Marketing, correspondance, copywriting

This area includes everything that drives a selling point. It can be product packaging, press releases, brochures, letters, advertising, customer magazines and a whole lot more.

IT, telecom, e-commerce

Translating software was how I got started in this business. Since it's also the subject I majored in at the university it was, at the time, not that great a step. When I started out, I was actually part of the linguistic team planning for the localization of Windows XP!

Since then I've translated about a gadzillion software related words, from the very smallests of apps to the most complicated and specialized administration systems.

In this area user interfaces, online help, and user manuals for printers, cell phones, scanners, computers – well, just about anything electric or electronic – are included.

Technical

When we're talking technical, we're talking about the nuts and bolts side of business. Installation, service and maintenance manuals, technical descriptions, adaptation of IEC/ISO/EN standards, and reports of all kinds.

Medical & pharmaceutical

To begin with, I translated the software for quite a few X-ray machines, and from there it just carried on. Many companies in this sector previously preferred translations done by medical professionals, but found it was more efficient having "regular" translators doing them (thus improving the linguistic quality) and then do the medical quality control.

I myself, who was very reluctant to venture into this area due to what I could possibly cause if misunderstanding something, was ultimately convinced to translate texts on this subject. The deal breaker? Someone explained to me what an ambiguous reference in a user instruction for a dilatator could, and did, lead to. Nope – not saying more on that subject!

Finance & economy

OK – I confess. I absolutely sucked when it came to the bookkeeping bit in my education, and I'm still stunned that I passed the accounting classes at the U. But in retrospect, my problems were – and are – caused by this double entry business. It still feels in my mind like cheating, and since I'm just getting older, and am nowadays smart enough to NOT do my own accounting at all, it will probably stay that way.

Though – since I'm extremely meticulous and actually rather good at explaining things that I really don't understand myself, I've done quite a few translations in this area. This includes database fields, user interfaces, online help, and user manuals.