Office, PDF, InDesign

We can make each other’s lives easier.

In most organizations, documents will circulate either in Microsoft Office formats (such as .docx, .xlsx, .pptx) or as PDF files. Information intended for publication will often be available in the format of a DTP or layout program — and the name of the program today is almost always Adobe InDesign. — Web pages and database files are special cases.
 

There is probably not all that much to say about Microsoft Office formats. One thing worth mentioning is that the old .doc, .xls, .ppt file formats, obsolete since 2006, should be avoided, as they are insecure and provide popular entry points for computer viruses or other uncouth creatures. Many Word files created by non-experts contain unstructured formatting; we will often replace these files with our own formats.

Despite what software evangelists have been trying to tell you for many years, PDF files are not editable files that can be further processed, such as translated. Think of them as printouts on paper. Expert features usually produce unusable mumbo-jumbo with unwanted formatting artifacts. PDF files to be translated must always be converted to editable Word files first, with positioning information for the layout person. These Word files are then translated and delivered in this easil-to-understand format — never as PDF files.

Nowadays, documents intended for publication are often laid out in in Adobe InDesign once they have passed the manuscript stage. This is the document in the form in the client wants it translated.

Now translators are not usually layout or DTP experts; that is not what they are hired for. InDesign is a significant investment – not so much in terms of the – admittedly expensive – software itself, but more in terms of its complex features and capabilities and the resulting learning curve, which usually requires the services of a professional DTP person.

As a result, many translators and translation companies do not own or work with InDesign. This means that the client has to manually copy the various scattered pieces of text from the InDesign file into a Word or text file and return them there once the translation has been delivered. This process is error-prone, often loses markups, and is a lot of extra work.

Of course, clients want to be able to send out texts with a finished InDesign layout directly for translation, with no time-consuming detours.

This is exactly what Triacom offers.

As long as a few simple conditions are met (see box), we can usually process your InDesign files directly. However, “directly” does not mean that the translation is entered into InDesign itself; that would take far too long and would prevent translators from using their many re­search, quality control, and terminology control tools — and the result could be a poor translation. Rather, what we do is convert the original InDesign .indd file to an intermediate format (.idml), translate that, load the result back into InDesign, and make the necessary adjustments within your existing approved layout. These adjustments typically include reworking fields, tables and frames to accommodate the translated text, which in many languages will be longer than the English text (for example, English text tends to “expand” by 10 to 20 percent when translated into German). End-of-line hyphenation will also often need to be fixed, and some visual adjustment of line control, especially in the case of headings, may also be advisable.

With a little skill and preparation, all of this can be done within the original layout. The result is then saved as an .indd file and delivered to the client.

Incidentally, if you create the artwork for your publi­cations in Adobe Illustrator, we can often work directly with that as well.

The layout person should not have to do much more than to add some professional artistic flair.

If the client is not using the latest version of InDesign, we can provide backward--compatible .idml files instead.


Websites are a different — and highly complex — matter.
Direct contact between the translator and the responsible IT technician or web designer is highly recommended.
While we can work directly with HTML files and many XML files, further processing often requires more than smply replacing text in one language with text in another.

Tips and tricks for seamless
translations in InDesign

To work with your InDesign project, we need the en­tire project folder with all its components, especially all the visuals and all of the fonts used.

These InDesign projects are notoriously large, usually far too large to be sent by email. For this reason, we are happy to open an account for our clients on our secure in-house server. Working with this server is a snap; all you need is a web browser.

InDesign files are easiest to work with during the translation process if a few simple rules are followed — rules that are a good idea to follow when working with InDesign anyway.
 

  • First of all: Allow plenty of space on the page! Not only does a spacious design look more inviting, it also makes it easier to make the necessary adjustments after translation.
  • Keep text that belongs together in a single frame, even if it spans multiple columns or pages.
  • Avoid manual formatting. Use character and para­graph styles.
  • Use only fonts that support all characters (glyphs) in all target languages.
  • Do not use spaces or tabs for formatting. Use tables instead if you need a two-dimensional rather than a linear structure.
  • Do not create numbered or bulleted lists manually.
  • Avoid hard line breaks.
  • Provide text in visuals that cannot be edited in a separate text file. (Except that we can often work directly with Adobe Illustrator —.ai — graphics.) 
  • Try to avoid using of InDesign plug-ins, especially proprietary ones.