Advanced Language Translation Uses Flare from MadCap Software to Cut Localization Time by 30 Percent

MadCap Flare’s Full Support for Single and Double-Byte Languages Enables Award-winning Localization Firm to Simplify, Improve Translation of Help Projects

San Diego, CA – July 24, 2007  MadCap Software, the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Visual Studio 2005 showcase company, today announced that Advanced Language Translation, Inc. (ALT) is using MadCap Flare to cut Help project localization time by 30 percent. By simplifying translation, especially for Asian languages, Flare also has expanded the number of ALT staff members who are able to localize Help content. Flare is now ALT’s Help authoring software of choice, replacing legacy tools that have been on the market for a decade or more.

“We have completed thousands of translation projects since our founding in 1994. For many of those projects, that has meant the need for special programming and workarounds because traditional authoring tools are not truly XML-based and lack full international language support,” said Scott Bass, founder and president of Advanced Language Translation. “By contrast, Flare worked so easily, it was almost anticlimactic. It’s rare that software of any kind lives up to its promises; Flare is one of those rare exceptions. We’ve now decided that even when we have to take projects built in other authoring software, we’ll import these into Flare and then use Flare instead of the other tools.”

Since the early days of ALT’s business, information technology played a vital role in how the company has served its clients in delivering high quality translation services. Today ALT’s staff includes project managers, localization specialists, and desktop publishing experts with a distinct focus on information technology. Additionally ALT’s network of linguists has grown to over 800, and its list of supported languages has more than doubled. At the same time, the complexity of translation services has grown as clients require both translation into multiple languages and single sourcing across the Web, computer-based content, and print.

Despite the strong technical orientation of ALT’s staff, many of them do not have the skill set to handle the coding or other workarounds required by Help authoring tools. For those demands, ALT has dedicated localization software engineers. However, with a growing customer base, handling the increasing coding demands has stretched the engineers’ bandwidth. ALT saw Flare as having the potential to simplify the translation of Help content. The company was attracted by Flare’s full Unicode support, making the software inherently designed to handle both single-byte and double-byte languages. Additionally, the ALT team liked Flare’s clean, standards-based, native-XML architecture, which facilitated integration with other software and mitigated a great deal of the effort and risk associated with translation.

Ease of Translations

One of ALT’s first projects using Flare involved a software developer that needed to translate a Help project into Chinese and Korean. The project had several conditional tags to cover a full version and a light version of the developer’s product. Additionally, ALT needed to swap product names for different regions, as well as units of measure to accommodate countries using the metric system.

“Flare worked like a charm on this project, and we didn’t need to do any workarounds. Moreover, the interface is so well designed that we didn’t need much support,” Bass recalls. “Our localization software engineer, who usually would rather write code himself than use an authoring tool, said Flare’s performance was great. All told, we trimmed at least 30 percent off of our project time.”

Flare, not only is streamlining projects for ALT’s engineers, it also is enabling more of the company’s employees to take on Help compilation functions that were too technically demanding for them to execute using other vendors’ Help authoring tools. As a result, ALT now has more capacity to accept the growing translation requests coming from both new and existing customers.

“I’m impressed with how seriously MadCap is taking localization,” says Bass. “Flare doesn’t care what language is being used, and that fits with our need to be free of any restraints when it comes to language.”

Bass added, “MadCap Lingo, which MadCap will roll out this year, takes it even further by providing an integrated Help authoring tool and translation memory system. Lingo’s functionality and the planned integration with the advanced Alchemy Software CATALYST visual translation memory solutions we use today will add a new level of simplicity and sophistication to our localization services. With MadCap, we have a vendor that is thinking about our current and future needs.”

“As a premier translation company serving many global 2000 firms, Advanced Language Translation understands the rigorous demands for delivering first-rate Help content that remains consistent across regional borders and multiple channels,” said Anthony Olivier, CEO of MadCap Software. “We are thrilled by ALT’s ability to respond more quickly to customers’ translation demands using Flare, and we look forward to further contributing to the firm’s success with a new generation of XML-based software, MadCap Lingo, that is tailored for the translation and localization community."

About Advanced Language Translation           
Advanced Language Translation, Inc. was founded in 1994. From day one, ALT has provided high quality translation services, and since early in the company's evolution, information technology has played a vital role in how ALT serves its clients. Since its founding, ALT has completed thousands of translation projects, and ALT translations have appeared in product packaging, marketing pieces, training programs, user manuals, websites, software applications, multimedia programs, and corporate videos just to name a few. Advanced Language Translation has maintained ISO 9001:2000 certification since January 2004. ALT is headquartered in Rochester, NY . Fore more information, visit www.advancedlanguage.com.

About MadCap Software                                                               
MadCap Software, headquartered in San Diego , is just a new name for a group of familiar faces that have been leading the technical writing community for over a decade. With its flagship product, MadCap Flare, MadCap Software is once again leading the world of content creation and delivery into the future. Today more than 1,000 companies including Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are customers of MadCap’s native XML software for content authoring and multi-channel publishing. MadCap is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the industry, including many former core members of eHelp® Corporation, creators of RoboHelp®. Learn more about MadCap Software and its documentation authoring suite at www.madcapsoftware.com.

MadCap Software, the MadCap Software logo, MadCap Flare, MadCap Mimic, MadCap Capture, and MadCap Blaze are trademarks or registered trademarks of MadCap Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other marks are the properties of their respective owners.

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