3 May /12

Structured authoring saves translation costs

structured authoringStructured authoring is the process of systematically organizing information into units that can be easily accessed, managed and reused.

In a structured authoring environment, the organization specifies elements and their characteristics and how they relate to each other. Authors and editors then create and edit documents in an order that is permitted by the structure’s specifications.

Structured authoring is usually highly automated. Once elements are assigned to content, the formatting is implemented automatically to create the final output files.

Structured authoring improves information management by creating consistent content structure and helps organizations to increase productivity and revenue, reduce costs, minimize risk and serve an increasing global market presence.

Main advantages of structured authoring

  • Improves content management and integrity
  • Increases author productivity and operation efficiency
  • Reduces performance errors and time to market
  • Ensures security, quality and compliance
  • Minimizes content customization and localization

Structured authoring and translation costs

Migrating from unstructured to structured authoring can result in significant costs savings.

Translation costs are often the main cost component of content development.

By enforcing structured authoring during content development, a structured workflow can significantly reduce the cost of translation.

Structured authoring reduces translation costs by:

  • Minimizing the amount of content that has to be created, modified and translated
  • Allowing only new and changed content to be translated
  • Eliminating or minimizing translation services providers’ desktop publishing costs
  • Reducing the need for manual layout and formatting
  • Eliminating the need for translation of repetitive or highly similar content used in multiple documents
  • Enabling efficient content traceability and review
  • Increasing the consistency of both format and content
  • Allowing translators to leverage existing translation databases
  • Increasing the degree of collaboration between translators, proofreaders and editors