Author: Yuri Tsverkun
Founder at OCR Craft
Over 15 Years of Experience in the Translation Industry

Perhaps every translation company uses CAT tools or MT for their projects. Typically, the workflow consists of the following stages:

  1. File Preparation (OCR),
  2. Translation + editing in a CAT tool,
  3. Applying QA tools for quality assurance,
  4. Finalizing the document formatting.

The first step is crucial. The quality of the initial document’s preparation and formatting significantly influences the entire workflow and determines how much effort we’ll need to deliver a high-quality product to our client.

To tackle this, we need to bring in a professional formatting specialist who understands all the nuances of preparing files for translation in a CAT tool. But is that enough?

Does file preparation eliminate the need for post-translation document formatting?

Unfortunately, not always. The more complex the document’s structure, the higher the likelihood that some formatting adjustments will be needed after translating into another language.

Let’s explore some common areas that always require scrutiny or modification:

Content

Content needs to be updated regularly, even if it’s generated automatically. For non-automatic content, it’s essential to verify that page numbers correspond with the actual placement of headers after translation.

Alphabetical Index

This should be alphabetized according to the language of translation.

Text in Images

Even using the ‘auto-fit text to shape’ setting doesn’t guarantee that adjustments won’t be necessary. If text is tightly packed and increases in size after translation, it may overlap or even cover the image due to space constraints. This might require us to adjust the font size or apply other solutions to correct the issue.

Tables

There’s a high chance that automatic adjustments to cell height and width will not yield the desired outcome, especially if the table structure is complex or text-heavy.

PowerPoint Presentations

Presentations almost always need tweaking because there’s no text flow to the next slide. Text may overlap with other elements or exceed the slide area, requiring us to adjust the text box width, font, or line spacing.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we encounter during document finalization. If a file is initially poorly prepared, significant issues can arise that only an experienced formatting specialist can resolve.

If you want to avoid all these issues, we’re more than happy to assist. We now offer comprehensive formatting services, both pre-and post-translation.