Working with PDFs
Increasingly, our clients send us PDF files to work with. I’ve been sent PDFs of basic letters generated
in Word, but the majority of PDFs are generated from documentation created in software programs
other than MS Office.
Company brochures, websites, presentations with complex layout – they all arrive as supposedly
simple PDF files.
This presents a translator with a number of difficulties.
Although there is PDF editing software like Adobe Acrobat, it is not possible to just overtype a
complex PDF file in another language.
CAT tools are getting better at coping with PDFs (see also “working with CAT tools”), but the more
complex the original format, the more varied the fonts, the more fancy the graphics, the more
difficult it becomes.
Words and sentences in a foreign language are often longer than the English language version, which
throws out some of the original formatting (see also “can you put that quickly into German?”) The
structure of sentences can also be different. Especially on official forms, the order of a long sentence
that includes
a name and a title centred on one line
before the sentence ends on another line
can look completely different in German and will have to be reformatted.
PDFs therefore have to be converted with a PDF converter before they can be translated.
That is not a problem when the PDF has been created in Word. It is easily reconverted into a Word
file and can then be edited.
It does become a problem when the original file was created in a different software program.
A PDF converter will try to give you an editable version of a PDF file that looks exactly the same as
your PDF.
It looks the same, but its underlying formatting is not the same.
In order to get the same look, the converter inserts a colourful mix of tables, text boxes and
columns. If you try to edit these and if your text is even only a little longer than the original, all
formatting becomes uneven. Text ends up superimposed over images, jumps to the following page,
gets mixed up with text from another part of the page etc.
Depending on the complexity of your original file, it may be impossible to recreate your original
layout. Fonts might have to be reduced, text boxes made larger, there will be formatting decisions
the translator cannot make for you but only together with you.
And all of that takes time! Time that has to be paid for, so you may find that a translator’s quote for
working with a PDF file is higher than if you were able to supply a Word format of the same text.
Working with CAT tools is a particular challenge.
CAT tools convert formatting information into tags, which are later re-translated into formatting.
Shifting tags to the right place can be complex when you have to ensure that the same words are
underlined or highlighted, although their position in the order of sentence in German is different
from their original English sentence.
It becomes virtually impossible when the PDF converter has inserted complex underlying tables,
columns, text boxes etc., all of which are coded into tags in the CAT tool, producing a veritable tag
salad and making translating your text a logistical nightmare.
There are tools available for stripping out unnecessary tags. Unnecessary for the translation, that is,
not necessarily for your formatting!
CAT tools are intended to be labour saving devices. Give them a text littered with tags and they
can cause you hours of extra work, which again will be reflected in the price you are quoted for the
translation.
There isn’t really a solution for this. PDFs are here to stay. Just be aware that presenting us with a
complex PDF can make the translation process much more time consuming for the translator and
much more expensive for you.