There are special considerations when localizing DITA content. In this podcast, Bill Swallow and Simon Bate discuss the conventions available in DITA for localization, and share anecdotes and advice to help you circumvent localization problems.
Do you need to supply translated content? Use this hierarchy of localization needs to shape your localization strategy.
Out of the box, the DITA Open Toolkit (OT) looks as though it’s localization-ready. The HTML and PDF plugins contain strings for over 50 languages. So it would seem that all you have to do is specify the language in your DITA files and maps and you’re good to go…or are you?
Two weeks ago, The LavaCon Conference made its return to Dublin, Ireland. Before I dive in, thanks to Jack Molisani for yet another fun and insightful LavaCon conference!
Coauthored by Bill Swallow and Gretyl Kinsey In 2015, S&P 500 companies sold 44% of their products outside the US.1 Without a global market strategy, companies are passing up nearly half their potential revenue.The challenge of global markets
This post is part of a series on the value proposition of localization strategies.
When people think of internationalization (IF they think of it), software labels often come to mind—buttons, menus, and other user interface text. But content development can benefit from it as well.
This post is part of a series on the value proposition of localization strategies.
The source content you develop is your intellectual property. The translation of that source content is also your intellectual property, regardless of who performs the translation.
This post is part of a series on the value proposition of localization strategies.
You can make localization “better” by taking a look at localization value. Quality and cost are important value factors, but improved time to market returns the greatest value.
Improving time to market for localized products and content is no easy task. It’s not as simple as adding more translators to the effort; that may cause more problems (and more delays). Improving time to market involves moving localization up the project chain, and to do so effectively requires a localization strategy.
This post is the first in a series about the value proposition of localization strategies. You can also see a presentation on this topic at LavaCon this October.
Localization issues are a primary reason companies seek help with a new content strategy. One of the most common questions we hear is, “How do we make our localization process better?”
When we’re asked this question, we turn the question around. What is wrong with your current localization process? What would you like to improve? How do you define “better?”
It takes considerable planning and effort to run a successful localization project, from following best practices to evaluating vendors to finding and fixing the weakest link in the localization chain. But the localization process does not end when you receive the translations. Localization testing is necessary for ensuring that your content and products are ready for a distributed global release.
