Translation Best Practices

Preparing documentation for translation and localization might be daunting at first, but there are best practices you can implement to make the task easier, cost effective, and ready for an efficient translation. An overarching point to keep in mind as you write, is to keep the project and content as simple as possible. If the original content is clean and of high quality, then the translation and localization will most likely be clean and of high quality.

Content Strategy

Content strategy has different meanings for different people, but let’s think of it as a way to connect project goals to audience needs. For a translation project, language is just another factor in the overall content strategy. This involves making workflow and content choices throughout the translation life cycle. Upfront planning is essential for efficient translations and for keeping costs down. The objective is to create translation-ready content, which can save you time and money, and increase the overall readability and quality of your target translations.

Project Planning

Take the time to define and document your project’s scope to meet your end goal in the most effective way possible. By asking and answering questions such as the following, your project and the best way to implement it, will start to take shape.

  • What is the source language, and what are the languages needed?
  • What do the published outputs need to look like?
  • What content is needed, and what content should be shared?
  • What should the project structure look like, so it is easy to translate?
  • How should the project be prepared for translations?
  • What translation workflow will move through the company?
  • Who is the translator and what is the budget for translations?
  • Are the translation and review processes accounted for in the schedule?

Tip From the beginning, think if your project needs to be translated now, or if the need could come up later. It is better to plan for it (even if it has a remote chance of happening), rather than not giving it any thought at all and having to backtrack or start over.

Communicating With Translators

Communication is key! You want your project to get translated without delays or difficulties, and translators want to provide you with accurately translated files. One way to achieve quality translation results is to establish a healthy relationship with your language service provider (LSP) or translator.

  • Learn about your translator.
  • Communicate with the translator about the process (e.g., services provided, scheduling, pricing, updates, formatting).
  • Talk with the translator about the structure of your project.
  • Provide context to the translator (e.g., reference materials, glossary terms, abbreviations).

Optimizing Content With Single-Sourcing

Single-sourcing features such as topic-based authoring, snippets, variables, and conditions are beneficial when translating content. They optimize content in the following ways: writing content once and reusing it across your project, translating only the source files regardless of how many times you reuse it, producing multiple outputs, simplifying maintenance, and promoting content quality control. Single-sourcing lets the source language project work for you.

Snippets

  • Do not use snippets in partial sentences. This can cause problems in translation because translators see each part of the sentence separately. Each snippet is its own file in a long list of other files, making it difficult for translators to know its context.
  • Snippets are best for single elements, rather than using as a variable that fits into a sentence, unless the variable does not change (e.g., product name, brand name, or proper noun).

Variables

  • Keep variables simple. Translators see variables embedded in sentences, and not the context of the variable.

  • Avoid using common nouns, or generic terms as variables (e.g., device, machine, instruction guide, manual).

  • Only use variables for proper nouns, dates, version numbers, addresses, or non-textual information for targets.

  • Avoid using inline variables. It is better to put a condition on a whole sentence. Using inline variables can present improper conjugation and noun-verb agreement problems for languages that are gender-specific.

Conditions

  • Avoid conditions that change sentence structure; meaning do not put more than one condition in a single sentence. Instead, write two simple sentences and condition each. For some languages, the grammar and word form can change depending on singular vs plural elements, the gender of the noun, or verb tense, etc.

Tag Placement

As you can imagine, a lot of tags applied to content intended for translation can reduce content clarity and increase its complexity. Translators have to work around tags, but authors can help the efficiency of translations by optimizing tag placement.

  • Reduce the use of, or avoid using inline tags (e.g., no closed tags in the middle of a word).
  • Turn hyperlinks into cross-references when possible. Cross-references are easier to handle, and require less integration.
  • Avoid inline styles. Create style classes in the stylesheet instead.

Writing Guidelines

When content is translated to another language, it is important to write source files with the cleanest and simplest language possible. This is advantageous because the quality of translated output depends directly on the quality of the source files.

Tip The following guidelines are intended for all authors, but they also assume English as the source language and offer tips on avoiding translation issues based on English quirks. If you are using a primary language other than English, it is recommended to find translation guidelines that apply specifically to your source language.

  • Simple Sentence Structure Keeping sentences concise increases readability and reduces word count. In addition, writing as clearly as possible in your source language can affect the quality of machine translation.
    • Write in a direct, active voice.
    • Avoid repetition.
    • Avoid ambiguous content.
    • Avoid noun strings, idioms, gerunds, and cultural references.
    • Use standard word order (e.g., subject, verb, object).
    • Establish consistent naming conventions.

    • Use consistent terminology.

      Note When writing for a software user interface (UI), the UI labels can influence terminology.

  • Mitigate Errors The content should be clean; meaning that the content data should be error-free. Since translations are essentially a copy of the original project in a different language, errors could carry over into the new translated project.
    • Make sure the project is technically complete (e.g., fix broken links, references, condition tags, formatting, missing files).
    • Make sure the project is grammatically correct (e.g., watch for bad punctuation, awkward sentence segmentation).
    • Make sure files are logically structured and complete in the project.
  • International Formats Depending on where you are in the world, different standards exist for writing measurements, temperatures, phone numbers, currency, dates. etc.
    • Spell out the name of the month for clarity on international dates (e.g., 05/11/2020 might reference May, or November).
    • Use metric for units of measure. Most of the world uses the metric versus the imperial measurement system. If your source language is accustomed to the imperial system it might be worth adopting the metric system to simplify the translation process (eliminating the need for excessive conditions).