Engineering Company Technical Documents Quality Control

This client is able to solve almost any engineering problem in the world but it can be prone to such simple errors as mistypes and formatting mistakes in their technical documentation and operating manuals.

Problem

It is incredibly difficult to translate engineering manuals. And not only because the topics are quite complicated and can be understood only by an experienced professional. This is the matter of choice of the appropriate translator. Also some other quite significant issues receive too little attention from clients and translators agency. Formatting, layout, and overall consistency are definitely among them.

The little mistype in the engineering manual can cost you a fortune and in the worst case it can cost lives. Even if insignificant mistakes are unlikely to cause serious problems, often they make document or manual confusing and hard to understand which can indirectly lead to making a mistake.

Complicated schemes and drawings, measurement conversions, equations, long and complex tables, footnotes, web-links, bookmarks, and cross-references are the most prone to error. The translator and editor often cannot see formatting and layout as they edit translation in Translation Memory software which hides formatting allowing translator to focus on the text. In some cases it is hard to understand the context which is paramount for translation of scientific and engineering texts.

Solution

In this project, we are not involved in the DTP process however we provide only Quality Control services, rather sophisticated. Though not only we check punctuation and translation of abbreviations or acronyms, but we also make sure that schemes and other drawings are accurately replicated, and text labels in diagrams are consistently translated. Moreover, our QC editors check measurement conversions and formatting.

How our quality control specialists are able to notice mistakes which were not caught by an experienced team of professional translators and editors? Do they have a better understanding of complicated engineering projects and equipment? The answer is simple: they have a privilege of seeing the whole picture. They compare the final translated PDF documents to the source PDF files. They see all these schemes, diagrams and layout elements in their full grandeur: translated, finalized, ready to print. They see the results of complicated translation and desktop publishing process in the same way as client does. The result is all that matters to them.