The Word Gym Ltd.

Software localisation is an important subset of translation, requiring specialised skills (and tools). Nowadays, lots of companies offer localisation services: we offer you high quality, too!

Typically, we apply our localisation know-how to the following software components:

• GUI - usually provided as DLL or resource files, or extracted strings. Or we can extract UI elements and manage them using tools like Multilizer or SDLX (if compatible with your development platform). You'll probably want to recompile your own software, but then we can quality-test it for linguistic integrity and functionality.
• Help files - usually provided as HTML, XML or CHM files. We generally handle the entire process of help file generation by translating, recompiling and function-testing each language version. Function-testing includes checking of indexes, context-sensitive links, pop-ups and so forth.
• User guides - we translate and reformat user documentation in a wide variety of formats, e.g. FrameMaker, Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word and many others.
• Web content - of course we translate and edit web content, either in static code (e.g. HTML, DHTML, XHMTL, XML, SHTML, JS, etc.) or from database sources. We also advise you when creative translation is more appropriate than straight translation.
• Testing and QA - we can perform linguistic, cosmetic and function tests on translated software and documentation, basing them on test scripts derived from your existing products if you prefer.

Calling in the experts

We're language specialists, not software engineers, so we stick to our core skills: languages and cultures. BUT we do work closely together with software developers, refining the most effective ways to integrate our creative and technical translation skills with their software and documentation platforms.

By working like this, we've learned a lot about development issues and code types, and built some excellent relationships with software development specialists who have the skills and experience to adapt your software so it can be localised more efficiently.

If you're planning to adapt your software for international markets and need advice or assistance, we'd be delighted to discuss your needs with you.