Information for clients
You should apply the same thought and care to selecting a translation, editing or web-content consultant as you would to selecting a lawyer or accountant. As a niche company offering not a product or commodity but a carefully crafted, well researched service, we take care of your interests, just as your lawyer or accountant does.
How we’ll work with you on your translation, editing and web projects
You’ll find lots of information on our Translation FAQ and Web-writing and usability FAQ pages. Here are some practical points to consider:
- translation, web-writing and web usability services are precisely that: a service, not a product or commodity
- we work in close partnership with our clients, so most of our work is done in-house, and all of it undergoes careful quality control
- our main language combinations are Italian to English, English to Italian, French to English and English to French
- we do not translate into 90 or more languages
- we do not offer volume discounts
- we do not offer discounts for work out-sourced to unqualified and inexperienced suppliers
- we do not out-source projects to tens, even hundreds of free-lancers working at low rates and whose quality we can’t guarantee
- our standard translation and editing software is Word, but we can also work in Excel or PowerPoint or their Mac equivalents (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
- we use and love Macs but our output is fully Windows-compatible
- our Director, Marian Dougan, meets security clearance criteria with both the Italian Foreign Ministry and the British Foreign Office, so you don’t need to worry about confidentiality
- translation, editing or proofreading projects are charged by the word or page (a standard page is 1500 characters, including spaces)
- web-writing or website usability projects are charged by the hour
- workshops are charged by the half-day or full-day
- you can send us your texts by email (our preferred method) or by fax or post if necessary
- we’re happy to use your glossaries or company-specific terminology – please send them to us! That way we can be sure your finished text meets your in-house style and terminology requirements
- we can provide texts that are ready for publication, or summary or gist translations – just let us know which you need
- urgent jobs are subject to an additional charge
- we can maintain your document formatting, but texts requiring extensive formatting, or texts in PDF format, are subject to an additional charge
- you can pay us by bank transfer or PayPal
- we have your interests at heart.
Translation buyers may also find the following publications useful:
- Translation: getting it right. A guide to buying translations (pdf, 172 KB), by Chris Durban and Antonio Aparicio
- Translation: buying a non-commodity. How translation standards can help buyers & sellers (pdf, 604 KB), by Durban and Melby.
If you have any questions that we haven’t answered here or on the translation and web-writing FAQ pages, please drop us a line and let us know.
