IT/Telecom
It was a massive job with a very tight deadline: 10 software manuals—over 300,000 words—for translation into Japanese within 3 months. The client, a developer of real–time operating systems for embedded chips, expected the translation not only to be technically accurate, but to read as if written especially for the Japanese market; and, of course, to maintain the high standards of American technical writing. To add to the challenge, the project required delivery in FrameMaker.
JLS was certainly up to the challenge. We assigned a team of three translators, two technical editors, two desktop publishing operators working in Japanese FrameMaker, multiple proofers, and a project manager to oversee all the crews. For those translators who didn't work in FrameMaker, the manuals were converted into RTF (rich text format) files that included formatting codes (that translators knew to ignore). We put translation memory (TM) technologies to good use to ensure consistent terminology usage.
The software division at one of the world's leading computer makers has been a JLS client for over 25 years. It needed 16 manuals for two different operating systems to be translated from Japanese into English. The client expected not only first–class translations—meaning technically accurate and stylistically contemporary—but also that subsequent layout work follow their very demanding publication guidelines.
Because JLS has an ongoing relationship with the client, our translators and editors were familiar with the client's requirements. This helped speed up the translation process considerably: we were able to complete 14,000 pages in 6 months, including modification of thousands of graphic files for the new format and new content by our in–house publishing team. The manuals were designed for availability in both printed and online versions.