A good translation starts before the first word is translated. The clearer and better prepared your text is, the more precisely it can be carried into another language.
These six steps take about ten minutes for a two page text. They work for a contract, a product page, a manual or a manuscript, and each one helps Ravira do what it does best.
Step 1: write for one reader, in short sentences
Picture the person who will read the translation and write for them.
Short sentences with one idea each translate more cleanly than long ones with several clauses. A sentence that needs two readings in your own language will be harder in any other, so split it or reword it before you start.
Also check the small things that depend on context: a pronoun whose subject is three sentences back, an abbreviation only your team knows, a joke or an idiom that only works in the original language. Write these out in plain words, and the meaning travels without effort.
Step 2: spell out numbers, dates and units
Figures are the part of a text where precision matters most, so make them impossible to misread.
- Dates. 03/04/2026 means 4 March in the US and 3 April in much of Europe. Writing "3 April 2026" removes the doubt.
- Numbers. Keep one style for decimals and thousands throughout the text, and avoid mixing digits and words for the same quantity.
- Units and currencies. Name them every time: "12 kg", "EUR 250", "15 June, 10:00 GMT". If the reader's units differ from yours, decide now whether to keep yours or convert them.
This step takes two minutes and removes the most common source of confusion across languages.
Step 3: mark the names that must not change
Some words should arrive in the translation exactly as they are written: company names, product names, people, places, titles of laws or documents.
Go through your text and note them. A name that is also a common word (Baker, Rose, Green Field) is the one to watch, because it can be mistaken for an ordinary word. If a name has an official translated form, such as an institution or a government body, write down that form too.
A short list of these names, kept next to your text, makes the next step easier.
Step 4: put your own terms in your glossary
Every company, author and field has words it wants translated in one particular way: a product name, a brand phrase, a preferred equivalent for a technical term.
Add these terms once to your glossary in Ravira, and Ravira applies them in your translations from then on. Start with the names from step 3 and the five to ten terms your text depends on most. Add more as you go, and every new translation benefits from the ones before it.
Ravira already recognises the field of your text and applies the matching terminology. Your glossary adds your own vocabulary on top, so the result sounds like you.
Step 5: decide the tone before you start
Many languages make you choose a level of formality that English leaves open: tu or vous, du or Sie, tú or usted. A text for customers, a legal notice and a message to friends each ask for a different answer.
Decide who the reader is and how you want to sound, then write the source text in that voice. A source that is clearly formal or clearly friendly gives the translation a clear direction to follow, and it keeps the same voice from the first line to the last.
Step 6: clean the format
The way a document is built matters as much as what it says.
- Use real styles. Headings, lists and tables made with the document's own styles keep their structure. Spaces and manual line breaks used to imitate them do not.
- Keep text out of images. Words inside a picture or a scanned page cannot be translated as text. Keep the original text available, or use an editable version of the file.
- Remove the leftovers. Hidden comments, tracked changes and duplicate paragraphs are better resolved before translation than discovered after it.
Ravira can translate documents while keeping their layout, and a clean file gives the cleanest result.
Then let Ravira translate
With your text prepared, paste it into Ravira or type it in, and the translation appears next to it as you write. Ravira recognises the field of your text, applies the matching terminology, adds the terms from your glossary, and delivers the result in any of its 108 languages.
To go further:
- Why a word for word translation fails: terminology vs vocabulary explains why the field of a text decides the right word.
- Translate and refine your texts inside Claude with Ravira shows how to translate, adapt and finish a text in one conversation.
Ready to try it? Start translating with Ravira and see how a prepared text comes out.