Question 10

Translation is a word familiar to me, but what is meant by localisation (or localization)?

Answer

Translation is a discipline which will convert your English documentation into one or several foreign languages, while preserving your original messages and making sure that they are suitable for your target market(s). Localisation (or localization to use the American spelling) is a similar process applied to software, but is does not restrict itself to words. Your software needs to talk the local language fluently, taking into account hardware considerations (e.g. AZERTY keyboard instead of QWERTY), software restrictions (is it flexible enough to have "Print Preview" translated as "Aperçu avant impression", an almost 90% expansion) and cultural issues ("AM" and "PM" are meaningless to most Europeans who also happen to use the comma as the decimal separator). When these rules are applied to one specific country, the word localisation (localization in America) is used but internationalisation (internationalization) and globalisation (globalization) are preferred for enabling products for world markets.

 

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