Localization Digest

New Font Management System Saves Your Time and No Headache

2011-12-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

Introducing My Fonts - a font management system for fast and easy search, usage, storage and installation of different fonts and their versions.

My Fonts consists of the modules:

1. Local Fonts – has a list of all fonts that can be used installed on a machine

2. Font Scanner– has a font scanner which scans users’ computers for available fonts, and adds those fonts that are not in the database, as well as the correct versions of the fonts.

3. Font Database – to view all database of fonts and detailed information (versions, face types, languages etc.)

4. Plug-ins – help to extract used fonts in the files: InDesign, Framemaker, PhotoShop, MS Word, as well as install them from the database.

Evident and proven advantages of My Fonts:

1. Centralized fonts storage with the possibility to access for all users.

2. Ability to easily receive detailed information on every font (e.g. version, face, what language it supports, etc.)

3. Ability to easily add fonts to the Database by a user by only one click (the system itself adds and searches or installs needed fonts).

4. Intuitive and user-friendly system.

5. Simple search of fonts that need to be installed in the specific document and graphics editors.

Would like to learn more, please contact eleksinfo@eleks.com

Tool for High Quality of Multimedia Localization

2011-12-20T02:37:00.000-08:00

The problem with reviewing the accuracy of localized graphics and media is solved now!

ScreenViewer - a tool specifically designed to ensure the highest quality of localization of graphics and multimedia, UI linguistic review and screenshots analysis after automated testing.
View the video of the ScreenViewer functionality advantages and how it can help localization professionals.

Don't let your users be lost in translation

2011-11-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

If you are a global company and expect visitors to view your web site from different corners of the globe – then localize it. Although English is the most commonly used language in the Internet space, not all of the website visitors may understand it – many still use Google Translator, which can play good tricks on them. Don’t let your visitor be lost in translation!

Did you know about Top Ten most commonly used languages online?

English is still the number one language in use on the web, however, by having your website in English only you are potentially missing out on the many more users across the world that are browsing, web pages in different languages.

Therefore, you need to localize your web site.

Machine translation does not do web site translation well, since it misses cultural aspects of the foreign language, and may not convey an accurate message. To really connect with your foreign language visitors you must take a different approach through localizing your content and even the design.

Cultural differences can lead to different user experiences when viewing your web site. Chinese users prefer a more visually crowded design with vibrant colors and less text, while German users prefer a more corporate design using a formal tone, whereas UK audience prefers a more ‘chatty’ informal tone.

ELEKS Exhibits at Localization World Conference in Silicon Valley

2011-10-31T03:06:00.000-07:00

ELEKS Localization, a division of ELEKS – a global provider of software development and full-cycle localization services, today announced that it recently took part by exhibiting at the Localization World Conference Silicon Valley – the preeminent conference in the world for localization (L10n) and Internationalization (i18n) professionals. The conference was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California on October 10-12, 2011.

ELEKS has become a regular exhibitor at the bi-annual conference that focuses on the needs of the L10n and i18n business communities. Each year, the show organizers host one conference on the West Coast of the United States, and another in Europe. Attendees included L10n and I18n vendors, industry luminaries and most important to ELEKS Localization, L10n personnel from globally recognized companies from around the world. As more and more companies look to expand their products and services internationally, L10n professionals come to Localization World conferences to study emerging L10n trends, share their experiences and those who seek L10n and I18n service providers who are experts in their respective fields.

ELEKS Localization has been an exhibitor at Localization World Conference events since early 2010 – exhibiting at the past four conferences. This back-to-back participation has shown potential L10n clients that ELEKS is taking this market very seriously and seeks to grow its L10n business unit. By being an active participant at these conferences, ELEKS’ localization market awareness has increased significantly.

Over the past years, ELEKS has had to add 50 full-time L10n professionals to the ELEKS Localization staff to keep pace with the increased work demands. ELEKS now has roughly 500 technically oriented professionals on staff, of which more than 170 are now dedicated solely to the L10n group. Prior to attending our first Localization World Conference almost two years ago, ELEKS Localization had already established itself as a reliable and technically savvy L10n and software QA testing services provider for several well-known Fortune 500 ISVs – mostly through word of mouth referrals. With more and more L10n and QA work coming its way, ELEKS Localization has grown to become one of the largest, if not the largest L10n companies in Eastern Europe.

“Many L10n vendors started their businesses as translation or language service providers,” noted Taras Tovstyak, Director of ELEKS Localization. “ELEKS Localization on the other hand, grew from having more than 20 years experience as a software development provider. With this technical focus, ELEKS differentiated itself as a true full-cycle L10n provider with a deep knowledge of the technical aspects of L10n. Put another way, companies looking for more than just translation services will often be referred to ELEKS Localization to solve their L10n needs. This is especially true with software ISVs who need L10n and QA help from people with a strong software background.”

Apart from exhibiting and attending sessions, Taras Tovstyak was chosen by show officials to present a sophisticated resourcing planning package called TeamPro at a session focused on demonstrating innovative technologies. TeamPro is a custom application developed by ELEKS over several years. TeamPro has evolved years to allow ELEKS’ management to track the progress of contracted projects using easy to understand graphics instead of having mangers filtering through reams of data to determine if a project is on schedule. To show that a project is on budget and on time, TeamPro has been tailored to allowing customers to view the same detailed graphics showing the status of any given project, thus avoiding any surprises.

Innovation in-house –Team Performance Evaluation

2011-10-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

A rapid development of various tools and systems for localization business is obvious for those who monitor the achievements in this area. To be competitive the companies go for development of customized ERP systems, purchase of GMS platforms and CAT tools. However, still people are the core of the business that makes the company successful. Therefore, the most critical challenges in localization process the companies face are:

measuring employees’ performance,
selecting and keeping the most efficient staff,
tracking the changes in efforts of automated systems and tools deployment.

To address those challenges, for 11 years ELEKS has been successfully using its proprietary enterprise management system, which gives a possibility to gather the performance indicators of various teams allowing further statistics calculation.

This innovative tool was showcased at the largest event of Localization community – at Localization World in Silicon Valley on October 12th.

eView

2011-08-11T04:03:00.000-07:00

eView is one more of localization tools developed by ELEKS' software engineers. eView is designed to preview source and localized documentation. It allows you to see both documents on the same screen, log defects, track changes and capture necessary screenshots.
On the startup screen you can select source HTML file and correspondent folder with localized content. Upon confirmation of selection next screen will appear. It contains source document on the left pane and localized one on the right pane.

You can browse from one page to another using buttons on the navigation pane at the bottom of the screen. Also there you can find buttons for capturing screenshots and showing the journal.

To enable toolbar with different settings click on the correspondent button in the right upper corner of the screen.
Using this toolbar you can change browsing settings and screenshots capturing settings.

Another very helpful feature is a Smart Search which allows you to perform different searches in both source and localized files.

More information about Eleks Localization Tools is available at Localization Tools Overview section of ELEKS Localization & QA web site

eLinkChecker

2011-08-02T03:22:00.000-07:00

While working on our daily localization tasks we are using a lot of small, but very helpful tools which were developed by ELEKS’ software engineers.
One of them is eLinkChecker which is used to perform checks of different kinds of references in localized HTML documents. eLinkChecker can compare localized cross-references, URLs and references to images against ones in sources files. Also there is a possibility to check content of source and localized folders, to ensure that no files were lost or accidentally added during localization process.

eLinkChecker is very simple in use. Each type of verification can be chosen by checking correspondent check box. Folder with source files and folder with correspondent localized files can be selected using HTML Folder (LOC) and HTML Folder (ENU) buttons.
If you going to perform check of URLs, then list of source and localized URLs should be provided in Microsoft Excel 2003 or 2007 file. URLs for each language should be listed in separate columns, thus you can point to columns with source and localized links in URL Checking Settings section.
Results of checks are listed in the Result section at the right side of screen.
Final report can be saved as an Excel file using Save Report button.

More information about Eleks Localization Tools is available at Localization Tools Overview section of ELEKS Localization & QA web site

Wordfast Classic 6.0

2011-07-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

A month ago, Wordfast LLC announced the release of Wordfast Classic 6.0. Wordfast Classic is an add-in for MS Word and allows to translate the following file formats: MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, HTML.
Compared with previous versions Wordfast Classic 6.0 allows unlimited sharing of TMs and glossaries, includes improved quality assurance, AutoComplete and improved glossary term recognition features.
The advantage of the tool is a simple and intuitive interface. Users of MS Word can learn how to use Wordfast Classic in a very short time.
Another great advantage is the opportunity to work with Word bilingual documents created in SDL Trados 2007 or earlier versions of Trados. SDL Studio 2009 does not open Word bilingual documents, but the new version of SDL Studio, which is scheduled for release in September, should resume support for Word bilingual documents. This will provide an opportunity to continue use of Wordfast Classic for translation of files created in SDL Studio . Cost Wordfast Classic 6.0 is € 350, which is much cheaper than the cost of SDL Studio and therefore is a good alternative for those translators who do not have possibility to invest a large amount of money in CAT software.

Conquering Barcelona!

2011-07-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

Third time in a row ELEKS Localization team attended the largest event in Localization arena - Localization World Barcelona 2011.
We are becoming a part of the big L10n “family”.

Meet our team:

Now we look forward to being an exhibitor at the upcoming Localization World 2011 Conference in Silicon Valley to meet industry leaders and managers from companies seeking assistance to globalize, internationalize and localize their products for global markets.