Localization of a website or software requires you to take into account different formats for date, time and currency. These formats vary, depending on your target country. If you want to ensure that your audience can easily understand your website or software, you should be familiar with their date, time and currency formatting styles.
Date Formats
People are used to writing the date a certain way, and your website or software should reflect that. For example, in the United States, we are used to writing the date with the month first, followed by the day and then the year. A slash or a dash usually separates each component, so in most cases, the result is either mm/dd/yyyy or mm/dd/yy. But not all countries do it this way.
In Australia, Russia, parts of Europe and Asia, and most of Latin America, the date is usually written with the day first, and then the month and the year. The result is dd/mm/yyyy or dd/mm/yy. On the other hand, residents of China, Japan, Iran, Hungary, and both North and South Korea write the date with the year first, followed by the month and then the day. The result is yyyy-mm-dd.
Time Formats
Formatting time correctly is just as important as formatting the date. During the localization process, remember that many countries use the 12-hour clock, in which the day is divided into two periods: a.m. and p.m. This is the most common way to refer to time in the United States.
Many other countries use the 24-hour clock, in which 1 a.m. is referred to as 01:00 and 11 p.m. is 23:00. This is often referred to as military time in the United States. Of course, you also have to make sure your software or website is set up for the proper time zone, depending on your target market.
Currency Formats
When localizing content, you must also use the correct currency symbols. So if your target market is the United States, you’re going to use the dollar sign, but if the market you are trying to reach is the United Kingdom, be prepared to include the pound sterling. On the other hand, most European countries use the Euro, so keep this in mind when preparing localized content.
Proper localization requires you to know this information when it comes to formatting. This means you should be sure to do your research, or at least hire a firm that does. If you plan to do the latter, contact Verbatim Solutions today for help.
Clearly, thorough localization of any business artifact involves making sure important features, including the Help function and related resources, are easily understood by all of your target audience members. As part of our full suite of professional translation, localization and interpretation services, Verbatim Solutions can assist with this process. Contact us today to learn more about the software localization process.
