In the early 1990s, there was a sharp surge in
demand for consumer products. As a result, many organizations have
released the first set of relevant standards. An example of this is ISO
Guide 37:1995. Almost at the same time, international trade flourished,
prompting manufacturers to focus on multilingual documents.
Faced with this trend, the European Union
issued the "Machinery Directive" in 2006.
The Directive aims to establish a common level
of safety for machinery that is put on the market or put into use by all Member
States. More specifically, the Directive states: “Each machine must be
accompanied by instructions for the use of the official language of the
European Union or the language of the Member State on which the machine is
placed on the market and/or in use.” (Article 1.74)
According to the directive, symbols and
pictograms should be preferred, and written instructions should be clear, easy
to understand and concise, and most importantly, suitable for non-professional
users. Therefore, writing a product description for translation means
first setting the source text so that translation or localization can proceed
smoothly.
Here are some considerations to help you set
up your source content and prepare for translation and localization.
Source content
The first step is to accurately determine your
target audience to provide the most useful content. Focus on the
information that users in their target audience need most. For example, if
it is a directory or website translation, you may need a shorter or revised
version. Specific sections should include information about customer
support or how to contact a nearest sales representative.
In some cases, (technical) documents may also
require auxiliary materials. For example, when writing a user document,
you might also have to translate the warning label. The same is true for
information in the software user interface.
Design and layout
If your document is written around pictograms
and icons, it's best to use pictures and pictures at a glance. For
example, for a mechanical device, you can use an exploded view, number each
part on the drawing, and display a legend with numbers below the image.
Never create a document that completely
displays the information for each part on the image, as your translator may not
be able to access the text for translation at all.
This is especially important when localizing
software documentation. First, decide if you should prepare a localized
screenshot. If you decide to do so, the project must start with a
screenshot of the translation software and then provide a localized screenshot
to the translator. If you don't do this, in some cases, the translator
will not be able to get the source text locked in the drawing.
Always provide a large blank area in the image
to accommodate the text and draw the reader's attention. Translations in
some languages will become longer, while translations in other languages
will become shorter. For example, English to Italian translation will be
15-20% more words than the source text. This means you need to focus on
font size and margins as well as images and graphics, as well as boxes and
labels in the graphical user interface.
