Many clients ask what information they need to provide us with when making an enquiry about a document for translation. It’s helpful, particularly if you want a quick and accurate quotation, to get a few things ready in advance of making an enquiry with a language services provider. The more information you can give us beforehand, the better we can meet your needs.
We base our pricing on the wordcount of your document, so we always prefer to see the files before giving you a cost and delivery. This also allows us to assess if any reformatting will be needed. If your project contains a very large number of pages, a ballpark cost can be provided based on a reasonable number of representative sample pages.
We can usually provide a quotation within just a few hours unless your project is very large or highly specialised. Let us know if you need an urgent quote and we’ll give it priority.
Here’s a handy checklist of points to consider:
- Ensure the final text is available if possible – amendments can cause errors, waste time and be expensive.
- Languages required – European Spanish or Mexican Spanish, Portuguese for Portugal or Brazil, Canadian French or European French, German for Austria or Germany?
- Document in editable format if possible – providing a Word, Excel or InDesign document can make the process easier and cheaper. We can handle most formats but if you can provide an editable format at the start and avoid pdfs or jpgs, it will speed up your project.
- Know your deadline – let us know when it’s required upfront so we can work with you to achieve the best results.
- Who will be reading the document – let us know who the intended audience is so we can adapt the style if needed. Is the document needed for a meeting, publication, internal review or general information?
- Is it for publication - if so, we recommend proofreading, either by a suitable internal colleague in your company or by a second external linguist. Let us know up front if you want us to provide proofreading so that we can include the extra cost and timescale in your quotation. If you are not sure, this can be quoted as an optional extra.
- Budget constraints – let us know if you are on a tight budget as there are various ways we may be able to help.
- Contact for queries – let us know who we can contact for any queries with your translation - ideally this would be the person who wrote the document.
- Background information – do you have any previous translations, style guides, terminology lists, glossaries etc. which may help or need to be followed?
Don’t worry if you don’t have this information to hand immediately – we can generally work with pdfs for example by converting them to Word to analyse the wordcount while you obtain the original artwork. Whatever your requirement, get in touch on 0844 856 1086 or [email protected] to see how we can help with your next translation project.
