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 translation and adaptation of a software or web product, including the software itself and all related product documentation.
Traditional translation is typically an activity performed after the source document has been finalized. Software localization projects, on the other hand, often run in parallel with the development of the source product to enable simultaneous shipment of all language versions. For example, the translation of software strings may often start while the software product is still in the beta phase.
Translation is only one of the activities in a localization project – there are other tasks involved such as project management, software engineering, testing and desktop publishing.
A software product that has been localized properly has the look and feel of a product originally written and designed for the target market. Here are just a number of points that have to be considered, as well as the language, in order to effectively localize a software product or website: measuring units, number formats, address formats, time and date formats (long and short), paper sizes, fonts, default font selection, case differences, character sets, sorting, word separation and hyphenation, local regulations, copyright issues, data protection, payment methods, currency conversion, taxes.
The standard localization process includes the following basic steps:
Passolo is a software localization tool that accelerates the many technical aspects of software localization and allows users to concentrate on the translation. When working with Passolo it is possible to display the dialogs and menus in which the translated text strings will appear. If the length of a text string changes as a result of the translation, any necessary layout modifications to dialogs and forms can be made directly within Passolo.
Passolo offers the tools required to localize all the elements contained in the software, including strings, menus, dialogs, bitmaps, and icons. With Passolo you can create localized software versions without requiring access to the source text files or the development environment used for developing the software.
Providing automatic test functions, interfaces to the major translation memories, and the option of working with all the major Windows formats as well as text files and tagged formats such as XML and HTML, Passolo is the state-of-the-art software localization tool.
