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tranfree issue 4 - 26 June 1999 Senior Staff Column - Regarding Formats and FormattingBy SM - a senior London Translation Agency Worker This is a bit like the "how long is a piece of string" debate. How should your documents be formatted? Straight text? Clever tabulation? Flashy effects? The answer to this one is – if in doubt, find out! It’s not quite as simple a question as it might seem at first. At our company, around 98% of documents are sent out electronically. So using the Tab key and spacebar to align text is a 'no no', for a start. If your client hasn’t specified what file format they want your translation in, it’s always a good idea to ask. Not only does it save lots of hassle and reformatting, if you’ve done your job in ClarisWorks when the client really wanted MS Word for Windows 6.0, but it also gives the impression that you know what you’re doing! The vast majority of agencies use MS Word 95 or 97, so if you’re using something other than Word (WordPerfect is a popular package among translators, for instance) it’s a good idea to point this out – but even if you are using Word, do mention which version you have! An extension of this is where a client asks if
you can overtype a document. You’d be amazed how many people
don’t think of asking what program was used to create the
file in the first place (and we’re all guilty of forgetting
to volunteer the information!). Believe me, there are few things
more frustrating than sending out a large file, only to have
translators come back several hours later (sometimes even a
couple of hours before the deadline… If you’ve got the right software and you’re overtyping a document, no problem – just overtype it. Ah. If only life were that simple. Firstly, a number of translators maintain that it’s much harder to overtype a document and insist on imposing surcharges for doing it. On the other hand, what about all the text you can just search and replace? What about all the formatting that’s been done for you already? Admittedly, overtyping can turn into a laborious task if your translation is constantly running off the edge of pages and you need to keep adding and removing page breaks. And files can take ages to receive via modem or e-mail thanks to the relative ease of use of packages such as PowerPoint which permit the end client to use lots of pretty pictures that eat up the kilobytes. But if overtyping doesn’t appeal to you for any other reason, do bear in mind that you can just... And what of all those hard-copy only
translations? Well, where feasible, I would always advocate that
you reproduce the layout of the text as closely as possible: end
clients often don’t have any knowledge of languages at all.
Following a foreign text that bears no resemblance to their
original can prove very difficult. If you help them out by
producing a translation in which they can see what belongs where,
they’re much more likely to use you again. Clients can be
notoriously suspicious of translations, too ("Are you sure
it’s all there?" Unless otherwise stated when you accept the job, there’s no need to really 'go to town' and reproduce logos, scan in charts and so on; although if your client does specifically ask you to do so, there’s no good reason why you should do this gratis. If someone sends you a hard-copy job that’s full of tables, columns and other time-consuming horrors, let them know when you see the copy that you’ll be making a charge – and tell them how much and what it is for - the formatting work! Most agencies will agree that this kind of over-and-above-the-call-of-duty work should be paid for, although some will prefer to do the formatting themselves, thereby saving you a few hours for which you’d otherwise not have been paid. At the end of the day, the key to efficient formatting is communication. Ask your client what they want, how they want it. Tell them what software you intend to use. If you want to charge more, make sure they know. If everything is agreed in advance, the job will get done and you won’t be out of pocket.
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and tell you they
can’t open the file. Not many people have all the most
commonly used software, it’s expensive stuff! But by
choosing your software purchases carefully you can maximise your
earning potential. 
...keep
an eye on your screen (and keyboard!) when overtyping, as opposed
to having to turn your head backwards and forwards to consult
pieces of paper on a document stand – ergonomically
speaking, quite advantageous really! And not forgetting all the
numbers which you don’t have to copy-type…