Each one of the projects undertaken by Santa Fe Translations is submitted to the strictest quality assurance process to consistently ensure the high standards our clients have come to expect from us. This process involves the management of the project by one single project manager who coordinates the work and is the link between the client and the team in charge of the production process; the production process handled by a team of qualified translators and experienced senior editors; the graphic review and DTP work carried out by our DTP specialists; and the final proofreading by an expert in charge of assessing that the end-product will be useful to the target audience.

Project Management
The project manager is responsible for the successful completion of the project and is in charge of the management of each one of the steps of the entire process: from planning and scheduling through to quality assurance and the timely delivery of the translated material. Each client is assigned one project manager who will be his/her main point of contact.
Prior to starting any project, you will receive from your project manager a detailed estimation of the project outlining the charges in a clear and unambiguous way and establishing delivery date(s) and format. We strongly advise you to supply any background information, previous work and/or glossaries and to be as clear as possible regarding your expectations and needs so that the negotiation process runs smoothly.
Once the negotiation stage is over and the project is underway, the project manager may require certain information regarding the target audience and intended use (i.e., whether it is for internal use only or for publication, etc.). At this stage, the project manager will go through the source document so that any queries regarding meaning, such as abbreviations and in-house jargon, may be dealt with straight away. The project manager will also see that glossaries and instructions are properly prepared in order to guide and coordinate the translation and proofreading process.
A team of translators and editors will be appointed to a given task taking into consideration the knowledge and experience required for each individual project. Translators and editors are specifically instructed not to side-track from the content and spirit of the source text. While the work is in progress, your project manager will be in touch with you on any point requiring clarification and will bring to your notice any part of the text that may be culturally sensitive.

Translation - Editing
All our translators are fully qualified, experienced and professional linguists. Each translator specializes in a particular area, such as medicine, law, marketing, business, software or advertising. In Santa Fe Translations, no translator works in an isolated and individual way. Throughout the whole project, the translators are in constant and permanent contact with our project managers and editors so that each one of their doubts and concerns are properly dealt with.
Our editors are senior translators specialized in the area of expertise of each particular project. They are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and consistency of the translation, including terminology, grammar, style and language. They must also ensure that the translated document is equivalent to the original one in terms of meaning, language and purpose.
Translators and editors work with translation memories and glossaries prepared for each particular client, thus ensuring consistency in terminology and uniformity of texts. In the case of larger projects or recurrent ones, once the translated files have been edited, the project manager sends the appropriate feedback back to the translator so that the necessary changes are made and the possibilities of error in future translations are reduced to a minimum. This ensures accuracy and consistency as well as speed and efficiency.

Graphic Review
This is where our DTPs go into action. Even though desktop publishing may not be required in many translation projects, either because the source document is already typeset in formats such as Quark Express, PageMaker, or InDesign, or because the customer needs the end- product in a simple Word or Excel format, some work must still be performed on the layout of translated documents (e.g., generating a table of contents and indexes, adjusting the page flow, solving expansion problems, etc.). It's our DTP's responsibility to produce a final, ready for print, electronic version of the document, including all graphics and design features.

Final Proofreading
Even though each and every one of our linguists is a native speaker of the target language and is experienced in a variety of subjects, all work handled by Santa Fe Translations is proofread and assessed by a highly trained professional translator of the target language. When necessary, this final proofreader, responsible for the end-product, will contact a professional expert well versed in the field of expertise in question, in order to ensure that the appropriate jargon and terminology has been used and that the translation will be easily and effectively understood by the target audience.