Translation - National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU)

Case Study
Cogitco's Formatting and Page Layout Services

Background

The National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU) is an organization responsible for promoting discussion, constructive debate and multi-stakeholder influence on critical strategic and operational initiatives that can impact mail design and creation, data management, privacy and security. Members of the association can be found in every Canadian province and, as a result, communication material is expected to be available in both official languages on a regular basis. NAMMU requires very quick turnaround for translating challenging documents into French. These generally include up-to-the-minute news bulletins and memos reporting on activities affecting major business users of Canadian postal services.

The Problem

On one occasion, NAMMU required modifications to the text and layout of two online ticket purchase forms that were previously translated by Cogitco. The forms had to be updated and sent out to association members in the new format within a matter of days.

The Solution

Although the Cogitco team was already occupied with many other translation mandates, a plan was put into place to meet the challenge that the NAMMU request presented. The plan involved:

• Comparing the two versions (2005 vs. 2006) to determine what had changed and what had not, without the use of translation memory software due complex formatting issues (dropdown menus)
• Copying and pasting the previous year's text into the new form
• Translating new text in various formats (regular text format and dropdown menus).

The Result

The production of this translated form in its already formatted version was a major time saver for NAMMU and its IT team.