Guides · Manuals
Technical manual translation with terminology and layout intact
A manual is terminology, numbered procedures, warnings, tables and figures, and technical manual translation has to keep every one of them exactly where it is. Upload the DOCX or the PDF, let the termbase enforce the terms you mandate, translate with memory and live checks, hire a translator with the domain through an offer, and get the manual back in its own layout. The next edition starts from the memory, which pre-fills every sentence that did not change.
Technical manual translation in four steps
- Upload the manual. A DOCX keeps its headers and footers, footnotes, text boxes, fields and tracked changes; a PDF has its columns, tables, lists and running headers recovered from the page geometry, with the type scaled to fit where the translation runs longer. Images and vector graphics stay where they are.
- Attach the terminology. Import your termbase as TBX or build it as you go. Mandated and forbidden terms are enforced as errors in the editor, and term matching is lemma-aware in around 35 languages, so an inflected form of a term is still recognized.
- Translate and review. Every row has memory matches, highlighted terms, machine translation on models we host and the 18 live checks: numbers, placeholders, untranslated fragments, terminology and consistency among them. Model the stages your manual needs, translate, review, quality check, each with a QA gate, and send an offer to a translator ranked by language pair and domain experience.
- Deliver. The manual comes back in the format it arrived in, and the structural check compares the rebuilt file against the source across 49 issue types before it ships.
The terms you mandate are enforced on every sentence, and the next edition starts from memory.
- languages with lemma-aware term matching, so an inflected term is still a match
- ~35
- live checks on every row, numbers and placeholders among them
- 18
- structural issue types checked on the rebuilt file, across 33 detectors
- 49
- document formats through the same pipeline, PDF included
- 13
Terminology
The terms you mandate, enforced on every sentence
Technical manual translation starts with a termbase that holds the terms your product and your regulator insist on, with mandated and forbidden variants. In the editor, terms are highlighted in the source as you work, including inflected forms in around 35 languages, and a mandated term you missed or a forbidden one you used is a QA error on the row, not a note in a style guide. TBX in and out on every plan.
- Mandated and forbidden terms
- Lemma-aware in ~35 languages
- Errors on the row
- TBX in and out
Procedures and warnings
Numbered steps, warnings and values checked as you type
Numbered procedures keep their numbering, tables are translated cell by cell, and warnings keep their place and their emphasis. The number drift check flags a value that differs between source and target, the placeholder check guards part numbers and variables, and the consistency check catches the same source sentence translated two ways across the manual.
- Numbering kept
- Tables cell by cell
- Number drift check
- Consistency across the manual
Figures and layout
Figures stay, the layout comes back
Images and vector graphics are kept where they are, captions are translated with the text, and the document is rebuilt in its own format: a DOCX with its headers, footers, footnotes and fields, or a PDF with the translation set into the original frames and the type scaled to fit where it runs longer. The structural check compares the rebuilt manual against the source before delivery.
- Images and vectors in place
- DOCX structure kept
- PDF in, PDF out
- Structural check at delivery
The translator
A translator with the domain, hired by offer
Send an offer to translators ranked by language pair, service capability and domain experience, with the rate, the volume by memory band and the deadline shown in full; counter-offers are allowed, the first acceptance fills the seat, and the amount is collected when you confirm and released when you accept the work. Stages carry QA gates, so nothing advances with open errors.
- Ranked by language pair and domain
- Full offer math
- Stages with QA gates
- Collected at confirmation, released at acceptance
The next edition
Revision two starts from memory
Every confirmed sentence of the first edition goes into your translation memory. Attach it to the next edition's project and every sentence that did not change is pre-filled from memory, close matches are offered with the difference highlighted, and the termbase carries over, so the second manual reads like the first and the quote re-derives from the same memory bands.
- Memory on every plan
- Unchanged sentences pre-filled
- Fuzzy matches highlighted
- Same termbase, same voice
Formats and plans
DOCX, PDF and eleven more, on every plan
Word, OpenDocument, RTF, plain text, PDF, spreadsheets for parts lists and presentations for training decks go through the same technical manual translation pipeline, with memory and termbase on every plan, including the free one. The free plan translates 3,000 words of documents, valid for 90 days; paid plans start at EUR 9.90 a month including VAT, with machine translation priced in words you can verify in the editor.
- DOCX and PDF
- Spreadsheets and decks
- Memory and termbase on every plan
- From EUR 9.90 a month
FAQ
Manual translation, answered
Yes. The same pipeline handles an installation manual, a service manual and an end-user guide: terminology enforced from the termbase, procedures and warnings checked on the row, figures and layout kept, and a translator with the domain hired by offer when you want one.
Yes, when the PDF has selectable text. Its columns, tables, lists and running headers are recovered from the page geometry, the translation is written back into the original frames, and the type scales to fit where it runs longer; see translate a PDF without losing formatting.
Attach a termbase, imported as TBX or built as you go. Mandated and forbidden terms are enforced as errors on the row, matching recognizes inflected forms in around 35 languages, and the consistency check flags the same source sentence translated two ways.
You, your team, or a translator you hire through the platform: send an offer to translators ranked by language pair and domain experience, with the rate and the memory bands shown in full. Lionrapid is the platform the work runs on; the contract for the translation is between you and the translator.
Attach the memory from the first edition to the new project. Every sentence that did not change is pre-filled from memory, close matches are offered with the difference highlighted, and the termbase carries over. The translation memory never expires and exports as TMX.
DOCX, OpenDocument, RTF, plain text, PDF, spreadsheets and presentations, thirteen document formats in all, into any of 345 languages. A manual can go to several target languages from one upload, each delivered as its own file.
The number drift check flags a value that differs between source and target, the placeholder check guards part numbers and variables, the untranslated-fragment check catches text left in the source language, and the structural check at delivery compares the rebuilt manual against the source across 49 issue types.
Machine translation is priced in the words of the manual, inside the plan allowance and then EUR 10 per 10,000 words; a translator quotes per word in the offer, with exact memory matches at a lower band than new text. Every plan, including the free one, includes the memory and the termbase, and the free plan covers 3,000 words of documents to try it on a chapter.
Upload a chapter and see the terminology enforced
Free to start with 3,000 words: the editor, the memory and the termbase are there from the first page.