How to create a Style Guide in TextUnited

Style guides help ensure consistency and tone across your translations—so your translated text will have a style and tone that represents your brand or company identity. TextUnited utilizes AI to apply your style guide during translation. By providing clear instructions, you help the AI understand the desired tone, brand voice and overall feel of your translated content. Follow these quick steps to set up your style guide for translation. 

Creating a Style Guide

• From the TextUnited dashboard, look at the sidebar on the left.

• Click on Language styles.

• From the dropdown, select Style Guides.

• On the Style Guides page, click the + ADD NEW button in the top-right corner (look for the little plus sign!).

• A new style guide editor will open up.

Tell TextUnited's AI how you want your translations to sound – from a short, general description to a detailed breakdown of stylistic rules. This ensures your translated content aligns perfectly with your brand's voice and maintains consistency across languages.

• Give your style guide a name that makes it easy to recognize—like Friendly English Style for Marketing.

• You can optionally select a predefined template and adjust it to your liking

• Describing Your Style: In the text editor, clearly outline your style preferences. Be as specific as possible. For example:

  • Tone: Use a friendly and informal tone. Avoid overly technical jargon.
  • Vocabulary: Include positive and engaging adjectives like "amazing," "cool," and "innovative." Avoid slang unless it's brand-specific and appropriate for the target audience.
  • Grammar and Punctuation: [Include any specific rules, e.g., "Use the Oxford comma," "Prefer active voice."]
  • Language preferences: [You can even mention specific language preferences, if your content is targeting a specific region, dialect etc.]
  • Click SAVE to store your style guide.
• Change the status to Published, if the Style Guide is ready for use

Style Guide samples

These examples demonstrate how a user might describe their stylistic preferences in natural language within the TextUnited editor. They cover different aspects of style, including tone, vocabulary, brand voice, and specific rules. You can use the following samples to create a Style guide and see the results for yourself.

Example 1: Focusing on Tone and Formality

Please ensure the translation maintains a friendly and informal tone, similar to how we communicate on our social media channels. Avoid overly formal language or business jargon. Use contractions where appropriate (e.g., "it's," "you're"). Imagine you're talking to a friend.

Example 2: Emphasizing Brand Voice

Our brand voice is enthusiastic and positive. Please incorporate adjectives like "exciting," "groundbreaking," and "cutting-edge" where relevant. Keep sentences relatively short and engaging. Avoid any language that could be perceived as negative or critical.

Example 3: Providing Do's and Don'ts

Do: Use active voice whenever possible. Use the metric system for all measurements. Text should be gender neutral.

Don't: Use slang or overly casual language in technical documentation. Don't abbreviate product names unless they are commonly known abbreviations (e.g., AI). Avoid using passive voice where clarity is crucial.

Applying a style guide in translation

You can check out how your translation will look like using the IQGramm translation widget:

• Enable the Style Guide checkbox
• Select a Style Guide from the list
• Click on translate, The generated translation will now adhere to the rules and preferences defined in your chosen style guide.