Hebrew language provider – Case study

A vendor manager from a large translation agency is looking to enlist an Israeli based Hebrew translation supplier to help translate from English to Hebrew and Desk-top-publish an electric appliance user manual.

He contacts Global IL Services an Israeli based Hebrew Language translation provider to help him with the project and sends the project files to be translated.

Global IL Services initialized the following steps and procedures:

Compatibility check:

Source document Hebrew compatibility check:

Explanation:

The Hebrew language is different than English, it is written from Right to Left (as opposed to English which is written from Left to Right), most fonts do not contain Hebrew and Hebrew is not supported by all graphic and authoring software.

Task preformed:

We check that the source document and Fonts support Hebrew.

A detailed summery with recommendations is sent to the client.

Translation software compatibility check:

Explanation:

From our experience, even Translation Memory software which claim to support Hebrew do not do so well and  cause problems across the translation project path.

• Note on Left to Right and Right to Left Tags

  Sentences translated into Hebrew contain sometimes also English letters, Symbols and numbers.

  If an English letter, Number or symbol appear together as 2 words then the sentence gets scrambled and is usually displayed wrong. The software tool does not know if to place the next English character on the Right or left of the sentence.

  Most Translation Memory tools enable you to add RTL or LTR tags to help organize the sentence properly. If your TMS software does not support RTL or LTR tags then we recommend not to use it.

Task Preformed:

If the translation tool is a new tool we check to see how it handles Hebrew, If the translation tool is a known tool we share our experience with our client and if needed recommend using another tool. A detailed summery with recommendations is sent to the client.

Glossary creation:

Before starting the project, we go over the document, extract all the new terms and translate them.

The terms are sent to the client for approval and uploaded to the Translation tool.

This help with the consistency of the translation and helps us translate faster.

• Note:

  When translating using a Translation Memory System, sentences are displayed one at a time.

  If a translated term is shown in a sentence, then it is marked and it’s translation is showed in the TMS tool.

Reading all the instructions and reference material

Usually the same translation project is sent to multiple translation suppliers with important translation instructions, reference material and style guides.

Me make it a point to read all the material.

Translation Memory Tool (TMS)

We translate the document or content using a Translation Memory Tool, We know how to use all the major translation tools and learn in moments how to use a new tool

• Note:

  When translating using a Translation Memory System, sentences are displayed one at a time.

  Every sentence which is translated by the translator is saved in the Database so when a similar sentence is displayed for translation the software displays also the translation from the Data base to be leveraged for the new translation.

  This feature saves time, helps with the consistency of the translation and produces a better translation.

QA & Spell Check

QA and a Spell check is performed on every translation.

Depending on the customer request, we generate a QA log file.

Translation approval:

We send the translation package back to the customer for approval.

Desk top publishing (DTP)

Our preferred tool for Hebrew Desk-top-publishing is InDesign.

We take great care to preserve our customers style.

Every DTP’ied file is checked by an experienced QA personal before sending it to the client.

• Note: Changing a LTR (left to right) graphic file layout to an RTL (right to left) layout and visa versa

  English is written from left to right as opposed to other languages such as Hebrew and Arabic which are written from right to left.

  The following points are considered:

  • Design: The design will need to be changed to suit the new language format.
  • Fonts: Most English fonts do not support Hebrew, new fonts will often need to be used.
  • Pagination: The size of the Hebrew fonts is not similar to English this can sometimes affect the original paging of the document.

Clients receive:

• An Indesign file in IDML format
• A smaller size PDF file for sending or uploading to the internet
• A ready to print PDF file with Crop marks