What translation options are available?

Learn about formality settings, glossary selection, and other translation options in Translate Desk.

Translate Desk offers several options to customize how your articles are translated. Understanding these options helps you get the best results for your content.

Formality Settings

Formality settings control the tone and style of your translations. This is useful when you want to match the formality level of your target audience or maintain consistency with your brand voice.

Available Formality Levels

Default

  • Natural, balanced tone appropriate for most help center content
  • Works well for general support articles and documentation
  • Recommended for most use cases

More Formal

  • Professional, business-appropriate tone
  • Uses more formal language and structure
  • Ideal for enterprise customers, legal content, or professional documentation

More Casual

  • Friendly, conversational tone
  • Uses more relaxed language and everyday expressions
  • Great for user-friendly content, community guides, or casual support articles

Language Support

Not all languages support formality settings. When you select a language that doesn't support formality, the default option is used automatically, and the formality selector may be disabled or hidden.

Languages that typically support formality include:

  • European languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, etc.)
  • Some Asian languages
  • Other languages depending on the translation system's capabilities

The formality setting applies to the entire article, including the title, description, and body content.

Glossary Selection

Glossaries ensure consistent translation of specific terms, brand names, technical jargon, or phrases that should remain consistent across all your translated content.

When to Use Glossaries

Use glossaries when you have:

  • Brand names or product names that should stay consistent
  • Technical terms with specific translations
  • Industry-specific terminology
  • Company-specific phrases or taglines
  • Terms that have multiple possible translations but you prefer one specific version

Glossary Limitations

Glossaries have some limitations:

  • Single language only: Glossaries can only be used when translating to one target language at a time
  • Language pair specific: Each glossary is created for a specific source and target language pair
  • Optional: Glossaries are optional - you can translate without one

If you select multiple target languages, the glossary option won't be available. You'll need to translate to one language at a time to use a glossary.

Selecting a Glossary

When translating to a single language:

  1. The glossary selector appears in the translation dialog
  2. Available glossaries for that language pair are listed
  3. Select "Do not use glossary" to translate without one
  4. Or choose a specific glossary from your list

If no glossaries are available for the selected language pair, you'll see a message with a link to create one. Learn more in How do I create and use glossaries?.

Choosing the Right Options

For General Support Content

  • Formality: Default
  • Glossary: Optional, use if you have brand terms or technical jargon

For Enterprise or Professional Content

  • Formality: More formal
  • Glossary: Recommended for consistent terminology

For Community or User-Friendly Content

  • Formality: More casual
  • Glossary: Optional, use for brand consistency

For Technical Documentation

  • Formality: Default or more formal
  • Glossary: Highly recommended for technical terms

Changing Options After Translation

If you want to change the formality or glossary used for a translation, you'll need to re-translate the article with the new settings. The previous translation will be replaced with the new one.

To re-translate:

  1. Select the article
  2. Click Translate
  3. Choose the same language(s) again
  4. Adjust the formality or glossary settings
  5. Start the translation

Note that re-translating uses credits again, as it creates a new translation.

Best Practices

  1. Be consistent: Use the same formality level across related articles to maintain a consistent brand voice
  2. Test different options: Try different formality levels on a few articles to see what works best for your audience
  3. Build glossaries early: Create glossaries before translating large batches of articles to ensure consistency
  4. Document your choices: Keep track of which formality level and glossaries you use for different types of content
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