- Do I need to have a professional translation?
- Are there any additional steps in a translation process?
- How does a translation project evolve?
- How can I make payments?Q. Do I need to have a professional translation?
A. The most important question you have to pose yourself before starting to look for someone to translate your document is: What is the translation going to be used for?
If your document or file contains information that you deem important and that must be conveyed accurately, your best bet is to have the translation done by a professional translation company. Otherwise, your image and credibility might be affected by poor quality translations causing you and your business to look bad to your internal and external clients. Idea Language Services, LLC is a Professional Translation Company created by professional translators in their search for excellence in service and quality at reasonable prices.
We believe in ourselves to the extent that we can offer your team FREE sample translations of up to 200 words.
Just contact us to learn more about this offer.
A.TEP stands for Translation / Editing / Proofreading, a three-step process that is used by Idea Translations to ensure that the final translation deliverable is a high quality product that conveys exactly what you want to communicate the way you want to communicate it. Most translation agencies will offer you only Translation or Translation and some type of quality check process. At Idea Translations, we offer a full complete independent Editing service by a second professional linguist and a final Proofreading by a third professional linguist as part of the service at no extra charge. This comprehensive process is how we can guarantee the quality of our translations.
Q. Are there any additional steps in a translation process?
A. Many projects require additional steps in order to achieve the type of deliverable the client is looking for. Some projects might contain highly technical and very specific industry terminology. In these cases, we offer terminology research to generate a glossary for the project, ensuring that consistency is maintained throughout the entire process.
Formatting or Desktop Publishing (DTP) is another important step in many translation and localization projects. This service entails the formatting of your documents on their original designer files to make sure they have the feel and look of the original document regardless of the source language. In other words, it gives your company the unified look you want it to have regardless of language or target audience.
Q. The content of my document is highly technical and very specific to an industry (i.e. medical, financial, legal, engineering, etc.). How can I be sure that the translation will be accurate?
A. At Idea Translations, our resources are divided into 5 different practices to cover a range of industries. These teams handle each of the following areas: Legal, Financial, Medical, Technical and Business & Marketing. We guarantee that your translations will be completed by a specialist in the subject matter with full understanding of the specific terminology or lingo used.
A. That’s easy! Contact us.
Call us at 877-409-8460 or send us and email to info@ideatranslations.com
One of our representatives will contact you immediately.
Q. How does a translation project evolve?
A. Below we have reproduced a work chart with all of the possible steps that a translation project might involve:
A. CAT stands for Computer Assisted Translation and it refers to specific software tools that allow translators to work efficiently while maintaining a consistent high quality output using the same correct terminology and vocabulary throughout the translation project AND all of your subsequent projects.
A CAT tool divides texts into segments (called "Translation Units") and organizes them so that the translation process moves smoothly and quickly.
The CAT tool saves the translation units in a database, called a translation memory (TM). The translation memory is particularly useful because it contains translated text that can be used on the same project or for other future projects for the same client that entails similar documentation. The creation of a translation memory helps save time and resources while ensuring that translators produce a high quality output consistently.
The process is simple: when a sentence is translated, the CAT tool stores the original sentence ("source" sentence) along with the translated sentence ("target" sentence) in a database ("translation memory" or "TM"). When a new sentence is translated, the CAT tool compares the new sentence with previously translated text already stored in the translation memory. Identical sentences are referred to as "100% matches", and similar sentences are referred to as "fuzzy matches".
When a document contains a high number of matches, the translators can save considerable time translating, and our clients can save money as we offer reduced rates for 100% and fuzzy matches. Ultimately, these tools increase productivity, allowing us to meet your tight deadlines without compromising quality.
Q. Why use professional translation services when there are so many online automatic (machine) translation services for free?
A. If you are familiar with automatic (machine) translation tools found on the Internet, you might ask yourself why bother contracting a professional translation company when I can use a free online translation tool?
Although these tools might be useful when you need to translate a couple of words or a simple phrase, it’s a dangerous venture to use it for paragraphs or whole documents. Automatic translation tools do not have the capacity to decide the best way to express a thought because they don’t have the cognitive analysis capacity necessary to provide an accurate translation. As a consequence, using these tools may lead you to use incorrect wording and change the content and context of what you need to communicate. Automatic translation tools are limited to vocabulary swaps and even in those cases if a word has various meanings, as it often happens in English, may lead you to make serious mistakes.
If you want to make sure that your information is properly translated and communicates what you need to say, your safe bet is to use a professional service that can attest industry and language capabilities.
Beware: Online translation tools are free but dangerous!
A. Payments can be made by check, credit card, PayPal or bank transfer. Please note that we require a minimum 50% upfront payment for projects.