BTS appreciates your services. With many of you we have worked for years, with others we only started working recently. We have put together some general guidelines with the intention to facilitate the translation process. Although we would like you to follow these guidelines, they are not chiseled out in stone. We realize that it is always possible to deliver a document with even greater quality and we are open to your suggestions. Also when you have questions and comments on the translation itself, please use the comments feature in word to include a translator’ note. Having said all that, this is what we would like to see.

FORMATTING
Font; tables, borders, and shading:
Translations for BTS Translation Services should preferably be in MS Word. Try to follow the original formatting, such as tables, charts, borders and fonts. The preferred font is Times New Roman 11 pt, however, if different font styles are used to stay close the original, please use the fonts consistently throughout the document. If words are illegible, either get in touch with us, or write <illegible>.
Information that is filled in on the document can be in bold or underlined in your translation. We usually capitalize and bold people’s names on diplomas and other official documents. On documents where there are numbers (entry numbers, registration numbers, identification numbers, etc.) and part of the number is letters in a foreign script, if you can produce the foreign script to go with the Arabic numbers, that is preferable. With unfamiliar calendars, please include the Western calendar version in parenthesis. Please do not change measurements into their US versions. With military time please translate it into US standard AM or PM.

Page numbering:
Follow the original. It is not necessary to include page numbers if they are not in the original

Signatures:
A signature need not be deciphered. Indication should be made only that there is a signature by using the following format <SIGNATURE> in italics. A stamp, round seal, or insignia can usually be indicated as such in capital letters in [brackets] at the approximate location they appear in the original document. They usually do not have to be translated unless they contain vital information not provided in the body of the document. Normally in a form, all categories should be translated, even if they are not filled out with any information in the original document, and if they are blank, indicate with [blank].

Header:
In the header we would like you to include the following sentence:
Translated from [source language] into [target language; e.g. English]

Please justify this sentence right, make bold and underline as the sentence above.

TRANSLATOR’S COMPETENCE:
This is your translation! And as you did a great job, we take pride in your work. Therefore we would like you to include the following wording to your translation:

SPELLING AND SPELL CHECK:
Last, but certainly not the least! Make sure that all names, and dates and addresses are spelled correctly. Where there is doubt we will get the required information from the client and provide you with the information. Make sure that all documents are fully spell-checked in US-English.

INVOICE:
Please include an invoice in your finished work. We like to pay our bills as soon as possible.