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Localization Style Guide: why it matters and how to create one


by Soraya Guimarães Hoepfner

Localization Style Guide: Why it matters and How to Create Yours

a notebook open with 'hello' written in different languages in coloured balloons
Image by Trid India from Pixabay

Whether outsourcing your translations or producing them in-house, every company demanding multilingual content must cultivate a brand identity that can be shared consistently through their global markets. A Localization Style Guide is the bible for setting the basic guidelines on how your brand message is communicated uniformly in other languages. It covers not only linguistic aspects such as tone, style, and grammatical preferences but also core values through which a company wants to be perceived by its customers.  Keep reading to discover how to create a localization style; I also include a Localization Style Guide outline template you may use and adapt to create your own.

What is the purpose of a Localization Style Guide?

A Localization Style Guide summarizes all the essential linguistic guidelines a translation team needs to follow when translating content into a particular language. Like a Brand Style Guide, which covers a company’s visual identity, the Localization Style Guide sets the standards for how the translators should localize the content to align with the business’s core values and marketing goals.

Benefits of creating a Localization Style Guide

Isn’t having the translators follow official grammar rules enough? Well, when it comes to language, it is… complicated. There is never one source of truth! Therefore, you must drop obvious assumptions and outline precisely what guidelines your brand prefers translators follow when localizing your content. That is the best way to ensure your audience experiences your brand as one in all markets you operate. Adopting a Localization Style Guide for each language your content is translated into has two main benefits:

  • Consistency—Regardless of the translation workflow model, enforcing a style guide ensures that all the changes in production backstage do not affect what your international audiences see and how customers experience your brand.
  • Productivity—Consistent linguistic guidelines that different translators can follow reduce disparities created by different preferential styles. This minimizes the efforts upstream at the Review Stage. Ultimately, localization style guides can effectively contribute to speeding up the time-to-market of translated content and thus generating savings.

Other evident advantages of standardizing your localization efforts include facilitating marketing efforts and optimizing product or service usability and user-friendliness.

How do you prepare to create a localization style guide?

No matter if your content is regularly translated into one or 20 foreign languages, creating a guide for each locale becomes a more manageable task if you have some things in mind:

  • Provide essential information—A Brand Style Guide and a Source Style Guide (often English and drafted by your marketing or technical writers team) are good starting points, as they are excellent sources of information for the localization team.
  • Define clear goals—Make sure to define the goals of your Localization Style Guides based on your organization’s primary purpose. For example, “to assure consistency in the localization of our products or services documentation.”
  • Provide approved references—Approved glossaries or term bases are an excellent way to ensure that documentation addresses the needs and purpose of your Style Guide.
  • Work with senior native linguists—Ensure you create a guide for each locale. For example, different guides for European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The document should be drafted by senior native linguists, preferably with experience building and updating such documentation.
  • Make it relatable—Make sure your style guides genuinely reflect your brand. Provide examples of linguistic challenges and preferences taken from your actual content. One of the easiest and most effective ways is to have the assigned translator get insights to draft the sessions when working on the content.
  • Be didactic with Do’s and Don’ts—Structure the content with practical examples showing how and what not to do. Creating a short table of Do’s and Don’ts is the most visually compelling way to help translators follow the guidelines.

What sections must a localization style guide have?

Let us go through the most critical sections a Localization Style Guide must have, regardless of the language or the industry sector:

1. Present your organization or brand

Create a short intro where you present your organization or brand, its main products or services, or its mission and values. This section should also clearly state the company’s target audience and any specific information about the locale market. This information is crucial to guide localization efforts.

2. State your localization goals

The most critical aspects of a localization project are directly connected to a company’s product or even to the type of medium involved. For example, if it is software localization, the two central values are probably to ensure ‘consistency’ and ‘terminology.’ If it is a fashion brand running its e-commerce store, “Terminology” and “Style” will probably guide the localization efforts. Usually defined by the sales or marketing team, those values must be communicated to the translation team.

3. Explain your localization workflow

In your Localization Style Guide, take the opportunity to include a brief overview of how your company handles content localization. That is very useful for the talents localizing content at any stage of your company’s product or service. For example, “In our company, we handle product translations on CAT Tool “X” and marketing content on tool “Y.” Or “If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact X” or “Our company outsources translations with the Agency Y.” An additional diagram of your localization workflow will be handy to help talents understand the big picture and how they collaboration makes a difference.

4. Define your Brand Tone and Voice

Explain, in short, the adequate tone and voice your brand identifies based on its primary target audiences. It is common for languages to have a formal and informal tone, like German or French. Such style preferences should not be just a matter of the translator’s feelings but a clear guideline from top to bottom. For example, “Our company addresses our clients in a direct, humorous, and informal manner.” or “Our clients are tech-savvy, and we don’t patronize them while also not using excessive jargon.” If it applies to your product or service, give clear examples of handling idioms and culturally specific references. Offer insights on cultural nuances and preferences to help translations intuitively make choices aligned with the company’s chosen voice.

5. Language Mechanics

This section covers all the essential aspects of grammar rules and punctuation that aim to clear up any preferential choices. Do not assume all linguists follow the same rules. There are preferences in each language that make summarizing specific standards a must. This section can include subtopics such as

  • Verb usage
  • Capitalization
  • Punctuation
  • Gerundism
  • Acronyms and Abbreviations.

Remember that subtopics in this section may vary vastly among locales, which is a good sign!

6. Formatting and Layout

In this section, the translation team learns how your organization prefers to handle critical information and its formatting, such as:

  • Currency
  • Unit measures
  • Date and Time
  • Placeables
  • Tags,
  • ‘URLs’ or ‘Emojis’.

For instance, does your company keep all prices in American Dollars, or should values be converted to locale currency? Can unit measures be converted, or must original values be kept for technical reasons? Are URLs fully translated or kept in source? Does your content use placeables, coded references processed automatically to display pre-formatted information, like in software or online forms? All those directions should be clearly stated and backed up by real examples that visually guide translators straightforwardly and unequivocally.

7. Naming and References

This subtopic is optional but very useful and essential for legal purposes if your company uses fictitious information or your product and services refer to places, people, or other organizations. For example:

  • Should company job titles always be kept in source, or should they be localized?
  • For legal reasons, do you need a list of approved fictitious companies and people’s names to be used through any content?
  • Can places be freely localized to create a connection with target audiences, or should they be kept in the source language?

8. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

There is virtually no organization, regardless of the industry section or business nature, that is not affected by the need to state their values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the so-called DEI. Even software user interface (UI) content nowadays needs to observe EDI guidelines to avoid issues such as:

  • Gender bias: Define strategies to avoid male-only references in Roman languages; a prevalent issue in Roman languages.
  • Racist bias: Avoid linguistic racism, avoiding expressions and idioms that are perceived as biased. For example, in software terminology, use ‘denial or block list’ instead of ‘blocklist.’
  • Cultural bias: Avoid referring exclusively to one dominant region or audience in a particular market, ensuring that marketing content remains diverse and inclusive.

Despite following DEI guidelines being controversial or challenging for some locales, an experienced linguist talent will make sure to apply DEI guidelines without compromising readability. Most importantly, standardizing the company preferences prevents talents from getting either ‘too creative’ or remaining ‘too insensitive,’ as translators’ bias will likely play a role when localizing content.

Example of Localization Style Guide Outline

Below is a complete outline of a localization style guide you may follow and adapt to reflect your needs. Remember to add Do’s and Don’ts examples from your content to ensure your guide is authentic and relevant to your localization efforts in each locale.

  1. The Organisation
    Short description of the organization’s activities, mission, and vision.
  2. LSG goals
    Main goals of the Localization Style Guide
  3. Translation Workflow
    Short description of visual of the steps, tools, and people involved in localizing the content.
  4. Voice and Tone
    State what is the preferred writing and communication style for your target audience.
  5. Language Mechanics
    List preferences in using grammar for the locale for all the cases that might be up to interpretation.

    • Verb Usage
    • Punctuation
    • Capitalisation
    • Acronym and Abbreviation
  6. Formatting and Layout
    List the preferences according to your localization needs, goals, or technical aspects your content needs to follow.

    • Numbers
    • Unit Measures
    • Date and Time
    • Currency and Prices
    • Emojis and Icons
    • URLs and Breadcrumbs
    • Placeables and Tags
  7. Names and Conventions
    List the preferences for localizing proper names and marks that might appear in your content.

    • Our Products/Services
    • Our People and Job Titles
    • Fictitious names
  8. EDI
    State the main aspects the locale must consider to adhere to best practices in content regarding Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Keep in mind that the outline above is not exhaustive, and sections and subtopics depend highly on the organization’s purpose and each locale’s specifics.

Final Considerations

  • Treat locales as unique and respect their particularities: The best localization guides are the most authentic. When the linguist in charge is free to adapt, remove, or include as many sections as they feel necessary to address.
  • Keep it updated: Localization Style Guides are not documents to create and forget. You must update them regularly. Review them at least once a year to guarantee they remain contemporary and aligned with the brand’s identity.
  • Peer-review final version: Have a second linguist or even the whole team of translators read and be open for feedback. Each localization guide is unique, and there is not one recipe for it; the more people give input, the better and more practical it will be.
  • Keep it in English: Even if the localization guide is made to be used by the locale, the best practice is to create and maintain localization guide documentation in English. That provides transparency and allows project managers, the marketing team, and other stakeholders to participate in the conversation.

Useful Resources

  • Microsoft has a handy list of Localization Style Guides for dozens of locales, which is worth checking for inspiration if you are in the software industry.
  • Mozilla also makes available an extensive list of Style Guides available via Github.
  • The Washington DC Government provides a Guide for Inclusive Language (available in PDF), which is very useful for getting inspiration for writing an EDI section
  • WordPress also has an open collection of glossaries and style guides created and maintained by their community in more than 40 languages.

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