Software Localization
Software Localization from the experts
Software Localization is the modification of a product to include support for the cultural norms of a target country, including the specific language required in that country.
What is Software Localization?
Software Localization is more than the translation of a product's User Interface. Companies localize software in order to overcome cultural barriers for their products to reach a much larger target audience.
Software Localization is the modification of a product to include support for the cultural norms of a target country, including the specific language required in that country.
An example of this is the provision of multiple English versions of a product to support Canada, Australia, the UK and the USA. All of these countries share (broadly speaking) the same language. What sets them apart are the cultural norms of that country. This means that different versions of the product are needed for each country .
At SDL we provide all the services you would expect from a market leader in Software Localization solutions. Using a combination of our own tools and third party applications we are able to Evaluate, Extract and Re-integrate all types of translatable element for all products.
How do we do it the best?
We employ highly skilled staff in many disciplines. All staff utilize a support structure, which gives everyone the ability to access our global knowledge pool.
SDL provides a complete solution, including the building, testing and UI verification for Software or Help based products; these can range from traditional Software and Help to Multimedia, Web, Mac, PC, Server and Client side applications.
All Engineers are well equipped with a broad range of skills. With Engineers residing in most of our global offices we have many engineers familiar with the technical issues that surround Asian (Chinese Traditional/Simplified & Japanese), bi-directional (Arabic and Hebrew) and European products.
SDL's Engineering process is based on a model which includes extensive Quality Assurance procedures, this, combined with our continual development training system, means that all our lead engineers have the following key attributes:
- Analytical ability to solve problems
- Ability to train and motivate teams
- Knowledge of all aspects of localization engineering including the use of all SDL localization tools and relevant third party products
- Ability to identify technical internationalization issues.
- Evaluation of engineering assets
- Project engineering analysis, including requirements specification and process definition
- Proposing and supervising the creation of customized tools for projects
- Creating or modifying tools and macros as needed
- Managing version control and tool utilization
- Preparation of build environments to client specifications
- Process knowledge of translation memory tools such as SDLX, Trados, Catalyst, etc.
- Extracting/re-integrating assets from source software into translatable format
- Building and engineering localized assets/products to client specifications
- Fixing bugs in localizable assets
- Identifying localization issues in the client's build environment
- Taking localized screen shots
- Overseeing all UI testing
- Setting up bug report formats or databases
- Supervising regression testing and bug fixing as required
- General QA following SDL's QA processes on all components for engineering.
Our Engineering knowledge has enabled us to handle all software localization needs for our clients, and our Software Localization Engineers are able to work on various platforms including:
- Microsoft Windows
- UNIX
- HP-UX
- Solaris
- Linux
- Mac
- OSDOS
- OS/2.
