The AD-EX Process
The Optimum in: Quality, Versatility, Timeliness, Affordability
 

expertise

At AD-EX we believe in and nurture expertise, which we have been painstakingly acquiring since our company’s founding in 1957 here in what is today California’s famed “Silicon Valley”. Expertise requires specialization. Expertise born of specialization is at the heart of the AD-EX process. Our translations are carefully crafted by expert teams of veteran translators and editors who are specialists in the respective languages and subject areas in which they work. To ensure sustained optimal translation quality, we do not dilute the translation team’s performance by saddling them with nontranslation tasks – like desktop publishing, manipulation of graphics, website design and maintenance, and so on. The latter are separate specialties, each requiring its own brand of expertise. So when, in addition to straight translation, a client orders such related nontranslation services, those are expertly performed by different teams of AD-EX specialists.
 

pre-translation

The AD-EX process generally evolves in three stages: pre-translation, the translation process itself and, when applicable, a post-translation phase. Before translation begins, we survey the total task at hand, taking note of its various requirements. We then assemble the right translator/editor team for the job. Our extensive software library enables us to accept from clients materials in all common file formats (see our capabilities summary for details). In the case of special formats or tasks involving complex desktop publishing and/or website construction, we extract the text to be translated and turn it over to our translation team in a form most convenient for them to work with. We do this in a manner that precludes any accidental modification of the original formatting, layout or other content of files provided to us by our clients.
 

translation

Once we have assembled the translation team, we see to it that they are equipped with adequate tools. These include: our vast reference library of mono-, bi- and multilingual dictionaries and other reference resources; any relevant, previously compiled terminology glossaries; continuous access to the riches of the Internet; as well as helpful translation-memory (TM)* suites such as TRADOS, Déjà Vu et al. Thus equipped, the translation team performs the translation/s/, usually in Microsoft Word or other standard word-processing programs. After final proofing (including spelling and grammar checks), the translation/s/ is/are ready either for final delivery to the client or, when applicable, for preliminary delivery so that the client can review the completed translation/s/ before our desktop-publishing and/or website experts take over and perform their part of the job.

* Important note: TM (translation memory) must not be confused with MT (machine translation). Machine translation is notoriously deficient in quality and is unusable for most purposes. AD-EX has no involvement with machine translation.
 

post-translation

Once the client finishes reviewing the provisionally delivered translation/s/, making any desired additions or changes, and returns the translation/s/ to us, our DTP and/or website experts proceed with the publishing process, i.e., with the ordered desktop publishing and/or website design, construction or maintenance tasks, as the case may be. As in the pre-translation stage, our state-of-the-art procedures allow us to convert the translation files back to whatever format/s/ the client desires, faithfully preserving the formatting, layout and other relevant information contained in any files originally provided to us. What the client finally gets is a thoroughly professional end product – of optimal translation and technical quality – delivered in “turn-key” condition, i.e., ready for use in all respects.
 

a special word about websites

A surprisingly high number of websites, of even very large and well-known companies, are in varying degrees linguistically and/or structurally defective. Linguistically defective: The bilingual and multilingual websites of companies based in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries all too frequently contain badly flawed translations into other languages (French, German, Japanese, etc.). Similarly, the bilingual and multilingual websites of companies based in other countries (Germany, France, Japan, etc.) all too frequently contain badly flawed translations into English. This is an area in which there is much room for improvement. Structurally defective: A very large number of websites in all countries are, technically speaking, poorly constructed and do not meet professional standards. For example, many web pages do not conform to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) DTD (Document Type Definition) – the set of rules that defines the HTML syntax. The W3C HTML Validation Service allows you to check any HTML document for compliance with W3C HTML and XHTML recommendations and other HTML standards. If you would like to run a little test, you are welcome to submit our own web pages to the W3C HTML Validation Service. To do this, just click on the link in the lower right-hand corner of any AD-EX web page and see for yourself. AD-EX provides expertise and excellence on both the linguistic and structural fronts: translation quality plus structural quality. The websites produced by us are qualitatively sound throughout; they not only “look good” on the surface but withstand scrutiny “under the hood”. We urge you to contact us if you would like us to examine your existing website and suggest to you any linguistic and/or structural improvements that it may need.
 

a helpful extra ingredient

Some of our clients achieve considerable savings (and an end product of even higher quality) by getting us involved early in the process. A typical example: Translations frequently run longer than the texts in the original language – by anywhere up to twenty or more percent, depending on the language combination involved. It is therefore a good idea to contact us before you finalize the layout of your brochure, manual, website or whatever, so that we can analyze it for you and suggest any changes that would facilitate optimal translation and technical processing – such as leaving adequate space for likely text expansions.

We have decades of experience with bilingual and multilingual materials, and we are flexible. We would be happy to work closely with your IT, desktop-publishing, graphics and/or website-design staff. Our cooperation could range anywhere from merely suggesting a few simple layout changes to providing complete multilingual desktop-publishing and website design, construction and maintenance services.