TeraByte SW has always been technically great, but everything that has to do with the contact to the customers is unfortunately often insufficient.
(One example is that although we pointed out more than a year ago that the product page for the "QnE Companion" is completely insufficient: You don't find any product information that points out that QnE is better than open-source products and if QnE includes a screenshot tool, then the product screenshots should be great. But they are embarrassing: screenshots are almost always taken to explain something to someone. But TeraByte doesn't manage to present self-explanatory screenshots...)
But this one is worse:
TeraByte's language concept is quite confusing.
* In the product Download Links, we can see:
TeraByte Drive Image Backup and Restore Suite V3.61a
Multi-Language (3.61) Download
English-Legacy (3.56) Download
Here, we have many questions:
• Terabyte talks about Release V3.61a, but Download #1 is Release 3.61 and Download #2 is Release 3.56
• Does it mean that TeraByte made a typo and is actually talking about version 3.61 and not 3.61a?
• Does it mean that TeraByte forgot to rename the release to version 3.61a in the release build?
• Why does TeraByte list an old English-Legacy release? Based on the release notes, bugs have been fixed since 3.56, so why is a buggy version listed under 3.61a?
At least the German translation is embarrassing:
• Many German terms, as presented by the TeraByte software in the GUI, would not even be used by children. Many terms are simply completely wrong.
• The problem starts with the very poorly translated installation software and gets worse with the TeraByte applications.
• Therefore, the great TeraByte software makes a fool of itself
• It's even worse: I tried changing the language but it looks like TeraByte is forcing on customers the language they have to work with.
A very good translation is important!
• We do not talk about a text editor,
• We are talking about technical software where terms are very important.
• If one interprets a term incorrectly, then bad things can happen: with many parameters that we can set in TeraByte SW, it is important that weu understand what weu are doing.
• Therefore, the translation must be precise and there must be no silly misunderstandings.
• When foreign language customers notice that a translated term is ambiguous or unclear, it is very important that the customer can switch the GUI to English.
Just some examples...
On the IFW x64 3.61 welcome screen, we have not many terms, but most of them are wrong:
"Aufgabe"
It's almost OK, but we would call it "Aufgaben"
"Vollbackup"
Why does it not have a Keyboard Shortcut?
"überprüfen"
Should be called "Überprüfen" (1st char is upper case)
"Festplattenkopie"
Why does it not have a Keyboard Shortcut?
"Hilfsartikel"
Is completely wrong. We would probably call it "Werkzeuge"
"Werkzeuge" (the button)
If you rename the Section "Hilfsartikel" to "Werkzeuge", then it looks strange if the button is called "Werkzeuge", too.
I would call it "Einzelne Werkzeuge …" or "Einzelne Werkzeuge 🠟" to show that pressing the button opens someting.
"Ausgang"
When German speakers here read "Ausgang", they have to laugh, because most understand it to mean going out on the weekend.
But at the same time it devalues the great TeraByte software: if TeraByte can't even translate the term "exit" correctly, do they have a handle on the technical problems, which are much more complicated?
I would 1000x rather have just a great English application than a poor translation in my language.
A tip for translations with software such as DeepL:
If you want to translate the term "Exit", then have "Exit Application" translated. So the software has the context. A good translator would offer: "Applikation beenden". Then, "beenden" is probably the right term
I understand very well that TeraByte wants to offer translations to the international customers.
Maybe this idea is useful?
As long as the translations are not done by professionals, I would:
1) Offer the user that he can change the language very easily.
2) The List of translated languages could display a hint about the maturity of the translation: A purely machine translation should only have 1 star. If many errors have already been fixed, the translation maturity will have 3 stars
3) As a developer, I would even offer a button in the application: "Suggest better translation"
Then he can choose which sentence/word in the GUI he would correct and he can send the correct translation with two clicks. If several users send the same suggestion, it is probably a good selection
Thanks a lot, kind regards,
Thomas