FAQs
Q: What customers have 3di worked with?
A: The team at 3di has many years collective experience working with a range of companies throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Our core experience is with companies in software and IT, telecommunications, life science and healthcare, finance, and business services. To see specific case studies, please visit our customers page.
Q: What makes 3di unique?
A: 3di provides authoring and information design services alongside our translation and localization expertise. Our unique combination will help reduce your translation costs and improve the quality of your documentation. We understand that well-written, well-designed source documentation is quicker and more cost-effective to translate.
3di sees information design, authoring, translation and localization as part of the same basic goal: delivering effective information to the right audience, in the right way, at the right time.
We provide a range of technical authoring and information design consultancy services and have in-depth experience with a variety of clients in this area. We also have partnerships with documentation technology vendors and are UK partners for the highly regarded Information Mapping (IMAP) documentation methodology.
Q: My documentation files are highly sensitive—how would 3di handle this?
A: As a standard, all technical authors, translators, and other specialist suppliers sign and adhere to 3di confidentiality terms. We are always happy to sign and adhere to a non-disclosure agreement with customers. We are also happy to consider any specific information security measures that are important to you.
Top of the page Technical Author Resourcing - FAQs
Q: How will 3di find the right individual to meet our needs?
A: The 3di team have more than 10 year’s experience of recruiting documentation specialists, and we understand that one author doesn’t fit all. A dedicated 3di account manager will work with you to understand your needs and your culture and to find the best possible fit. With more than 1000 registered specialists, the likelihood is that we already know the best person for the job.
Q: How does 3di check an author’s skills?
A: Having worked with many of our specialists on previous projects, we often have first-hand experience of their strengths—and weaknesses. This enables us to make informed decisions about suitability. All of our specialists go through a rigorous CV screening and interview process before being considered for a project. Where appropriate, we will also review work samples and take references.
Q: What format will CVs be provided in?
A: We aim to send a maximum of five CVs for any one vacancy, reducing the time you would normally spend on screening and selecting candidates. Because it represents the first example of an author’s abilities that you will see, we understand how important it is that CVs are sent in their original format, usually as either a PDF or Word document.
Q: What about your PSL?
A: We recognise that it has been vital for many organisations to formalise their recruitment process by establishing a Preferred Supplier List. While we are happy to be included on your PSL, many of our customers prefer us to work alongside their PSL as a second-tier specialist provider. Working in this way enables you to work with your regular suppliers on more generalist IT and technology vacancies, using 3di only for less frequent but highly specialist documentation roles.
Top of the page Translation and localization - FAQs
Q: What is localization?
A: More than translation of words, localization involves adapting a product or service to the linguistic, cultural, and legal conventions of the target market. For a software product, localization activities can range from converting user interface content such as changing ‘Zip Code’ to ‘Postal Code’ through to complete adaptation of software code, user interface, online help, and ensuring the changes fully reflect the operating practices of the target market. More information about 3di's localization service.
Q: What is internationalization?
A: Internationalization is the software engineering effort that takes place before translation and localization. Source code modifications are usually necessary if a product has not been written with translation and localization in mind. Typical international design decisions will consider character encoding and display, multilingual resource file management, user interface and screen real estate, and user acceptance testing. 3di offer consultancy and training for development teams who are planning to take their products global.
Q: Which languages does 3di translate into?
A: Most 3di projects are translated from English (the source language). 3di can translate into (the target language):
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French
Italian
German
Spanish (traditional)
Spanish (Latin America)
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Swedish
Danish
Finnish
Norwegian
Dutch |
Czech
Hungarian
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Greek
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified/PRC)
Chinese (Traditional)
Chinese (Taiwan/Hong Kong)
Japanese
Korean |
Q: How does 3di’s QA process work?
A: Quality of translations and service are 3di cornerstones. After source files have been translated, 3di carries out a two-stage quality assurance (QA) process:
Stage One – Linguistic QA
- Use of correct terminology
- Use of appropriate style and tone
- Grammatical accuracy
- Consistency of terminology used within documents and across all elements of a project
- Correct interpretation of context used within the translation
- Instructions have been followed accurately
Stage Two – Format QA
- Page layout (coping with text expansion)
- Insertion of new screen shots
- Correct generation of new table of contents and index entries
- Checking any cross-references within the material
We can adapt our process to suit your specific project needs. In line with our ISO9001:2000 accreditation, we regularly monitor the effectiveness of all our quality measures.
Q: How does the 3di review process work?
A: Experience and consultation with our customers has shown that the most successful translation and localization projects usually involve end-users of the product. Product managers, project managers, marketing and systems specialists in your target territories are best placed to suggest UI refinements, appropriate terminology, or stylistic preferences. 3di recognizes the value in properly qualified peer review as an integral part of the localization process and is expert in managing such reviews on our clients’ behalf. If your company does not yet have representatives in local territories, 3di will recommend that a second 3di translator carries out a review.
Q: What timescales can 3di work to?
A: 3di will provide project-specific timescales as a guide. Depending on the nature and complexity of a project, a single translator can translate approximately 9000 words per week of software or 12000 words per week of online help or documentation; these rates include a linguistic review. On large-scale projects, we would deploy multiple translators monitored by an editor/reviewer to ensure consistency of style and language.
Q: How much does 3di charge?
A: 3di either provides a separate, fixed-price quotation for each project or implements a framework service and pricing matrix as required. Different projects, even connected with the same product, can vary greatly in terms of linguistic complexity, graphical content, DTP effort required, and differing file formats. Please contact 3di for more details.
Q: How does 3di select its translators?
A: 3di uses subject-specialist translators who, together with native-tongue translation skills, are also experienced within specific industry sectors and technologies. We maintain a well-established network of proven translation professionals enabling us to find the right translator for the job, rather than trying to put a ‘square peg into a round hole’. New translators are comprehensively tested and referenced before to being engaged by us on a project.
Q: What is computer-assisted translation (CAT)?
A: The quality of 3di translations is essentially based on our use of experienced, professional translators working into their native languages. However, where appropriate, we assist our translator by using computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, which can provide a number of key benefits:
- Reduction in the time required to complete the translation
- Reduction in the cost of the translation project
- Development of 'translation memories' (TMs) for effective management of updates
- Development of project dictionaries which improve the consistency of the translated material
CAT tools divide the source text into 'segments' (typically individual sentences). The text is then analysed to identify any repetition of identical segments. This repetition can be harnessed and used at key stages of the project.
Q: What tools does 3di deploy for translation and localization projects?
A: 3di leverages maximum benefit for our clients by using the latest tools and software. The main benefits are improvements in consistency, more efficient workflow, and reduces the ongoing cost and effort of document or product maintenance. 3di uses tools including:
- TRADOS computer-assisted translation tool, WordFast, Déjà Vu
- Alchemy Catalyst, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, Sun J2EE, ForeignDesk
- Microsoft Project
- Authoring tools including FrameMaker, Word, EPIC, Adobe Acrobat, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Bladerunner, WebWorks, and many more
Top of the page Information Design Consultancy - FAQs
Q: What is single-sourcing ?
A: Single-sourcing, at the simplest level, means reusing the same content in different output media such as on-line help, printed documents, and browsable information pages. It also means using the same source to produce content for different audiences and for different products.
If, in your organization, information is being copy-pasted from one document to another or rewritten for different documents and audiences, there may be significant cost and time savings to be made by adopting a single-sourcing approach.
Single-sourcing is not a technology or a set of technologies or tools, and it does not always require expensive solutions to implement. It’s more about a practical approach to achieving simple goals.
Q: What are the main pitfalls to be avoided in single-sourcing projects?
A: Many projects start off being too ambitious or complex. It is important to establish clear objectives and to take the time to capture the reuse scenarios and requirements against which the success of the investment will be judged. It is vital to keep in mind what is worth and not worth doing. It is easy to over-engineer the solution and make it complex to actually produce the information.
The impact on existing content is also easy to underestimate in large organizations. With every project, there is initial investment in terms of changing the way of working, writing methodologies, and adopting new tools. This investment needs to be realistically planned and taken into account in the cost-benefit analysis.
The human factor of changing the mind-set of content creators from crafting individually developed content to effective collaborative writing is often underestimated.
Once the tools and technologies are in place, single-sourcing and the reuse of content do not just happen. They have to be planned and supported by the content creation or information development processes in the organization. For example, to support single-sourcing across traditional business functions such as training, documentation, and customer care, the origin and the life-cycle of the information has to be clarified and agreed between the functions.
Q: What is the significance of XML ?
A: eXtensible Mark-up Language is based on a subset of SGML and was created to simplify SGML. It provides a clearly defined way of marking-up content so that the content can be exchanged and transformed in different ways (for example, into both web pages and printed documents). XML gives structure to content, independent of formatting. The tags used can be defined and extended to meet specific needs of the organization. XML is platform-independent and tool-neutral and is increasingly supported by tools and systems, many of them open source.
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