Case Study: AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY Canada*

The Challenge—

AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY Canada needed more than 20 owner's manuals translated and typeset during a two-month period. Each Owner's Manual-Quick Reference Guide was between 15 and 35 pages long, with text typeset in QuarkXPress and the graphics in Illustrator. Each manual had to be completed and ready to print—translated and formatted identically to the English version—within seven days.

The Solution—

Turning the work around fast, without compromising quality, was the key to the project's success. To ensure accuracy and consistency, and to enable us to meet the tight deadlines, we automated every facet of this project. We used translation memory— a type of software that stores and reuses terms and phrases as content goes through revisions and updates—to detect all repeated or previously translated segments in the text. Because we have compiled a huge database for AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY Canada over the years, we were able to recover about 80% of the text from work that had already been translated. The translation memory tool also gave us the ability to strip the text out of Quark, and then, when the translation was complete, to flow it back in.

By implementing technology that allows us to concentrate on what is new, instead of repeating work that has already been done, we streamlined the translation process. We eliminated unnecessary duplication of effort, along with several rounds of repetitive tasks—and automatically leveraged the translation assets of the company.

The Proof—

We delivered the work on time, formatted in Quark, ready to be printed. AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY Canada keeps coming back for more. They have asked us to translate and typeset these owner's manuals every year since our first partnership.

Background

LWT Communications has been working with AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY Canada since 1989. Over the years this client has asked us to translate brochures, technical bulletins, product guides, owner's manuals and much more. These translations used to be done in Word, then sent back to the typesetter, who would insert them into QuarkXPress and lay out the pages. This process required many rounds of proofreading and corrections until the final product was flawless and could be approved

*Confidentiality is an important part of our business, so we do not publish client names in public arenas. The elements of this case study are real, but the client's name is not. If you would like more information on the scope of our experience and expertise, please do not hesitate to contact us.