Mackenzie has a 70-page employee training PowerPoint to be translated from English to Spanish. She sends the file to translations@orca-ls.com for a quote. The PM, Joe, reviews the project for a total word count and to flag any images that may require translation. Joe notes two things: the fonts used within the Powerpoint are licensed and he finds .jpg images, containing uneditable text, on slides 18, 32, and 35. Before sending the final quote, he communicates this additional post-translation DTP charge with Mackenzie and requests their brand font package. She confirms they only need two of the images on slides 32 and 35 translated and sends the font files. Joe finalizes a quote, broken down as follows:

• Net word count of the Powerpoint (total words minus repetitions)

• Total slides that require DTP (this is to the PM’s discretion. As a smaller LSP, LGO is free to waive slide DTP costs on simple layouts and will only charge for more intensive work

• Net word count of the text within the images (this is pulled from a clean Word document of text, typed out from the images, to be translated and later converted to the original image with Photoshop)

• Total images that require DTP

Mackenzie approves the quote and turnaround time of 3,000 translated words per day plus one day of post-translation DTP. Joe passes the files on to the language team. The first Spanish language expert translates the Powerpoint and the Word document of DTP image text, referring back to the source docs for any questions that may arise. The translation is done using a bilingual document, with segments of the source English on the left and target translation on the right. This translated bilingual doc is then reviewed in its entirety by the first Spanish expert and passed along to a second translator for proofreading. If the two translators disagree on a segment’s translation, they discuss it and come up with a solution.

Once the bilingual is deemed properly translated by the second translator, the bilingual document is uploaded to the CAT (Computed Assisted Translation) software to create an output Powerpoint and Word document. The output Spanish Powerpoint is then formatted to match the source English Powerpoint as closely as possible, with small changes to font sizes and line spacing. The Spanish Word document of the English text within the .jpg images is then used to recreate those images with Photoshop. These Spanish Photoshop files are then exported as .jpg images and used to replace the English images in the Spanish Powerpoint.

This almost completed draft Spanish Powerpoint is then passed back to the two translators for final, in-context quality assurance. During this process, the language experts look for both linguistic errors and formatting errors and fix whatever issues they find. The final version is then sent back to the PM, Joe.

Joe delivers the completed project for Mackenzie’s review. Some of her Spanish-speaking colleagues flag a few terms for which they have a preferred translation. No Term Base was provided with the project, but as Mackenzie gets the review back to Joe within two weeks of delivery, the revision is free. ORCA’s Spanish team implements the new terms, gives feedback on how it sounds in context, and inputs the terms into a TB to be used for any futures project Mackenzie sends for translation.