Multilingual

Software Multilingualism is the capability for software packages to be enabled to support multiple languages and to manage information in more than one language at a time.

Despite there generally being a good understanding about what is required, the ‘state of the art’ lags significantly behind this. Most software packages are monolingual (generally with English as the dominant language) and those that do support multiple languages usually only support one at a time.

Though this may have been acceptable in the past, there are some powerful drivers that are changing the demand for multilingual capabilities:

• Globalisation. Markets and communications are no longer local.
• Internet. The Internet is no longer a platform for content-only websites; it has become a strategic communication and transactional platform without cultural or geographical boundarie.
• SharePoint Multilingual Kit (SMK) - a suite of enhancements and components for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS2007) to provide a switchable user interface, multilingual content management and multilingual document management.

•  Language use. Many minority languages are in their ascendancy, whilst other languages are becoming challenged by more economically stronger languages. Meanwhile bilingualism and multilingualism at a regional level becomes more common.

We have over a decade of experience in working with governments, global corporations, language boards and software producers and are recognised as an industry leader in this area.

Some of our solutions and expertise include:

• Interceptor – a software toolset that enables monolingual web applications to be made multilingual with modifications and at minimal cost.
• Strategy and Consultancy – leveraging over a decade of experience working with software producers, users, governments, language boards and the public sector to define and implement multilingual software strategies and solutions.
• Software standards – a set of standards and guidance that define the functional requirements for a multilingual software application. Produced specifically for the Welsh Language Board in the UK, but equally applicable in any multilingual context.
• To Bach – a free downloadable keyboard shortcut utility that makes typing diacritic marks (e.g. â, ô, ŵ, ŷ, ß, ç, etc) easy.