Alex Sakovsky is a principal of AJ Consulting and has seen simplification with ICanLocalize (ICL) as compared to times when things were less progressive. The overall decision for offering multiple languages on a client’s website stemmed from increased demand from European customers. He let us know about his project: “In this particular case, I have produced website for June Lake Motel in beautiful California Eastern Sierra mountains. We have translated the whole site with WPML.”

AJ Consulting Focuses on Customized Solutions

Designed as a “One Stop Shop” for web and software projects, AJ Consulting (www.aj-consulting.com) focuses on enterprise solutions for corporate and community clients. A quick look at their portfolio and testimonials communicates flexibility and customization based on the needs of their customers. Services include web development and business software solutions related to employee time tracking, customer relationship management and specific custom software development to suit client needs.

Increased Bookings from International Travelers

Having the need for multinational collaboration across several countries and time zones, this particular client site (www.junelakemotel.com) was developed in English, German, French and Russian with a combination of ICanLocalize and WPML to integrate translation on the website. “The translation is excellent, we are already getting the positive feedback from the international customers. WPML worked great, all localization tasks were easy to manage and integration with WordPress was seamless.” Taking efforts to have multilingual content resulted in increased business (in addition to visitors spending more time on the website). They have informed us of a visible increase in bookings from international visitors due to this new accessibility.  The total translation on the project was 3062 words and all pages on the site are now accessible in multiple languages, managed with WPML.

Alex Sakovsky, Principal, AJ-Consulting.com

How Do You Feel About the Future?

“I am extremely satisfied with the product and planning to use it in my future projects, as well as recommend it to my software developer friends.”

Alex is planning future use of WPML/ICanLocalize services and products with an emphasis on increasing international exposure.  Being able to setup and manage content in multiple languages enhances their client offerings and aids AJ Consulting in expanding their own service offerings, allowing them to reach out to additional customers.

Diana Murcia is a web designer

Upon moving to Valencia to complete her degree studies in 1994 at the Valencia school of architecture, she was placed on a team of undergraduates who were assigned the project of redesigning the school’s website. This went over well and she was then put in a place to take on several additional projects for the university. Many projects later, she’s teaching web design and programming as well as continuing to work as an independent professional with TradiArt.

She’s worked for advertising companies, businesses and individuals and is now working with the WPML plugin suite (and ICanLocalize) to translate her personal website and other client sites such as: Lorenzo Mahé Architects, CyclusID and Ad3Energy.

Initially, Diana came to ICanLocalize to simplify the process of finding a translator and it was the professional and personal communication that turned into a positive experience for her. “As WordPress is the platform we use to build all our sites, we use WPML to translate them. Sometimes we need translators, and sometimes it is our customer who provides translations. In both cases, WPML simplifies a lot the work.” After learning the system, the simplicity has made approaching localization for client sites a workable option for her service offering.

Having sites in multiple languages is allowing Diana to branch out with her services to the United Kingdom and USA and communicate better with the existing visitors she has to her website from these locations. “After Spain, where I live, USA and United Kingdom are the countries that visit my site.” She’s also been able to enhance her client sites to better serve the international audience.

Diana Murcia

Architect and Web Designer

Kirk Wight was in charge of the development of the new Cornforth Physio website, providing both English and French versions. Also located in Montreal, Kirk builds WordPress websites for fun and a living, often in both French and English. Already a WPML user, Kirk localized his own site (kwight.ca) into French first using ICanLocalize’s translation services, in order to test how WPML and ICanLocalize worked together.

After a positive first experience with ICL, he recommended WPML and ICL to his client. During an interview with our support guru, Kirk stated: “Generally it was impressive how easy it was to get a translator and how well the work was done.” Some review was required to adapt certain French terminology to Quebec, but apart from some minor changes, the work was ready to go live.

Quebec is a vibrant mix of French and English culture; it is important for Kirk to be able to offer clients multilingual websites built with WordPress. The easiest way to meet his clients’ needs is with WPML and ICL. “WPML is the only translation management plugin for WordPress that I recommend to my clients,” he said. “It is the most developed and technically complete option available, capable of handling even troublesome elements such as custom post types and media descriptions,” Kirk added.

Working with WPML keeps getting better and better for this Canadian developer. “Wordpress has no built-in system for managing translations – WPML fills that gap. Since becoming commercial, WPML has matured greatly, the quality has sky-rocketed, and they continue to stay up-to-date with WordPress developments – I love it,” He exclaimed. In WPML, Kirk has found the most practical way to get WordPress websites localized into other languages.

“I’d like to see the user interface simplified, but otherwise the combination of WPML and ICL is the best way of translating and managing your multilingual WordPress website,” he ended.

Kirk Wight

Web Developer

SoDA is an international association of respected digital marketing agency leaders and entrepreneur’s with a history and a vision for the future of marketing. SoDA provides infrastructure, processes, and products to enable collaboration between members around education, best practices and advocacy.

They are a member-centric organization comprised of digital marketing/advertising agencies all over the world. SoDA has about 50 members located globally who use their site to find out about events, programs, and the latest that they’re working on.

FOUNDATION

SoDA was founded in Miami in 2007: 13 leading digital agency CEO’s decided to meet up and have a talk about where their industry was headed. New friends were made, business problems and solutions were shared and a society was formed.

GOING MULTILINGUAL

Natalie Smith, in charge of SoDA localization project, told one of our supporters: “Generally speaking, I think the translation system is a fantastic way to make a website multi-cultural.” They translated with ICanLocalize about 85% of their site – only the static portions.

Being a non-profit organization, they are not seeking to increase profits by becoming multilingual. However, they have received a positive response from their membership for taking their site to an international level.

Natalie also stated that “The ICL support team was wonderful all throughout the process and could not have been nicer or more helpful. I was able to ask a lot of questions and was always given an answer within that same working day.”

Thanks to the multilingual module WPML, Natalie has told us, that they’re now able to attract Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish and French visitors that may have abandoned their site had they not become multilingual.

Natalie expressed her satisfaction with the translation work: “The translators were all very quick and didn’t hesitate to reach out with questions which we welcomed. They were also very nice to communicate with.”

Translation work is currently under a review process but will go live within the next month.  The review process is always necessary for any website that pretends to have versions in different languages with 100% quality.

With WPML and ICanLocalize translators SoDA will be reaching a broader constituency of digital marketing professionals worldwide, expanding on its international footprint around the globe.

Natalie Smith

Operations Associate Manager

The Society of Digital Agencies

Looking for an unforgettable camping or caravan holiday in Cornwall? Look no further than the magic of Pentewan Sands Holiday Park, nestled in the arms of Mevagissey Bay on the South Cornwall Coast, with its magnificent coastline and luscious green countryside. The very best of a Cornwall Beach Holiday.

Pentewan Sands is a family holiday park that has been established for over 60 years, waiting for you with a warm welcome and friendly hospitality. Just some of the reasons so many families think they are the best campsite in Cornwall and come back year after year!
Their award winning caravan and camping park has a wide selection of luxury holiday static caravans and large level touring pitches, most with electric hook-ups, all of which are near their excellent facilities and close beside their very own superb exclusive beach.

No wonder then they were voted Best Beach Holiday Park in Britain 2008 by Out and About magazine!

So what strategy did Pentewan Sands use to generate more interest and boost their bookings from visitors beyond the UK borders – by making their site available in other languages of course. The website was localized from English into Dutch and German reaching now a much wider audience than it used to do. At Pentewand Sands, they care about visitors from overseas. The website is the first point of contact so they wanted to make it welcoming to a wider audience in their native languages – what better way than for visitors to see information in their mother tongue!

Jock Turner, the developer in charge of localization, said: “I’m really impressed with the system, particularly the ability to recognise pages which are awaiting translation and the user deciding which to choose or which to leave.” As for the translation quality, he said it was extremely good and all the translators were very helpful and often went out of their way to suggest further improvements and enhancements beyond the basic translation commission – that would help their native speakers understand the site better.
This WordPress site was localized using the multilingual plugin WPML. Jock stated that WPML “seems to work pretty seamlessly when linking through to the chosen translators. Once sent no more work needs to be done at our end.”

WPML and ICanLocalize professional translators made the deal!

Jock Turner

Owner, First Class Web Design

View the Universe

Starmap is the perfect app for viewing the universe with realistic maps and detailed factual information. Based on the iPhone compass geo-location technology, Starmap Pro pinpoints your exact location and lets you view the sky in real-time, and zoom in/out on objects in the sky as you please. Starmap has several other features to enhance your space-viewing experience, including information and images on celestial objects, sky-gazing information specific to your area, and more.

This application, which has been localized into 10 languages, is perfect for the casual stargazer or the professional astronomer. Starmap Pro is available in iTunes for iPhone, iPad, and iTouch.

Let Yourself be Taken on a Star Voyage

Spacemap –also a multilingual app- takes you on a star voyage, beyond the Solar System, to the outer bounds of the known Universe. Beautiful animations, sound effects … but overall scientific precision. All known comets, asteroids and planets orbital paths are exactly rendered. 25000 objects, like galaxies or stars can be located in this 3D model of the Universe. Even extraterrestrial planets and objects that may collide with the Earth are included.

Reaching Wider Audiences & Reaping the Benefits

Both astronomy apps as well as the website have been localized by our professional translators, and carefully reviewed, providing quality versions in the different languages: Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

Frédéric Descamps, Starmap CEO, makes use of WPML in combination with ICL professional localizers for translating the strings, the help pages and the site content.

About ICL translation services, Frédéric told one of our supporters: “The system is very good and professional. I always got quick answers to questions.” With big volumes of recurring work since 2009, time when cooperation started, some issues have come up at times, but he expressed his satisfaction about the immediate support provided.

Now Starmap is available to native speakers from different parts of the globe. He also added: “Having a multilingual version of an app really increases sales. People like to have them in their own language. And this increases the overall app quality.”

Frédéric Descamps

Starmap CEO

Overwriting Existing Translations

When users uploaded existing translated resource files for their software localization projects, the system ignored any string that had already been translated. Now you have two options when you ‘Upload exisiting translations’.

Project Administration

Option 1

So far, if the string was the same and it had different translations on ICanLocalize and on the file you’re importing, the system just ignored the translations from the file and took ICanLocalize translations. This is still possible, if you mark the first option ’Skip strings that are already translated’.

( ) Skip strings that are already translated

Option 2

Now you can replace the translated strings in the system with translated strings in your file. If you select ‘Overwrite translated strings’, you can substitute any translated strings in ICanLocalize with the string in the resource file you upload.

( ) Overwrite translated strings

You just need to select the format of the file you’re uploading, the language you want to apply this to and select the file the translation is for. See:

Adding Existing Translations

Example: Let’s say in the system you have a string “Label” => “Text” => “Apple”. Then you are uploading a resource file that has the string “Label” => “Text” => “Microsoft”. If you pick the “Skip strings that are already translated “, on the end of the process, the project will have the string “Label” => “Text” => “Apple”. If you choose “Overwrite translated strings”, it will have the string “Label” => “Text” => “Microsoft”.

And there’s still more to come soon!

“Promoting aesthetics and excellence, Visio-Technic offers professional and individual clients a variety of decorative solutions that are durable and can be personalized in unlimited ways.”

Viso-Technic has been built upon essential principles like innovation, excellence, and aesthetic innovation. And their “Creation & Design” department is made up of graphic designers, designers, and colorists trained to work within their production limitations, both in terms of feasibility and application possibilities for their various material bases and their specific uses.

The services offered by Visio-Technic can be divided into three categories:

- Transfer of digital design onto all material bases

- The managing of decorative projects that are delivered ready to use

- Design of finished products that unify decorative and utalitarian dimensions

Martin Saunier-Plumaz, Marketing Director and also in charge of the English localization of the site, was interviewed by ICL support guru. He said the concept is great, they entered the French pages and WPML got them back the pages translated very quickly. WPML was the technical stuff they needed together with the professional translation offered by ICanLocalize.

Martin enjoyed using both for his WordPress site: WPML plugin and ICanLocalize. “I’d never heard about this before, and I’m very happy. It’s very simple to use.” He said.

Translation Experience

His experience with the English translator selected was really good. They got applications and were able to select the right translator for their project. The expert was in touch and asked for clarifications on some issues, which is what a professional localizer does to achieve top notch results. Considering it was Christmas time, he thought the project would get delayed, but he told us that “thanks to the plugin and the translator the job was done very quickly”. Martin added: “The translator did a terrific job”.

Martin also found the rating system absolutely interesting. He used it to decide on the translator, and he is convinced he made the right choice.

Market

Translations have been done a few weeks ago, but Martin is sure the impact in the market will be noticeable. They have a great deal of customers and potential clients whose native language is English; all the info is now widely made available to users on the Website. They get visitors from India, the United States, South Africa, UAE, and Europe in general.

And the next round of translations, as Martin has started, will be their blog with the latest news. There is no doubt that having a website available in English makes for a traffic boost!

Martin Saunier-Plumaz

Marketing Director

Viso-Technic

Today’s system upgrade is meant to save precious time to both clients and translators, working on Software Localization projects.

Here’s the problem:

1. A client creates a project, uploads a resource file and selects 12 languages
2. There are a few unclear strings (like “Please %s %s sending!”)
3. 12 translators see this strings and ask the client to explain what it means. Overall, 11 translators have wasted both their and the client’s time asking the same thing.

To avoid this, translators will now see issues that other translators have opened for a string. Instead of asking again, all other translators can subscribe to that issue and receive updates from the clients. This way, the question is asked and replied-to just once and everyone is happier.

Here is how it works.

Step 1 – a translator needs help with a string

The translator goes to the string and sees that it already has an issue.

Instead of creating yet another duplicate, the translator goes to the existing issue and clicks on the ‘subscribe’ link.

The client and the translator who opened the original issue can see who’s subscribed to it.

Step 2 – the client replies and everyone gets the update

When you reply to one translator, the others will see it too -and even get notified if they have already subscribed to the issue in question.  This means you’ll not be getting the same question twice.

Hey, there’s more coming soon!

We have more goodies coming soon to make your localization work as pleasant and efficient as possible. I’ll write about it when it’s ready.

After getting feedback from our clients, we made a big change to the system and wanted to update you. Now there’s no more need to press one button per language to send strings for translation; you can send strings to as many languages as you wish in one go!

After uploading the file with your app strings, you have two options:

1) Tick the box ‘All languages’ and send to translation to all the languages you entered by clicking on the button ‘Begin marked translations’, which you’ll find at the top and bottom of the languages:

Sending for translation to all languages

2) You can tick the boxes only for the languages you want to translate, and then click on ’Begin marked translations’. This way, you’ll be sending the strings to translators only in those languages you want to get translations. You can send the strings in the other/s language/s whenever you want.

Sending for translation to selected languages

As you can see in the sample above, the client selected only Italian. Let’s suppose you have five, ten or fifteen languages -it does not matter- in all, you can send them by bunches. It’s up to you.

ICanLocalize Team works hard to make your localization experience simpler.

This is the first step in a major re-haul of the Software Localization projects interface and functionality. We’ll write about the next round of changes soon!