Hold the Presses – Why You Should Never Overlook a Layout Check
You wouldn’t publish a novel without checking all the pages are included. Nor would you release a film without checking all the scenes are in the right order. But when it comes to translation, a crucial step that is often overlooked is the final layout check. That is, a check of your translated assets by a native reviewer, in situ – whether that’s a PDF brochure or report, a new website or app, a set of online banners or a video ad.
Checking translated content in layout not only makes it easier to pick up any inconsistencies and formatting red flags, but also ensures the translation works within context, from a tonal and cultural perspective. Here we explore the main benefits of planning in a final layout check of your translated materials.
- It Ensures the Text Fits
Let’s start with the obvious – text length. Not all languages are created equal when it comes to length. Indeed, some of the most common target languages (such as French, German and Spanish) can be 25% longer than English.
Fixed character counts aren’t always a catch-all solution, so if space is at a premium – as is often the case for websites, apps, web banners and video subtitles – a final layout check ensures that the translated headline, button text or call to action perfectly fits the allotted space.
For assets where character length isn’t as crucial, such as brochures and reports, a final layout check will still help to ensure the translated text doesn’t overrun where it shouldn’t.
- It Catches Any Formatting Issues
Design formatting issues are unavoidable, especially when it comes to longer assets such as brochures and reports. But picking these up can be even more difficult when multiple languages are involved. It may sound obvious, but it’s likely that your designer doesn’t speak every target language you are translating into. And there is much more scope for human error when the language (and alphabet) is unfamiliar.
Repeated text, misplaced sentences, leftover text from the previous language – all common errors that can happen during the layout phase. Maybe bolded and italic words aren’t properly replicated. Perhaps the line breaks are confusing and illogical. And let’s not forget language-specific formatting issues, where accents or special characters aren’t displaying correctly, or the left-to-right reading hasn’t been switched to right-to-left. The only sure-fire way to ensure your designer hasn’t misplaced or misunderstood any content is a final layout check by a native reviewer.
- It Highlights Any Inconsistencies
There’s something about seeing copy in layout, over Word or a translation management system, that makes it easier to spot certain inconsistencies. Reviewing the text in situ allows your checker to read or view your asset as though they were a member of your target audience, which can really help to ensure terminology, capitalization and repeated phrases are all consistent.
- It Flags ‘Missed’ Content
During the translation process, certain content elements can get left behind when extracting content to be uploaded into the TMS. This is especially common with fixed assets, such as graphs and charts, infographics, and burned-in video captions, where the content must be manually transcribed. Unless this is spotted by the designer when adding the translated text to the asset, the only other chance to pick this up before publication is during a final layout check.
- It Ensures the Copy Works in Context
Sometimes, a translator doesn’t have the opportunity to see the design or chosen imagery of an asset when translating, which can make it difficult when they have to decide between different words or phrases. During a layout check, the reviewer gets to see the translation in context, so they can make that all-important call if the chosen word or phrase doesn’t fit the tone or match the imagery. As a native, the reviewer also has the chance to check that the other elements (such as colours, photography and graphics) work from a cultural viewpoint – and flag any potential issues.
- It Can Double as a Final Usability Check
When it comes to checking the functionality, usability and accessibility of new websites, apps and other digital platforms, you can never have too many pairs of eyes. A final in-situ check of translated content can also double as an extra usability check. By navigating through the platform during their check, a linguistic reviewer will also be able to catch any final bugs or glitches before you go live .
How Mother Tongue can help
Our team of expert native QA checkers are specialised in conducting layout and in-situ reviews of all types of assets, to make sure translations are perfectly implemented and ensure the highest quality across all your target markets.
Get in touch to see how we can support you to build layout reviews into your translation pipeline.