WYGIWYG Approach

The wygiwyg principle ("What You Give is What You Get ") is similar to the well known "What You See Is What You Get" and very simple.
It asserts that the translated documents that you will receive will have exactly the same layout and format than the document that you have given for translation.
This is not new, all respectable publishing agencies - and some translation agencies - take over this kind of responsability, using internal or external people for the translation itself.

The revolutionnary concept is that you pay for the translation only

In order to offer a wygiwyg service at translation cost, it is necessary to have several competences at one's disposal, without supporting the extra costs associated to activity separation in several companies or even departments (cascade billings and margins, redundant software tool purchase, extra communication costs etc.).
A very small team or a single individual can bring together the necessary competences and therefore achieve the desired result.
A ultimate condition has to be fulfilled: make the necessary hardware and software investment in order to take advantage of information systems power.
Hereafter is an example showing what you can expect from the wygiwyg concept. During your round turn around this site you'll discover detailed explanations about all the means involved by this concept.

Original document extract example.

The same document once translated

original document - low resolution (300x180)

translated document - low resolution (300x180)

(Illustration published with the kind authorisation of Agilent Technologies - Copyright owner)

Wygiwyg advantages

Immediate savings on translation costs for your company, whenever you do not find translation/publishing agencies accepting your request at affordable prices because your documents are too technical or specialized, or because they are printed in too small quantity.
The translation database allows the freelance translator to increase his efficiency; his customer can directly benefit from this as soon as the translation volume is large enough (from 20 to 30 pages) by getting a free wygiwyg layout .

Long term savings because the involved tools are identical to those used by agencies. The translation database allows the independant translator to invoice the update only; because he retrieves instantlly in his database everything which had been previuosly translated, he can reflect this time savings in his invoice.

Proofreafding savings: the proofreader will detect possible errors and/or missing elements much more easily. The cumbersome and offputting proofreading (how can you understand easily how a systems works without any illustration?) becomes pleasent and informative, and the time needed decreases proportionately. We can assert that proofreaders love wygiwyg translation.

Quality: by definition the independant translator has only a few customers, the only way for him to secure his future is to do a good job...

Translation consistancy: a single individual means automatically style and translation consistancy. Insofar as the redundant expressions are concerned, the database fulfils this requirement better than a human being will ever do.

Speed: whenever documents are not too large, the speed of execution is excellent because there are neither coordination nor communication tasks involved.