Preparing printed documents for effective localization requires foresight, planning, and coordination with your localization service provider. Many common difficulties can be easily avoided simply by knowing the proper steps to take in the design phase.

Some of these simple steps include:

1. Allow room for text expansion. With few exceptions, translated text will take up more room than the original source text (Chinese is the most common exception). The amount of text expansion varies by language, but previous experiences will help you make an educated guess. As a general rule, plan on lengthy texts being 30% longer than the source, and shorter text bits (such as labels in diagrams or headers) doubling or even tripling in length. This means that in the document design phase, adequate room must be left in a document to allow for expansion in the translated text. Unless you use a large font size in your source text (14 pt or larger), do not assume that your localization service provider will be able to shrink the font size enough to sufficiently counter text expansion. If the font size is too small, your eventual audience may need to use a magnifying glass to read the document. The best way to allow for text expansion on a page is to leave generous margins and allow your localization provider to adjust them as needed.

2. Link text into stories. Depending on which application you use to produce your text, you may have the option to create multiple "stories." Stories are separate selections of text that may be linked throughout a document. Programs like QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, PageMaker, FrameMaker, and several others offer this feature. Whenever possible and applicable, sections of text should be linked into stories. This is important because your localization service provider may have to export text manually from your source files if filters do not exist for your particular file format. During this process, they will manually select all the text in your document. The more disconnected bits of text you have, the greater the chance that something will be missed. In addition, manually copying and pasting text from multiple locations increases both the management and DTP burden on your localization provider (and hence your cost).

3. Do not rely on hard returns for formatting. A very common method of moving to a new page in a word processor is to press the Return key until a break appears. This method should be avoided, as these excessive return-strokes must be manually deleted by your localization provider. The best alternative is to use page, frame, column, section, or other break characters. In Microsoft Word, these tools are available under Insert > Break. Not only does this reduce the amount of work for your localization provider, it also helps in your own document updates because extra return-strokes often affect text many pages away. See also this issue's Formatting Tip: Using and Abusing Tabs.

4. Talk to your localization provider about how to include text in graphics. Your localization provider will probably have a preference regarding how to include text in graphics. However, you should never provide graphics in which text has been saved as bit-mapped graphics rather than editable text. If text has been "flattened" in an image (it cannot be extracted separately from the graphic), proper translation may even require recreating a graphic from scratch. In general, you should create graphics in either a vector format like Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, or Corel Draw, or in a bit-mapped format that allows you to save text in layers, like Adobe Photoshop. Completely "flat," bit-mapped file formats like GIF, JPEG, or PNG are generally not suitable for localization, except as a final format. Your localization provider may request that you manage text embedded in graphics in a certain way. You should talk to your localization provider early in the process so you can manage graphics properly from the beginning and not have to retool your graphics or pay extra charges later on.

5. Use styles rather than local formatting. You can apply styles to headers, titles, body text, etc. to define the font size, indentation, and paragraph formatting you need for each throughout the document. Whenever possible, use styles to format text in your source document rather than manually applying individual paragraph or character formatting. Not only does this dramatically simplify the process of updating your documents, it also helps ensure that your localized documents will be consistently formatted. When styles have been used, your localization provider can quickly and easily make the needed changes to your entire document without having to go through and manually change everything (raising your DTP costs in the process). This factor becomes especially important when you are localizing from English into very different languages like Chinese, in which formatting may vary greatly from your source document.

Tabs can be a very powerful tool in formatting any document. They are often used to align paragraphs, set up hanging indents (also called outdents), and create tables in programs that do not have a good table editor. However, tabs are often misused in documents that need to be translated or localized, causing more work for those who must edit or reformat the documents. Fortunately, by understanding the principles behind tabs and alternatives to their use, these problems can be avoided.

Principle 1. Multiple tabs should never be used to create hanging indents.

Multiple tabs are often used to create an outdented or bulleted paragraph. This is not necessary and is often more labor intensive than is needed. An outdented paragraph looks like this:

Note:

The blue button in the middle of the red square on the white background on the left side is not used for purposes understood at this time and should be ignored all together. If you do use this button you may have to endure ridicule in the presence of coworkers.

Question:
I have 12 language pairs currently open in the Transit editor. I have unprotected the language pairs, and I am trying delete a certain font tag in all of the files by doing a "find and replace." When I do the "find and replace," it appears to find all of the occurrences, but only the first few font tags are deleted. What is wrong?

Answer:
When unprotecting a file in the Transit editor, only the active file will be unprotected. When working with global language pairs (several pairs open simultaneously), each file must be unprotected individually for the "find and replace" to work properly. Otherwise, it will "find" every occurrence, but will only "replace" the item in the unprotected files. Another option is to open all of the files in question in the Transit text editor instead. Any files open in the Transit text editor will not be protected as a default. However, use caution when using the Transit text editor as anything can be modified or removed in this mode.