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Translation strategy

This section describes how to model your BluePrint hierarchy based on your translation strategy.

Your translation strategy needs to be reflected in your BluePrint hierarchy and is derived from:

  • your company's translation requirements based on the languages in which Web sites need to be delivered and
  • your translation vendor's ability to translate from and to certain languages due to the availability of translators and the costs involved

The first stage of devising a translation strategy is therefore to draw up a list of required source to target languages: in a typical company has a Corporate Web site in one language (the source language) which requires translation for Country Web sites available in one or more languages (target languages).

For example, Company A requires a Corporate Web site in English and Country Web Sites in German, Dutch, and French. The required source to target languages are therefore English to German, English to Dutch, and English to French. This requirement is shown in the following simple BluePrint in which the English Content is created in the Parent Publication and shared to the Child Publications containing the Country Web sites where it is localized and translated:

In Company A, the source to target languages use common language pairs and therefore would not pose a problem for most translation vendors. In Company B however, the Corporate Web site is in Japanese and the Country Web Sites in English, German, Dutch, and French. The required source to target languages are therefore Japanese to English, Japanese to German, Japanese to Dutch, and Japanese to French. However, as translators for these language combinations are difficult to come by, English is used frequently as an intermediary language as there are many translators who can translate from and to English into other languages. The required source to target languages are therefore Japanese to English, and English to German, English to Dutch, and English to French. This would be reflected in the BluePrint for Company B as follows: