Spanish < > English Translation - Document Format

The importance of source document format in modern translation processes cannot be sufficiently emphasized, given that it affects the speed, the quality and cost of the final product.

Firstly, it is important to understand that today's efficient translation processes do not usually involve translators working from source documents and introducing translated text into blank, target documents. Additionally, modern translation projects virtually never involve the use of printed documents. This slow, costly method of translation does not allow for the use of modern translation applications and requires, in addition to translation services, the recreation of the original document's layout in the target document.

Independently of the final publishing format, the overwhelming majority of texts today are generated with modern text processing programmes, for example, Microsoft Word (.doc). It is these documents, containing words in editable format, that are best suited to the translation process, as they permit precise wordcounts, the use of translation memories and the original document layout to be maintained.

On the other hand, once these documents have been treated with publishing programmes and converted into different formats (.pdf, .fh, .jpeg, etc.), they lose considerable value as source documents and occasion additional deformatting tasks aimed at the obtaining of a suitable source document for the translation process. Such deformatting processes are not only costly, neither are they able to guarantee the production of a perfect source document.

Therefore, in order to optimise both the costs and the quality of your translation projects, we highly recommend that you provide editable source documents (.doc, .rtf, .txt, .html, .xls, etc.) for analysis and the calculation of quotations. In those cases in which it is impossible to provide such documents, please bear mind that your translation quotation may include additional, necessary formatting and deformatting costs.

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