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The Use of Style Guides in Your Next Translation

Have you ever wondered how to make sure your company’s material is translated consistently and that company-specific terms are always used correctly? If you haven’t created a company style guide, now could be the right time to do it. And your translation agency can provide specific help and instructions about the best way to do this!

What exactly is a style guide? This is a reference manual, either many pages long or quite short, that records how terms should always be translated or how company specific names or products should be presented. Style guides can also dictate how certain documents like annual reports or labels for packaging should be presented so that those specs are clear and presented to all parties involved in their production.

In a vocabulary style guide, your company can be sure that product names are always translated the same way, every time. You can also establish how to translate employees’ titles, which can often vary greatly depending on which country or language you’re in. Sometimes titles of coworkers in other countries can be translated as “director” or “manager” in English, but in the style guide you can specify how these titles should be translated. You can also establish rules for your product names. If you always translate a product name into “Widget-Gadget Ultra®”, your translators and proofreaders need to be aware of this product name. A style guide can also refer your translation team to any online resources they can use when working on your projects.

It’s very beneficial for companies to have and use these vocabulary style guides in order to present a unified company image to all customers, both internationally and domestically. It can be very confusing to both audiences to see material presented in several different ways, and that can damage your company’s reputation and image.

A desktop publishing (DTP) guide can also be very helpful to your translation team. Creating specifications for DTP in different languages will cut down on confusion and produce clean and consistent documents. Be sure you keep in mind that when text is translated, the original number of words and the target number of words can turn out to be quite different because text expands or shrinks depending on the language pair. Therefore, using plenty of white space and leaving room for expansion or shrinkage will save you a lot of frustration later. Also consider using fewer fonts in the original English document so that the translated document will be easier to design in another language. To keep the DTP process simpler and to keep costs down, try not to include too much text in graphics. If text is not in graphics, it will save time in extracting text, translating it, and then reinserting material back into images. The DTP style guide can also specify what kinds of graphics to use in each country depending on culture, and remind teams of which fonts to use in the end products.

It’s essential to present the style guides to your in-country reviewers and translation teams ahead of time so that they can ask questions and get clarifications before the project starts. An in-country review means that professionals within your company or your industry read your translated documents and make corrections or changes according to their knowledge of your company’s terminology or products. If you have highly specific product terminology, this could be a critical step in achieving a high quality localized document or product. Your translation team can finalize a glossary for use in future projects, or they can add terms to a translation memory so that consistent translations are achieved every time. Remember to allow a week or so, depending on the length of the style guides, for the teams to go through them. If you’re creating your guides for the first time, allow more time for your international colleagues to review it, and be sure to solicit input from your translation team. This will create a true partnership between these members of your teams, so that the best possible translation can be achieved every time.

Ideally, the in-country reviewer should work directly with the translation agency or the customer’s project manager in the project’s initial planning phase. This is the best time to define and review terminology, style, and target audience. Taking the time to define a basic style guide at this stage will avoid frustration later in the process, too. Once an agreement on terminology is reached, the translation or editing proceeds much more smoothly. Including your reviewer from the very beginning results in a better translation and encourages good communication between all team members.


	viaLanguage Translation Articles The Use of Style Guides in Your Next Translation Have you ever wondered how to make sure your company’s material is translated consistently and that company-specific terms are always used correctly? If you haven’t created a company style guide, now could be the right time to do it. And your translation agency can provide specific help and instructions about the best way to do this! What exactly is a style guide? This is a reference manual, either many pages long or quite short, that records how terms should always be translated or how company specific names or products should be presented. Style guides can also dictate how certain documents like annual reports or labels for packaging should be presented so that those specs are clear and presented to all parties involved in their production. In a vocabulary style guide, your company can be sure that product names are always translated the same way, every time. You can also establish how to translate employees’ titles, which can often vary greatly depending on which country or language you’re in. Sometimes titles of coworkers in other countries can be translated as “director” or “manager” in English, but in the style guide you can specify how these titles should be translated. You can also establish rules for your product names. If you always translate a product name into “Widget-Gadget Ultra®”, your translators and proofreaders need to be aware of this product name. A style guide can also refer your translation team to any online resources they can use when working on your projects. It’s very beneficial for companies to have and use these vocabulary style guides in order to present a unified company image to all customers, both internationally and domestically. It can be very confusing to both audiences to see material presented in several different ways, and that can damage your company’s reputation and image. A desktop publishing (DTP) guide can also be very helpful to your translation team. Creating specifications for DTP in different languages will cut down on confusion and produce clean and consistent documents. Be sure you keep in mind that when text is translated, the original number of words and the target number of words can turn out to be quite different because text expands or shrinks depending on the language pair. Therefore, using plenty of white space and leaving room for expansion or shrinkage will save you a lot of frustration later. Also consider using fewer fonts in the original English document so that the translated document will be easier to design in another language. To keep the DTP process simpler and to keep costs down, try not to include too much text in graphics. If text is not in graphics, it will save time in extracting text, translating it, and then reinserting material back into images. The DTP style guide can also specify what kinds of graphics to use in each country depending on culture, and remind teams of which fonts to use in the end products. It’s essential to present the style guides to your in-country reviewers and translation teams ahead of time so that they can ask questions and get clarifications before the project starts. An in-country review means that professionals within your company or your industry read your translated documents and make corrections or changes according to their knowledge of your company’s terminology or products. If you have highly specific product terminology, this could be a critical step in achieving a high quality localized document or product. Your translation team can finalize a glossary for use in future projects, or they can add terms to a translation memory so that consistent translations are achieved every time. Remember to allow a week or so, depending on the length of the style guides, for the teams to go through them. If you’re creating your guides for the first time, allow more time for your international colleagues to review it, and be sure to solicit input from your translation team. This will create a true partnership between these members of your teams, so that the best possible translation can be achieved every time. Ideally, the in-country reviewer should work directly with the translation agency or the customer’s project manager in the project’s initial planning phase. This is the best time to define and review terminology, style, and target audience. Taking the time to define a basic style guide at this stage will avoid frustration later in the process, too. Once an agreement on terminology is reached, the translation or editing proceeds much more smoothly. Including your reviewer from the very beginning results in a better translation and encourages good communication between all team members.