Writing for Translation

In the coming month I’ll be migrating some content from FrameMaker to AuthorIT and, whilst doing so, I’ll be taking a little extra time to re-write the content to be as re-usable friendly as possible, mainly because it’s likely we’ll be starting to localise our product at some point this year.

I’ve a good idea of what is required when it comes to engaging a translation agency, I was involved a little in this area at a previous company, but have to admit that I’ve not really given the writing style required as much thought as I should’ve.

Still, hindsight is 20/20.

A phrase which, of course, would be hard to localise… ironic.

So I’m doing a little research but thought I’d ask here to see if anyone has any pointers (I’m going to be asking more questions here than I have previously, and I’m also going to steer clear of mailing lists a little, too much noise these days).

Writing for translation then, any top tips? Suggestions or advice?