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| Getting
started |
How do I get a price?
The "Quick Quote" feature is a simple way of finding
out the cost of a project. Simply enter your word count, choose
the currency and language's and then click the "Calculate
Quick Quote" button. The price is automatically calculated
with volume discounts included.
Alternatively, click "Get Started" on the home page
and then browse for the document you want translating, select
the languages and upload your document. The price is shown on
the right of the screen with volume discounts automatically
applied.
If we are unable to give you an instant price online, you can
click "Request Estimate" and we will provide an estimate
back to you within 1-2 working days. If you can't see the
language's
you require, or would like to discuss your project in more detail,
please contact us. |
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Which account type should I choose - Business
or Personal?
Business Accounts
should be used for companies/corporations of all sizes. This
type of account offers the flexibility to add multiple authorized
users, each one having access to the payment methods defined
by the account administrator. Business Accounts allow multiple
credit cards to be used and/or have the option to use a monthly
invoicing facility with an open purchase order.
Personal
Accounts should be used by any individual. Personal
Accounts have just one user per account with access to all services
and language combinations. All payments must be made by credit/debit
card. |
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Which service should I choose?
Lyric Labs has a service level to meet everybody's needs.
Use our Service Level Comparison to determine the most suitable
service level based on quality, turnaround and your budget.
Click here to view our Service Level Comparison. |
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What is a proofread?
A proofread is a review and edit by a second translator to ensure
the context of the original text has been fully understood and
translated accurately. A proofread is particularly important
for business translation as there is usually more than one way
to say the same thing and the second translator can ensure the
appropriate tone of voice has been adopted and conventions followed. |
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How do you charge and what are your rates?
Lyric Labs charge on a per word basis for every language
ordered. Our rates vary depending on service, language selection
and number of words. Currently you have the option to be billed
in one of three currencies, British Pounds, US Dollars and Euros.
You will be required to make a selection at registration. Please
use our "Quick Quote" feature to view rates by currency,
service and language.
The price excludes the translation of text contained in graphics
and does not include any post translation formatting. We will
advise you if there are any additional charges for you to approve.
To obtain an accurate quote, click "Get Started" from
the home page and follow the instructions on screen to upload
your document(s). From here you can proceed to place your order
if you wish. |
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How do you calculate volume pricing?
Volume pricing applies to orders over 1000 words. The more words
you submit, the larger the discount available. For example:
A 5,000 word order into Spanish for Latin America would cost
$975 compared to $1,080 if the standard price was applied -
saving approximately 10%.
For a 20,000 word order, the cost would be $2,795 compared to
$3,240 at the standard rate per word - saving nearly 14%. |
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Why don't your exchange rates reflect
international exchange rates?
Our charges are not dynamically adjusted to reflect international
fluctuations in exchange rates. Maintaining prices at a fixed
exchange rate helps our customers with budgeting and ensures
our pricing remains competitive and reflects local market conditions. |
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| Documents/Files |
How do I upload
more than one document?
There are two ways to upload multiple documents:
- You can download and install our plug-in for Microsoft
Internet Explorer. This will allow you to select more than
one file at a time by using your "Shift" or "Ctrl"
keys. The plug-in is by Persits Software, Inc. and installs
in seconds. The next time you need to upload more than one
document, simply click the "Got more than one file
to upload?" link.
Click here to install the plug-in. (You will only need to
do this once.)
- You can browse for a document, select your languages
and click the "Upload Document" button. After
doing this, you can either upload another document or continue
to place your order. If you have further documents to translate,
simply repeat this step. By default, the languages you chose
last are maintained but you may change the languages for
each document if required.
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How
do I retrieve translated documents?
When your translation(s) are ready you will receive an email
with a link to a page where you will be able to download your
documents. You can also login to "Your Account" at
anytime and see current/previous orders.
If you prefer to receive your documents as an email attachment,
go to "Your Account" and amend your account details.
The site will then automatically email the documents to you
when ready.
Automatic orders can be retrieved instantly by clicking "View
Orders". Select the order number and click "Email"
or "Download". |
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Can
my translation be sent to more than one person?
On Lyric Lab's Premium and Edited services for Business Accounts
only, you have the facility to email the final translation to
five additional email recipients. On the final step of the ordering
process you can enter the additional email addresses in the
box provided. |
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How
do I view documents that use different characters?
Lyric Labs frequently translate from English into Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Hebrew and Arabic. Upon receiving the translated
document, many customers want to open and view the translation.
Unless your computer supports the language in question, the
document will not display correctly.
If you are using a Windows operating system, you can download
support for double-byte character sets from Microsoft.
- Using Internet Explorer 4.0 or above, click
here. Choose the appropriate language, with the language
pack and install it. The procedure will cause the system
to reboot.
- Tick the box for your language support needs.
- Click "Download Software" and follow the prompts
through the installation.
Now when you open your Word document, you will be able to
see the appropriate character set.
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How
do I convert a Microsoft Word document to RTF?
Open the Microsoft Word document in Microsoft Word, click "Save
As" and in the "Save As Type" field, use the
drop down menu to select ".rtf" (this stands for Rich
Text Format). Click "Save". This document can now
be processed through Lyric Labs.
For our Edited and Automatic services, we recommend that Microsoft
Word documents should be converted to RTF format to retain the
document's formatting to a higher degree. |
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Which
document types can be processed through Lyric Labs?
The document you submit must be saved in a format that Lyric Labs can process. The following document types can
be processed through Lyric Labs:
- .doc *
- .rtf
- .pdf (Premium service only)
- .htm
- .html
- .htx
- .sgml
- .txt
* All Microsoft Word documents should be converted to RTF
format when using the Automatic service. For help on this
please see the "How do I convert a Microsoft Word document
to RTF?" FAQ. Changing a document extension manually
is not sufficient and may result in an error.
Note: "headers", "footers", "graphics"
and occasionally "text boxes" are not recognized
as part of the text to be translated. If your document contains
headers, footers, graphics or text boxes, the word count may
not be accurate and the format may not be retained. If the
word count is different from the one quoted online, we will
contact you to let you know any price difference before proceeding. |
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My
file type is not listed. Can Lyric Labs process my translation?
We can provide you with an instant online price if your file
is a DOC, RTF, PDF, HTML or TXT file. If you have a different
file type (e.g. ZIP, ASP, Publisher, Quark, etc.) simply upload
it in the same way and we will provide an estimate within 1-2
days. If your document contains graphics, screenshots or other
elements that require more than just straight translation, we
will inform you of any additional charges before proceeding. |
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| The
Translation Process |
Where
do your translators come from? What qualifications do they hold?
Our translators come from all over the world. We only let translators
translate into their "mother tongue" - i.e. If they
are from Spain they can translate from English to Spanish but
not the other way. All our translators have a professionally
recognized qualification in a translation related subject and
are usually specialists in other fields as well. |
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Which
languages do you offer?
The languages available varies by service. Our Premium service
offers the following languages online:
Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali (Bangla), Bulgarian,
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, English, English for United Kingdom, English
for United States, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French for Canada,
French for France, German, German for Austria, German for Germany,
Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic,
Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian (Lettish), Lithuanian, Malay,
Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese for Brazil, Portuguese for Portugal,
Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sesotho, Slovak, Slovenian,
Spanish for Latin America, Spanish for Spain, Swedish, Tagalog,
Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Zulu.
However, we are able to handle requests for pretty much any
language from Armenian to Zulu. Please contact us if your language
is not listed.
The number of language directions available on our Automatic
and Edited services are constantly being reviewed to meet demands.
Currently, we offer:
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, English,
English for United Kingdom, English for United States, French
for Canada, French for France, German, German for Austria, German
for Germany, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese for Brazil, Portuguese
for Portugal, Spanish for Latin America, Spanish for Spain. |
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I
can't see the language I want online. Can you still do my translation?
Yes, most probably. We are part one of the world's largest translation
providers - and therefore have a rich resource of over 4000
translators around the world. |
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How
long will my translation take?
Orders submitted to Lyric Labs on the Automatic service
are usually returned in seconds or minutes. Our servers run
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
On Premium service orders, which are translated by human translators,
we provide a turnaround of two business days on orders of up
to 1600 words. Please allow an additional business day for every
1600 words thereafter unless we notify you otherwise. For example,
a 3200 word translation would take 3 business days.
Edited service orders will take 2 business days on orders of
up to 2000 words. Please allow an additional business day for
every 2000 words thereafter. |
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What
is Computer-Generated or Machine Translation (MT)?
Computer-generated translations are created by a computer. Since
computers do not yet possess "life knowledge", machine
translations are not perfect. A computer doesn't know that "dusting"
a field means putting dust on it, while "dusting"
a table means taking dust off it. In another language the translation
for "drive" is probably different depending on whether
one is driving a golf ball or a car, and a computer can easily
get it wrong. However, machine translation is nearly instantaneous
and thus ideal for many purposes where human translation is
simply not feasible. Machine translation is commonly used for
rapid, draft-quality translations that provide individuals with
the "gist" of language documents such as email, Web
pages and correspondence. A "gisted" translation allows
the reader to understand the meaning of the original document
and determine its relevance to their business. |
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Can
you provide me with any tips for writing a document for use
with computer-generated translation?
Names
and places (or words you do not want translating)
It may be that your document has names and places listed which
could potentially be translated. A typical example would be
the famous song "Yellow Submarine". This would not
require a translation. To prevent Enterprise Translation Server
translating the word or phrase, place an "x" at the
beginning and end of it (e.g. "xYellow Submarinex").
Keep sentences short
Long and complex sentences are difficult for computer translation
software to analyze and may not translate well. Short simple
sentences and bullet lists are easier for machine translation
software to translate.
Avoid ambiguous words
Words ending in "ing" in English are ambiguous. For
example, the word "swimming" can be a noun or a verb,
and may have different translation depending on its part of
speech. Whenever possible, choose alternatives to "ing"
forms.
Use correct punctuation and spelling
Always use correct punctuation and provide grammatically correct
input. Using grammar and spell checking software can help to
ensure better results. If a word is misspelt it will not be
translated on the Automatic service.
Include
accented characters
When translating into English please ensure that the source
text is accurate. This means correctly spelt and correctly accented,
for languages that contain accented characters. When a word
is looked up in a machine translation dictionary, it will not
be found if the accent is missing and will, therefore, not be
translated on our Automatic service. Check your document before
placing the order. |
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| Your
Account |
I have created a Personal Account but
I am a business user. Can you upgrade me?
Yes. Simply send an email to mail@lyriclabs.com
from your registered email address, including your company
name and we will update your account for you. You will then
be able to enjoy the benefits of a Business Account including
a dedicated Project Manager, payment by purchase order and multiple
account users. |
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I
have forgotten my password, can you email it to me?
If you try to login and have forgotten your password, simply
click the "Forgotten Password?" link and your password
will be emailed to your registered email address. |
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How
do I change my account/login details?
Login to "Your Account". You will be presented with
several options for viewing and updating your account details. |
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Can
I share my account with another person/colleague?
If you have a Business Account, you can create multiple users
within a single account and set the permissions for each user
with regards to payment methods. |
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| Miscellaneous |
Is there a contact person who can answer
my questions?
Yes. We have a dedicated business development and customer service
team managing the Lyric Labs services. Please see our
Contact Us page for all relevant contact information. |
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I
would like to promote the services of Lyric Labs on my
website. Do you have an affiliate program?
Yes. Our Affiliate Program allows you to earn extra revenue
by promoting Lyric Labs on your website. All registered
users of Lyric Labs can create affiliate links simply
by clicking "Affiliates" after logging in to "Your
Account" and following the instructions. Up-to-the-minute
reporting is available so you can see how much revenue you have
generated.
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