General Prerequisites
Students as well as teachers and trainers should be familiar with principles and methods of terminology, terminology management, translation memory (tools), project management and software localisation. They should make sure that they know the contents of all eCoLoTrain ICT Skills, terminology, translation memories, project management and software localisation courses – with the exception of courses on software localisation tools.
General Software Localisation courses should be prerequisite for courses in Software Localisation tools.
Technical Prerequisites
Courses in software localisation tools where students learn the features and principles of several software L10N tools, should ideally be held in a room equipped with enough computers – if possible, one for every student.
An Internet connection, a terminology management tool, a translation memory tool, several software localisation tools as well as word processing software should be available to students.
Learning Objectives
The main objectives of a course in software L10N tools are to learn:
- Definition of software localisation tools
- Why software L10N tools?
- When their use is recommended
- General features of software L10N tools
- Overview of some of the software L10N tools available on the market
- Criteria for evaluating L10N tools
- Advantages of using Software L10N Tools
- Differences between L10N tools and TM systems
Course Preparation Issues
- Courses on software localisation tools must be planned for one or two semesters. Courses should be held regularly – e.g. two hours per week. This would depend on the time dedicated to them in the relevant study courses – since they are very specialized courses in translators training they should be restricted to MA study courses.
- Different parts of eCoLoTrain software L10N courses can be used by teachers or trainers to cover their features and theory, for example in face-to-face courses.
- When working with the PASSOLO L10N tool, teachers or trainers can also use or refer to our eCoLoTrain L10N exercises, which contain activities such as localising a software application by using *.exe files and localising a webpage using *.htm files.
- Teachers and trainers should bear in mind that besides preparing and organising course contents, they must also consider technical issues if working with L10N and CAT tools. For example, defining user rights and user IDs for the use of databases and CAT and L10N tools by students – this is, however, usually done by system administrators or tools specialists
- Teachers will need pre-existing translation memories, termbases, glossaries, materials for alignment, etc. to test the features and functionalities of different L10N tools. In case these raw materials are not available, the eCoLoRe training kits can be used.
For more information on using termbases and TMs in different courses, please have a look at eCoLoTrain guidelines for integrating Terminology Management and for integrating Translation Memories.