Translation of manuals

Instruction manuals have gained a great deal of importance in the European Union. Manufacturers can only sell their products if accompanied by clear instructions translated into the official language or languages of the country where they are being sold.

Currently, the sale of any product with unclear or incomplete instructions can, in addition to damaging the image of the manufacturer or distributor, can bring about serious financial losses and even legal action.

To help you with regard to this situation, Mondo Agit offers professional translation and proof-reading services for instruction manuals.

Translations carried out by experts who are native speakers of the target language ensure that the translation is correct and faithful to the original. The proof-reading is carried out by proof-readers who are not specialised in the subject matter, guaranteeing that everyone can understand the text.

The translation of instruction manuals can be split into two key parts:

• Reading and understanding the manual.
• Writing the translation. In order to carry out this second step, the translator must be able to write correctly and have a perfect knowledge of the source language. For this reason, it is essential to use native or bilingual translators. An important aspect to bear in mind regarding the translation of instruction manuals is their precision: even the slightest change to the wording may lead to a misinterpretation.

Once the manual has been translated, it is sent for proofreading and correction, which is carried out by native translators or proofreaders.

The legal background:

In accordance with RD 1468/1988 (ratified on the basis of the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users of 1984), users and consumers have a basic right to the correct information about different products made available to them on the market, with the aim of providing the necessary knowledge for their proper use, consumption or enjoyment. According to the preamble of the aforementioned standard, this includes a product’s labelling, presentation and advertising, making it obligatory for both the identification data and any information booklets to be easily understandable. Section 8 of said article states that the product’s identification and management data “should appear, at the least, in Castilian Spanish”. This article was corroborated by the European Court of Justice’s ruling of 12^th October 1999.