At the beginning of localization practices in software and computing, only big companies like Microsoft needed to worry about that. Only companies reaching international markets had the need to translate all of their content for different audiences.

Today the market has expanded and small start-ups are aiming at international audiences, the need for localization is growing in importance with more translators and services working toward this objective.

Localization and Internationalisation

There are two concepts closely tied to software development that could somewhat be confusing:

• Internationalization is the process of designing an application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without programming changes.
• Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text.

The difficulties of this process could have a wide scope, not only in translation requirements but in programming as well:

• Language: The basic of a translation, a good translation with knowledge of the topic
• Regional Differences: American English vs. Canadian English could bring more difficulties, even inside the same language.
• Character Encoding: Using unicode standards, it’s possible to fix most of the problems of Character Encodings.
• Input: The keyboard layout and language can also bring problems for the program to work.
• Culture: Not only how universal some images and colors are, but also how different cultures use currency, measurements units, paper sizes, etc.
• Writing Conventions: How different languages write numbers, dates, symbols, etc.
• Writing Direction: Something basic, but the language an app is written in can change the whole layout of the program
• Shortcodes: Ctrl-S is not “Save” in Italian, but Underline, that can bring many issues to internationalization.

source: Nerfnow

Translation Hub for Projects

Not all projects have the money to have a translator team like Microsoft, small start-ups have the chance to hire one translator to help them, and Open Source projects have it the worst of all, although the community is there to help them.

In open source projects, there may be translators and people eager to help, but the organization may be difficult.

For these kinds of issues, there are projects that are trying to localization easier.

Transifex started as a Google Summer of Code project in 2007, but now it's being used for many open source projects including Firefox, GNOME, Fedora, etc.

Transifex is an online hub for translators. It allows developers to submit code directly, and the page will show the translators just the parts that need to be translated.

According to the site: “By reducing the barrier to contribution, translators can focus on doing the work and not mucking with source control systems.”

Recently in the startup news, Transifex just had an important update and now allows private and proprietary projects. This can be a really interesting tool to translate your software and a place for translators to get a job.

Translating the Web

Software is not the only element that needs to be translated. Online services and webpages have a vast potential audience. Having the option to localize your web is important to reach new markets and clients. Not every website will want this, but in cities like Montreal or Barcelona, a multilingual website, even for local services, is important.

Wordpress has different options to be localized, although one of the most interesting ones is the plugin/service called WPML. It’s not the only one that works for this, but I really like it.

WPML not only helps you localize your blog it actually internationalizes it, transforming your site into a multilingual one. Every title, headline, article and even category has the option to be translated. The plugin edits your posts and pages side by side, and it’s really simple to use. After installing it, you have your dashboard exactly as you know it, but every time you want to create a post you can choose a language and add the equivalent content for whatever you want to use. For the user, the page will be completely translated just by clicking on the desired language.

But WPML doesn't only provide an easy platform to work simultaneously with different languages, it also gives you the paid option to have your site professionally translated. You receive an automatic quote of the translation and if you are signed in and paying for the service, the different parts of your site will be automatically translated by professional translators.

Conclusions

Translating a web or a program is not as simple as it seems. On one hand you need to prepare the service for translation, on the other, you'll need translators that know the topic and understand the culture. In the end, a localized product will be something appreciated by the users.

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