How to order professional translations using Localize's network of professional translators

This guide will walk you through the process of translating your content using Localize's network of professional translators. You'll learn how to prepare your content for translation, how to select the quality tier appropriate for your content, and how to place your order. You'll also learn how to delegate this responsibility to other team members.

What you'll learn

How to prepare your content for human translation
How to select the appropriate human translation quality tier and vendor
How to purchase translation credits
How to place your order
How to delegate Translation Ordering to a team member

Prerequisites

You have phrases in the Published bin.
You have the necessary team permissions to place an order
- Order permission: Necessary for placing an order
- Billing permission (optional): Necessary for purchasing translation credits

Preparing your content for human translation

Deciding what content to translate

Localize offers a few key features that allow you to identify what phrases in your project will be translated.

Pages Filter: Select content using the Pages filter.
a. The Pages filter segments your content based on where it was found in your website.
b. If you prefer to work on translations one page or section at-a-time, select the page(s)/subfolder(s) using this filter, then use Labels to mark those phrases.
Labels: Mark specific content using Labels.
a. Label actions: You can use the “Exclude from translation orders” label action to exclude certain phrases from your translation orders.
b. Custom Labels: You could also create a custom label using a translator’s name or “needs-translation” for example, and apply that label to the phrases that need to be translated.
Created date: Select content using the Created filter.
a. After the initial translation of your content, you will want to periodically check for new phrases that are found by Localize.
b. You can simplify this process by using the Created filter and setting the filter to the appropriate time span (e.g. 7 days, 30 days).

Define Glossary terms for consistent translations

You likely have key terminology that you want to have translated consistently across your project.

You can enter these words/phrases to your project’s Glossary.
Glossary terms are shown to the translator when they are translating that phrase.

Communicate the meaning of your phrases using Phrase Context

You can add specific context to each published phrase to help translators better understand its meaning.

The context can be a text description of the context and/or a screenshot or other graphic.

Create your Style Guide

A Style Guide provides guidelines for your translators to use when translating your content for a new audience. These guidelines examine areas like the tone of the translation, types of words to use, punctuations, language style, purpose, brand voice, and so on.

Your Style Guide will be sent along with your translation order, providing overall context to the translators.
The Style Guide is also a good place to provide a temporary login to your website if it’s behind a login gateway.

Choosing a translation quality tier and vendor

How to choose a vendor

You may order human translations through one of our third-party providers, Gengo or TextMaster. Pricing varies depending on the language pair and availability of professional translators. See our full pricing information page and select the desired vendor and tier.

The type of content in your website or application will help to determine which vendor you choose.

How to choose a quality tier

Each vendor offers different quality tiers. Selecting the appropriate tier is important for maximizing translation quality, while balancing the ongoing cost of ordering translations. Here is a breakdown of the different quality tiers, and how to choose between them.

TextMaster Enterprise

TextMaster Enterprise orders are fulfilled by professional native-speaking translators who specialize in SaaS and eCommerce localization in 100 language pairs.

Gengo Advanced

Gengo Advanced is best for business and professional content. Your order is translated with a professional tone by a translator who has passed Gengo’s advanced-level testing. It is recommended for websites, mobile apps, presentations, and reports.

Gengo Standard

Gengo Standard is best for casual and dynamic content. Your order is translated with a human voice by a translator who has passed Gengo’s standard-level testing. It is recommended for internal communication, social media, user reviews, and emails.

Gengo Proofreading Option

Gengo’s proofreading option allows you to add another set of eyes to your project. A second independent linguist will review and edit translations for accuracy and natural flow in the target language, and ensures adherence to customer’s style guide, glossary, and phrase context instructions.

Purchasing translation credits

You will need to purchase translation credits to place human translation orders through the Localize platform.

You can purchase translation credits from any of the ordering pages by clicking on the You have $XX.YY in credit links.
If you want to use the same credit card that’s used to pay for your subscription, simply select or enter an amount.
If you want to buy credits using a one-time credit card at the time of purchase, click the Use a different card link in the Add Translation Credits dialog.

Placing your order

How to place your order

Placing an order is simple. Head over to the Place Phrases Orders page in your dashboard. Use the filters to select the content you want translated, along with the quality tiers and languages you're translating to.

For a step by step guide, visit this doc.
The estimated turnaround time for your order varies by vendor and tier.
You can review what phrases will be submitted in your order by clicking the Edit Phrases link.
When your order is complete you’ll receive an email notification, and your translations will be automatically delivered to your Published bin and will be visible to your users!

Regularly order translations

We recommend setting a recurring calendar event to order your translations at least every 2 weeks, or when you do any large changes to your content.

The frequency that you order translations depends on how often your content changes.
You will be notified via email when new content is found by Localize.

Additional tips, recommendations, and resources

Delegate order permissions to other team members

You can give permission for placing orders to another team member by modifying their project permissions.

Click the Manage Access button for the team member in the manage team page.
Check the box next to the Order permission in the appropriate projects.

Consider using the Translation QA Workflow to review translations

If you have team members or translators on staff fluent in the languages you're ordering, we recommend enabling the Translation QA Workflow to quality check the translations coming back from 3rd-party vendors.