“A picture is worth 1,000 words” says the hundred-year-old adage. As a localization service provider specialized in technical documentation, I can even claim that a picture is worth 10,000 words. We share with you some valuable tips on formatting your image […]
#16 How to select your linguistic review tool
In two previous posts, How CMS and TMS architecture impacts localization and How to secure the […]
#15 How to manage hyperlinks with localization
Imagine the web without hyperlinks. It just wouldn’t be. Hyperlinks are the connections that hold the data together. They enable us to make our way through the hundreds of billions of web pages. They deserve to be maintained, and DITA gives […]
#14 How CMS and TMS architecture impacts localization
End of June, we published the sixth article in our series: Six reasons for preferring raw DITA to XLIFF for localization. We concluded that the raw DITA format was better than XLIFF to transfer content between the CCMS (Component […]
#13 Six reasons for implementing Simplified Technical English
The Holy Grail of content developers is to deliver the right content, at the right time, to the right audience, in the right format. To accomplish this goal, we have structured authoring and information architectures giving rise to omni-channel publishing, which […]
#12 Tips for the localization of measurement units in DITA
In September 1999, Mars Climate Orbiter, a NASA uncrewed spacecraft, crashed after ten months of travel, coming up too close to the planet and hitting the uppermost atmosphere. The primary cause of failure was a discrepancy in the units between two pieces […]
#11 Twelve tips on sentence length and structure for localization
Shorter sentences are easier to understand for the reader and the translator. When writing for non-native speakers and translation, you can aid comprehension by limiting your sentence length to 25 or fewer words. Longer, more complex sentences create a cognitive load […]
#10 UI Single Sourcing for an Agile Process
Whatever the product or service you market, your content is likely to refer to a software application. The software appears in the online help in the form of screenshots and UI (User Interface) terms and content managers struggle to manage them efficiently. The […]
#9 Five reasons to opt for loose CMS & TMS integration
In our sixth episode of the DITA Loc Wire series, we recommended transferring the content provided by the CMS using raw DITA files instead of XLIFF. Another approach, […]
#8 Tip for writing software content: externalize the UI terms
Technical writers typically write UI (User Interface) terms inline, because writing flows out word after word, sentence after sentence. We present here a different approach, externalization, that can make writing more agile, consistent across multiple platforms, […]