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A Few Words about Translating & Formatting a Document
In this field, there are translators who want to complete their translation and then be left in peace and quiet, or in their words, "I'm only a translator–I don't know anything about formatting." On the other hand, there are others who believe it is important to present their work in an attractive format, immaterial of whether or not this task has been included in the costing, because formatting simply cannot be ignored.
A well–formatted document indicates a serious and professional attitude and is easy to achieve. You do not even need to take a document–formatting course. By applying a few basic but very useful principles, you can save yourself time and effort and produce a visually attractive document.
- Open a new document based on MS Word's default format.
- Use styles for the following:
- Normal text
- 3 heading levels
- Bulleted list
- Numbered list
- Redefine styles as needed.
For some reason, Word 97 does not allow the user to redefine the Normal style, but this is not a problem. Simply define a new style using a different name, e.g., Text, and format it as you choose.
- Use appropriate fonts.
- Use a Serif font e.g., Times New Roman, for bodies of text in a standard document. The font size should be 12–14 points.
- Use SansSerif fonts e.g., Arial, for headings. The font size will vary according to the heading level, e.g., Level 1–20 points; Level 2–18 points; Level 3–16 points.
- Avoid overusing ornate fonts.
- Number the document pages by selecting Insert followed by Page Numbers.
Re–arranging unnumbered pages in the correct order after they have scattered is a very frustrating task which might be familiar to some of you . . .
- Once you have completed the work, save the file as a Document Template in MS Word's Template folder.
You have created a basic template that will meet the requirements of most of your documents. From now on, you can open new documents based on your template whenever you need it.
Of course you can always upgrade the template by:
- adding special styles
- changing the page size
- defining different page number styles for evenly and unevenly numbered pages
- adding a header and/or footer
Innumerable options are available, and you, the user, can decide what meets your requirements.
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