Office of Communications → Language Assistance Services Unit → Language Line

Guidelines for Submitting Translation Requests

• All documents requested for translation must be submitted through the Translation Request System (TRS). Documents submitted via emails cannot be honored.

 

• Requests for written translation must be submitted through TRS at least 10 business days prior to the due date.

 

• The content should be written in clear, succinct, unambiguous language with correct spelling and grammar.

 

• Use simple language that can easily be translated into different languages. Do not use colloquialisms, legal or technical language.

 

• Meaningful segments should never be separated by returns (hard or soft), section breaks, column breaks, page breaks, or table cells.

 

• Use underlining and a single tab or, preferably, lower borders in tables to create fill-in blanks for forms. Do NOT use underscores.

 

• Use a table for columns of information, not tabs. This will make it easier to preserve meaningful segments intact, both for translation and for editing in English. If tabs are necessary in a line or series of lines, do not use multiple tabs to place the text where it needs to go, but rather reset the tab to where the text needs to go so only one tab is necessary from one column to the next.

 

• MS Word documents submitted for translation have to be created originally using MS Word. Word documents converted from Pdf often adversely affect the Translation Management System (TMS).

 

Supported File Types

File Type	File Extension	Supported
Microsoft Word 2003	.doc	Yes
Microsoft Word 2007	.docx	Yes
Microsoft Excel 2003	.xls	Yes
Microsoft Excel 2007	.xlx	Soon
Microsoft PowerPoint 1997 - 2003	.ppt	Yes
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - 2010	.pptx	Yes
Microsoft Publisher	.pub	No (Please export content to a Word file.)
Adobe PDF	.pdf	No
Adobe InDesign	.inx	Yes
HTML	.html	Yes (IEPs must be submitted as HTML)