Frequently asked questions

What types of documents can be used with Translation Assistant?

Translation Assistant works best on documents with plain text that have a white or light background.

Documents that are not ideal for Translation Assistant include the following:

Stylized, script, or handwritten text
Text that overlaps images
Columns of text that are close together, such as in some newspapers
Colored background or colored paper

When must I use DOCX format?

Generally, you can use DOCX for simple text documents, permission slips, and forms.

Note: Translation Assistant supports adding a footer text to all pages of the translated files. If this feature is enabled in the Translation Assistant Portal, then Translation Assistant supports only DOCX mode, and PDF mode is disabled.

When must I use PDF format?

Use PDF on documents with high image content, complicated layouts, or newsletters.

What paper sizes are supported?

Letter and A4.

Are addresses and names translated?

Possibly. Depending on how the OCR process captures the text of an address or formal name, the translation engine may translate this text.

To what extent are the layout, structure, and formatting maintained?

While translating text from the source to the target language, the overall length of translated text may differ from the source. This process can result in reflow of text across pages. The same fonts may not be available both in the source and target language. In general, the same font style is applied in the target language to keep the formatting closer to the source.

Note: The documents are machine translated and may have inaccuracies in the translations.

Can the application translate text that is embedded in an image?

No.