Translation of technical documents
Do you market industrial products or services? You are bound to have many technical documents in different formats. Furthermore, these documents are likely to be intended for different target audiences, depending on their skills and even cultures.
Translating technical documents must, therefore, meet a significant number of requirements and specific organisation is needed.
For the translation of your technical documents, specialist translators are essential.
For the translation of your technical documents, don’t run the risk of translating them yourself or making use of rudimentary machine translation, as this may have serious consequences. Call on a specialist translation agency, with specialist translators.
Translation of technical documents, demanding projects
A translator must have solid expertise as well as proven knowledge of the technical field to ensure the text is appropriate in the target language. Technical and industrial domains often require very specific terminology, different measurements, and values that change from one country to the next.
In other words, the translation must be adapted to the jobs of those who have to understand the translation, and it must be “efficient”. The particular difficulty with this very demanding sector is that the source document must be perfectly understood, whether in terms of the sizes, measurement systems, mechanical parts with very specific names, machines and devices, electrical systems, etc.
The technician or engineer that will make use of the translated technical document cannot afford to make any mistakes, so the translation must be flawless.
Why are translation memories important for technical projects?
Why do you need a translation memory for your technical projects?
Technical projects change over time: projects may last several years, and may include several different versions of documents, using different terms in different countries, etc.
This is why it’s essential to call on a professional translation agency, making use of a translation memory for your project. This translation memory will enable you to make the best use of your own vocabulary and will ensure that your translations are consistent over time. A translation memory can also save a significant amount of time for any future translations.
The benefits of a translation memory
One of our customers, a company that works for the Polish Army, was required to submit bids in Polish. They called on our agency to translate the call for tenders from Polish into French, then to translate the bids (technical translation memories, in particular) from French into Polish. As the first call for tenders was unsuccessful, the Army launched another consultation 18 months later. Our agency was able to translate the new documents using the translation memory that we set up: the new translation was delivered in record time and at optimal cost.
At EuropaTrad, we go the extra mile to provide you with a translation memory. We store your original document in a translation memory for at least 2 years after delivery of your translation. This is an important asset for our customers.
One of our customers recently contacted us as they needed a certification document urgently: their certificate had expired and they missed the deadline. They couldn’t conduct any business in the country. However,we had translated their previous certificate 5 years earlier. Thanks to our translation memories and the project archive, we were able to solve the problem in 24 hours and their business was up and running again.
Technical translations, complex multi-media translations
Technical translations, multi-media translation requirements
In the case of our client mentioned above, setting up a translation memory was all the more necessary as the project required the document translation a wide variety of documents: technical specifications including diagrams and schematics to be translated, contractual documents, and technical information provided by key suppliers (tenderers). We even provided an interpreter to negotiate the contract. Additionally, in the event of a successful bid, the actual documents for the project will have to be translated into Polish, with seamless consistency with all the other documents.
Let’s look at another example: a software company needed to translate technical documents. These documents were already written in French and English but, in order for the company to develop, it needed Slovenian and Polish language versions. The documents had several dozen pages, and detailed the update of the machine interface in a given language. Translating the content and visuals proved difficult as the translations contained within the tool had to be consistent with the translation of the related training documents (pdf). Our agency rose to the challenge and provided the customer with a turnkey product, ready to be used.
The requirement for special handling of technical translations
Translating technical projects involves a wide variety of content: manuals, technical specifications, computation reports, machine interfaces, parts lists, patents, standards, etc. Translating multi-media projects therefore requires a significant amount of preparation and consistency over all documents.
Calling on a specialist agency like EuropaTrad will guarantee a reliable and consistent translation from one document to the next.