How to translate a Word document and keep the formatting

The most common way to translate a Word document is also the slowest: copy a paragraph, paste it into a translation box, copy the result, paste it back, and repeat. Along the way the bold text disappears, numbered lists restart, table cells lose their style and footnotes are forgotten. For a two-page letter it is annoying. For a fifty-page report it is hours of work.

There is a better way: translate the Word file itself.

What "keeping the formatting" really means

When DeepReference translates a DOCX file, it does not turn it into plain text. It translates the text sentence by sentence and puts each translation back into the same place in the document. That means:

• Headings keep their heading styles, so you can update the table of contents in the translated file.
• Bold, italic and underlined words stay formatted, also inside a sentence.
• Numbered and bulleted lists keep their numbering.
• Tables keep their structure, borders and shading.
• Headers, footers and footnotes are translated too.
• Images stay where they are. Text inside an image is not translated.

The result is a new Word file in the target language that you can open, edit and send like any other.

Step by step

• Open DeepReference and choose the Document tab.
• Upload the DOCX file. Visitors can translate one document a month without an account.
• Choose the source and target language.
• Start the translation and download the translated DOCX when it is ready.

With an account you can also choose the domain and the tone, apply your glossary and translation memory, and review the result in two ways: sentence by sentence in the translation editor, or as real pages in the Document Editor.

Where to look when you review

Every language has a different length. German and Russian are often longer than English; Chinese is much shorter; Arabic changes direction. The text is always put back in the right place, but a longer sentence can make a page look different. Check these places:

• Tables with narrow columns, where a longer word can wrap onto two lines.
• Text boxes and shapes with a fixed size.
• Title pages and covers, where the design depends on the length of the title.
• Page breaks, which may move when the text grows.
• Lists of terms or names that should not be translated, such as product codes. Put these in a glossary or a never-translate list.

Most fixes take seconds: widen a column, reduce a font size slightly, or move a page break.

Tips for documents that translate well

You can make translation easier before you even start:

• Use real Word styles for headings and lists instead of manual formatting.
• Avoid splitting one sentence across several text boxes; each box is translated separately.
• Do not use spaces or tabs to line up text; use tables or tab stops.
• Write numbers and dates in one consistent format.
• Keep the original file. If you need to change the content later, change the source and translate again; with a translation memory, the unchanged sentences come back at once.

Notes for some languages

• German and Russian: expect the text to grow by around a fifth or more. Check tables and fixed-width boxes first.
• French and Italian: also longer than English, and French puts a space before some punctuation marks; the translation follows these rules.
• Arabic: the document turns from left to right to right to left. Check tables, lists and the position of logos.
• Chinese and Japanese: the text becomes much shorter, which can leave large empty areas on designed pages. Adjust spacing if needed.

Excel and PowerPoint work the same way

Spreadsheets and presentations can be translated in the same way as Word files. In Excel, the text in the cells is translated and the formulas, numbers and structure stay untouched. In PowerPoint, each slide keeps its layout, and the text in titles, text boxes and notes is translated. Slides are the place where length matters most, because every text box has a fixed size, so look through the slides once after translation.

What about PDF?

If the original is a PDF, DeepReference can translate it too and rebuild the PDF in the target language. But a PDF has fixed positions for every line, so a Word file always gives a cleaner, more editable result. When you have both, choose the DOCX.

In short

Do not copy and paste. Upload the Word file, let the translation go back into the same structure, and spend your time checking the few places where the new language changes the length. You get a document that looks like the original, in a fraction of the time.