• Acronyms – How to deal with them, e.g. the first occurrence should always include an explanation between brackets.
• Bulleted and numbered lists - Agree on the standard to be used for capitalization of the initial letter and ending each item with a period or another punctuation mark. As a rule, all list items end with a full stop when they contain full sentences, and without a full stop when they contain phrases or single words.
• Capitalization – When and where to use capitals. Be very specific about items in search keyword lists.
• Numerals/Measurements – How to write numbers and measurements, and which conversions to include.
• Captions – Style to be used for image captions or callouts.
• Em/En Dash – In many languages, the em/en dashes are not used. Identify where they should be replaced by hyphens or commas.
• Americanisms – Avoid the use of Americanisms or Anglicisms. For example, in French use "prendre en charge" for "support" instead of “supporter". In German, use "erstellen" for "create" instead of “kreieren".
• Spelling – If a spelling reform has taken place in the target country, or if the target language is spoken in different variants in different countries, agree on a standard to be used, e.g. Iberian Spanish versus Latin American Spanish.
• Punctuation – Apply the punctuation rules of the target language. For example, if the English source files contain two spaces after each period, this should generally be replaced by one space in the target language.
Issues like these should normally be included in a style guide for each language. Most large software publishers and localization vendors have language style guides available.
Software References
Most online help files and user manuals contain several references to dialog box or menu options, prompts, and error messages in running software.
To avoid time-consuming correction work later in the process, keep the software references correct and consistent from the very beginning of the project. If the translated software is not yet finalized, it is advisable to leave all software references untranslated until a localized version of the software is available. Never translate a software reference without checking this against the actual translation used in the running software!
It is not unusual for online help files to be translated before the software. If this is the case, translate the software references in the text and create a glossary for these references. This will make it easier to translate the software. Furthermore, the software translations will probably be more accurate because the descriptive text for all options are translated. It is important to use glossaries from the target operating environment or other localized products.
Translation Order
First and foremost, never translate a table of contents before translating the help contents. Headings can only be translated accurately, when the related sections are available for reference to the translator.
It is important to decide when index entries need to be translated and who will be responsible for the translation. Some translators prefer to translate index entries while translating the topic contents; others prefer to translate all index entries once the running text has been translated. In most cases, translation memory tools are used to translate online help. Therefore, the recommended approach is to translate index entries while the running text is being translated. If index entries are segmented separately in the translation memory tools, translators working on a network will automatically choose consistent translations for all index entries. If index entries are segmented as a group of entries, this may cause problems. In either case, agree on a style for index entries before the translation cycle starts, e.g. use of upper/lower case, grammatical form, etc.
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