Updated in September 2022. After a look at how we approach legal language work, with all its special demands, we’re now focusing on a type of service we’ve been specializing in at TrueLanguage for many years now – technical translation. Continue reading for a brief outline of important and useful technical translation tips.

Take a moment to consider your surroundings, and the devices you have close at hand. You’ll probably notice a computer. Perhaps a tablet or smartphone at the very least. In any case, most likely more than one of these. If you’re at the office, there will be a printer, a copy machine, a coffeemaker (hopefully), maybe a shredder. I don’t need to get into the list of major and minor appliances you’ll have nearby if you’re at home.

Now think of this – every one of those devices came with a user’s manual, instructions for assembly, a warranty. Even linens and towels come with directions for care and maintenance on the tags. So, when you decide to sell your products in foreign markets, you’ll need to translate all of this documentation. Every word of it, from “OPEN THIS END” to “TUMBLE DRY ONLY”. This is one of your most critical technical translation tips!

The consumer end of things

On the consumer end of things, you may feel that much of this text is unnecessary. For example, if it involves paper text, you may even find it wasteful. Well, let’s consider the business end of the process as it relates to devices as simple as a household clothes iron and for complex machines and vehicles alike. In these cases, you’ll need to clearly and exhaustively outline in writing for the purchaser every aspect of use and operation. And you should likewise anticipate and warn against all possible ways in which a user might cause harm to the device, or to themselves through improper use.

Customers in all markets and languages have to be given precisely the same information, using plain and unambiguous terms, with strict adherence to the original text. After all, if a company’s product labels are loosely translated, resulting in even one mishap in a foreign market, that company might have pressing need of legal translation services in the immediate future!

Technical materials are something we’ve handled a lot of at TrueLanguage. For anyone translating technical documents, or anyone with technical documentation to be translated, we have a few technical translation tips:

Keep a glossary, and keep it up to date.

An enterprise’s terminology consists of its brand names, patented terms, special descriptions, and other frequently used expressions. This terminology will be an integral part of all translations, obviously. A formalized version of a terminology is a glossary, and if you run a small business, you’ve probably got a glossary of some kind. As for larger companies with presences in the global market, these will have established glossaries in every language they serve. If you have a formalized glossary, keep it current at all times. But if you don’t have one, make one. As you work with an LSP to translate your documents, build up foreign language glossaries and keep them up to date, too. And if you work with TrueLanguage, we can help you with this!

Keep it simple.

Remember, you don’t know who’ll be receiving this document or what their reading level will be, in any language. If they can’t make sense of the document, you’re in trouble. This mainly applies to technical writing for consumer products. Similarly, technical writers for industrial, medical or scientific audiences can count on a certain level of comprehension in the reader. But in any case, concision and clarity are what to aim for. Easier to read, and easier to translate.

Don’t forget to recycle.

While using your glossary to keep your technical writing consistent, write with recyclability in mind. Thus, elements of good, clear technical writing can also find a home in marketing documents, promotional materials, and so on. Likewise, translation of repeated text comes at a reduced cost, so the more you can reuse blocks of text, the less you’ll have to pay.

Mind your graphics.

Your technical documents will definitely have graphics in them. So, what’s an instruction manual without diagrams? For this reason, you should plan in advance for the translation phase. This is because if your graphics contain text (captions, labels, measurements), you should keep the text as detached from the graphics as you can. For instance, text embedded in a photographic image might look pretty, but extracting it for translation will add time and cost to the process. Therefore, if a translator only needs to click into a text box to enter a phrase, you might be surprised how much you’ll save in the end!

Consider a Partnership with TrueLanguage

Are you looking for a partnership with a language service provider? If so, you may wish to consider TrueLanguage. We offer ISO-certified state-of-the-art business translation services that are on budget, on time, and to the exact specification. Every time. Or perhaps you’re just looking for a cost-free, no-obligation estimate for your next translation project. Either way, we’d love to hear from you!