Technical manuals are created to explain not only how an instrument works, but also what safety precautions to take. Errors are therefore not allowed, because an error in use or assembly could have catastrophic consequences for users and open the door to legal action against the company, but also indelibly stain the company’s reputation and sink the affirmation of the product in the reference market.
If your business operates globally, it is important that technical materials are translated and localized for each target country. However, unlike ‘normal’ translations, technical translations pose unique challenges. In this article, we will give you some tips to overcome them.
Choose the right translators
The first and by far most important requirement for obtaining an impeccable technical translation is to choose translators with a strong technical background. Without an appropriate wealth of knowledge, a translator will find himself confused when faced with specialized content and will end up not fully understanding it.
Therefore, rely only on translators with demonstrable experience in your reference sector. Sometimes finding such a figure could prove more difficult than expected. If you want to be on the safe side, contact a reliable translation agency, since the agencies have a very vast network of translators to draw from and above all they specialize in selecting only the most suitable professionals for your specific needs.
Use i glossary
To correctly set up the translation of a technical manual, you will have to provide those in charge with a glossary with the appropriate vocabulary of your reference sector and a style guide capable of guiding the entire work process of a translator with coherence and precision. By doing so, you will reduce the amount of questions that a professional might rightly have, you will speed up times and make the task more agile and at the same time precise.
Be sure to include in the glossary all terms whose exact wording is fundamental to your company’s services or products, including those that are not translatable or should not be translated. Also provide an accurate list of all those words that you absolutely do not want to be associated with your brand. Finally, remember to provide the content in an editable format, so as to make the life of translators much easier and, above all, save time on delivery and avoid problems and slowdowns that cost money.
The main difficulty of technical translation
The use of non-specialised online translators or automatic translations in the field of technical translations does not guarantee the accuracy of the result, indeed, on the contrary, it is often synonymous with approximation; a risk that a company operating globally cannot afford to take in terms of brand reputation.
One of the main dangers of translating technical manuals concerns the difficulty in translating specialist terms, abbreviations and acronyms of which this type of document is rich for obvious reasons.
If you open any technical dictionary or use a search engine to find the decoding of an acronym, you will discover that the same acronym has many interpretations.
This is why technical translators must be highly qualified in the specific sector of technical translation that is requested of them.
Translate your technical manuals with LingoYou
At LingoYou we understand the importance of replicating details with complete accuracy and have developed a workflow for the translation of technical manuals with rigorous built-in quality control.
We only use translators with an in-depth level of knowledge and experience in your specific field. We’ll ask you to provide us with a glossary and style guide to ensure we meet your brand guidelines and maintain consistency with existing materials.
Our qualified translators have a diverse set of technical backgrounds in IT, chemistry, medicine and more, so if you’re looking for a partner to meet your technical translation needs or simply want more information, contact us today.
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