Here are two questions that I answered recently via our Acclaro Twitter account:
Q: My website is in WordPress. How should I handle the translation of the site?
A: With WordPress, you can export an entire website in one XML-based RSS file called a WXR file. Once the content of the export is translated, you can re-import and build out your international iterations from there. It’s rather turnkey and an excellent option for small businesses looking to localize their website for new language markets. The only disadvantage is that you’re forced to have an “all or nothing” approach to website localization, meaning you can’t select the webpages and specific content that you’d want translated for a given market. WordPress is therefore very suitable for situations where the international sites don’t need to branch away from the main site.
Q: We are about to do voiceover for a corporate video and we’ve been asked to produce a “timed transcript.” What do they mean by “timed”?
A: Ideally, you can divide your audio transcript into time-coded sections. Each section should contain time cues that indicate where on the video timeline the audio starts and stops as well as the total duration of that spoken segment. See tip #10 from a recent article on script preparation for an example of what this can look like. You’ll want to list the segments, timing and any onscreen action. Note that this process can vary a bit depending on how your original transcript was created.
Have questions about localization and translation? Send them to me:
Via Twitter, ask your question using the hash tag #geek2geek
Send me your question via email: geek2geek@acclaro.com
