* Activities performed for the purpose of marketing a (software) product in regional marketing a (software) product in regional markets

* Goal: Global marketing that accounts for economic and legal factors.

* Focus on marketing; total enterprise solutions and to management support

Aspects of Localization

* Terminology

The selection and definition as well as the correct and consistent usage of terms are preconditions for successful localition:

o laymen and expert users

o in most cases innovative domains and topics

o huge projects with many persons involved

o consistent terminology throughout all products

o no synonyms allowed

o prededined terminology(environment, laws, specifications, guidelines, corporate language)

* Symbols

o Symbols are culture-dependant, but often they cannot be modified by the localizer.

o Symbols are often adopted from other (common) spheres of life.

o Symbols often use allusions (concrete for abstract); in some cases, homonyms or even homophones are used.

* Illustrations and Graphics

o Illustrations and graphics are very often culture dependant, not only in content but also in the way they are presented

o Illustrations and graphics should be adopted to the (technical) needs of the target market (screen shots, manuals)

o Illustrations and graphics often contain textual elements that must be localized, but cannnot be isolated.

* Colors have different meanings in different cultures

* Character sets

o Languages are based on different character sets ("alphabets")

o the localized product must be able to handle(display, process, sort etc) the needed character set

o "US English" character sets (1 byte, 7 bit or 8 bit)

o Product development for internationalization should be based on UNICODE (2 byte or 4 byte)

* Fonts and typography

o Font types and font families are used in different cultures with varying frequency and for different text types and parts of text

o Example: In English manuals fonts with serifs(Times Roman) are preferred; In German manuals fonts without serifs(Helvetica) are preferred

o Example: English uses capitalization more frequently(e.g. CAUTION) for headers and parts of text

* Language and style

o In addition to the language specific features of grammar, syntax and style, there are cultural conventions that must be taken into account for localization.

o In (US_English) an informal style is preferred, the reader is addressed directly, "simple" verbs are used, repetition of parts of text is accepted etc.

o Formulating headers (L10N)

o Long compound words (L10N)

o Elements of the user interface

Open the File menu

The Open dialog box appears

Click the copy command

* Formats

o Date, currency, units of measurement

o Paper format

o Different length of text

1. Consequences for the volume of documents, number of pages, page number (table of contents, index)etc.

2. Also for the size of buttons (IT, machines etc.)