
development.
Consulting. Content Rules
consultants help your company to
develop content more efficiently.
We work with you to break down
silos between departments, and
establish a common lexicon across
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evaluate and get trained on state of
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a technology-assisted approach to
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Get in Touch Now and Help
Communities in Africa Fight Critical
Medical Problems
Thanks for listening to my 8 simple rules of how to
make your content global-ready now. If you need
help getting content global-ready at your company,
we can help.
To get started, go to
http://contentrules.com/landing/global-fight-critical-medical-problems
Use this form to contact us. If you come on board as a customer
within 90 days we’ll donate $100 on behalf of your company to
Translators without Borders. Translators without Borders is a
dynamite organization that we’ve teamed up with to simplify the
source English for various documents. From there, the documents
can be translated with ease into various African languages.
As a result of this work, you will be helping communities on the
ground serve their citizens better when it comes to the prevention
and treatment of HIV, improved family planning, and reduced
mortality rates, especially among infants and young children.
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