subject: Word Styles For Translators: Part 1: Do Not Ignore Styles! [print this page] Learning to use styles is essential for creating a document with consistent formatting -- a strict requirement for every professional translator. Using styles will make final editing go quickly -- but only if the styles have been created (or modified) with advanced planning, and only if they are applied in a conscious, disciplined way.
(This discussion assumes you are using Word 2007. It applies generally to prior versions as well, except for discussions about themes, the navigation instructions, styles gallery, and lists.)
Word automatically creates styles, even if you are unaware of them. The starting position is with a style called "Normal" and a few other automatic, "built-in" styles (like "Heading 1"). Every time you add some new formatting, Word automatically creates or modifies a style to reflect these features. Unless you look for the styles (by opening a styles menu, panel or gallery), you can spend your whole life using Word without ever being aware of what is going on behind the scenes. In fact, most users of Word never bother to learn about them, and never experience how powerful Word can be.
Think of styles in Word as a kind of "style sheet," as that term was used long ago in the print media, and as it is used today in programs that create Web pages. They are pre-defined rules about how text, paragraphs and lists (such as numbers and bullets) should appear. Good practice requires that you knowingly apply one style or another to all text. It is also good practice to stick to as small a number of styles as possible, to give the document a uniform, rational look.
More specifically, styles are a family of pre-designed formatting characteristics summarized under a unique style name. To use a style, select the text to be treated. Then, open the Styles Pane or press Ctrl-Shift-S. Then select the name of the style to be applied. If your Word options have been set for it, the Styles Pane provides a preview in your document of what the selected text will look like as your mouse hovers over the style prior to clicking. The style names in the list itself will appear in the character styling specified for each. Indentations and alignment are also reflected in the Styles Pane.
Problems arise if you change styled text without concern for how Word is keeping track of your formatting. If the "automatically update style" box is checked, every time you modify styled text, Word applies that change everywhere in the document where that style has been chosen. If you are working with a carefully designed style set, automatic updating is usually a bad idea, as it will apply your mistake all over the document. On the other hand, if the style is not automatically modified when you apply additional editing to a styled text, then Word will add a new style to the list, indicating that it is a separately-selectable variant of the original style. This can proliferate unnecessary styles, creating so many unique instances that you end up defeating the purpose of using styles in the first place. You will be preventing consistency and uniformity throughout the document rather than enabling it. For this reason, being aware of styles and maintaining discipline about their use is essential to make them work for you. Otherwise you will be put to the additional work of keeping the styles list clean and efficient.
Planning Styles in Advance.
To use styles to advantage, you need to focus on lots of little details. This may seem overwhelming to anyone finding out about Word's styles for the first time. In practice, their use quickly becomes intuitive. Though the specifics may sometimes offer a bewildering range of options, the payoff later on will be worth it. Formatting is a breeze if you think about it competently in advance.
Suppose you have translated a User Manual for some software system. Think carefully about how things must look. Naturally, you want to imitate the overall layout of the source document. You may have titles and subtitles, headings (maybe two or three different levels), and possibly other elements, such as notes, comments, footnotes and code blocks. You will need a "standard" style for paragraph text, and perhaps one or more character styles for special formatting (such as characters in a different color, size or typeface.) By thinking all this through ahead of time, the formatting can then be applied as you go. The investment of time in setting up styles carefully in advance will pay dividends later in the look of the document, and the time you save in formatting. Naturally, new needs might arise as you go along, or you may decide to modify existing styles after you've had a chance to see them at work. But these pauses will be brief. Prior planning makes it unnecessary to go back over your work and re-format the whole document.
Technical translations present special considerations, as special terms, commands, syntax and definitions may need to appear in a different style from "normal" text. For example, commands may need to appear in bold and parameters in italics. Scholarly publications and research papers will have numerous citations, and the citation formats will need to be pre-defined and applied consistently throughout.
This point about consistency in formatting is particularly applicable to the creation of lists (numbers and bullets) and to tables, where well-thought-out styles will result in the quick and uniform application of specialized formatting.
The translation client or agency may have provided the source document in Word. If so, the styles may already be set up for you. Chances are, whoever prepared to original source document paid little attention to styles, and hence it may be up to you to rationalize them, correct them and apply them properly. In such cases, the target document will come out looking better than the source, and with a more professional treatment of formatting. If, on the other hand, you have converted the source document to Word as an aid in computer-assisted translation, the creation of the styles may fall completely on your shoulders.
Part 2, called "Before Working with Styles," covers subjects you should be aware of before digging into the styles themselves.
