Summary

Document globalization, or the preparation of documentation for export to worldwide markets, requires attention to the entire document production process. One component of globalization, called localization, refers to translation of documents into languages other than the source language of those documents. The other component of globalization, called internationalization, refers to preparing a source document that is culturally independent and can be easily understood by speakers of the source language when distributed around the world. An important implication of internationalization is that it can improve the quality, time-to- market, and cost-effectiveness of localization by avoiding duplicate work for each individual language or cultural market.