IT Translation

IT is everywhere, and it has revolutionised both the private and professional lives of all us. This revolution has led to an anthology of creations, works, and publications:

• standard software, custom developments,
• management software, tutorials,
• games, apps for smartphones and tablets,
• instruction manuals, user manuals,
• documentation, technical specifications,
• IT reviews...

Distinctive Features of IT Translation

One characteristic of IT translation is the variety of document types we receive for the translation of software and applications:

• mixed source files, such as websites, with content to be translated amidst programming language that should not be.
• help files, language parameter files,
• descriptions of databases, screen shots,
• data files...

A further feature characteristic of IT translation is that it is sometimes better not to translate certain terms than to translate them wrongly or incomprehensibly. A few examples:

• The term "ERP" (Entreprise Resource Planning): if the public concerned are already familiar with the English term, none of them will understand that you are discussing software when it is improperly translated as "planification des ressources de l'entreprise" (planning the resources of the business). It would be better to conserve the term "ERP" and in the same text, also use the correct translation in the target language, which in this case should be "progiciel de gestion intégré" or "PGI" in French.
• Numerous specialists in IT (or ITC) feel lost when they find certain terms translated in an unusual way and would much rather hear "switch", "cluster" or "port", than their French counterparts "commutateur", "grappe" and "point d'accès".