Style guides

The style guide provides context that both AI and human translators otherwise have to guess at. When you specify that your SaaS product targets expert users with a professional tone, AI translations adapt accordingly. Human translators spend less time asking clarifying questions and more time translating.

By defining formality, tone, audience expertise, and brand voice upfront, you eliminate the most common source of translation inconsistencies. Translators across different languages work from the same understanding of your project, even if they never communicate directly.

For AI translations specifically, a well-configured style guide can dramatically improve output quality. The AI uses your style preferences to inform its translation choices, resulting in translations that better match your intended voice and register.

Start with the basics that matter most for your project. You don’t need to fill out every field—too much context can actually dilute the impact.

Focus on 3-5 essential settings like project type, a brief project description, formality level, tone, and a short set of general instructions. Add links to your website, documentation, or help center instead of duplicating content in the form.

In the general instructions field, include a handful of specific do’s and don’ts plus 2-3 key terms with examples. For instance:

• Use ‘log in’ (two words) as a verb, ‘login’ (one word) as a noun.
• Never use ‘sign in’ or ‘sign on’, etc.

You can always refine your style guide later. Translate a sample batch, review the results, then adjust based on what you see.

Only Project Managers and Owners can create and edit style guides. This ensures your brand voice and translation standards remain consistent and controlled.

All other roles can view the style guide while working on translations, giving them access to the context they need without the ability to accidentally modify your guidelines.

The style guide preview appears directly in the translation interface, so translators always have quick access to the rules and context that apply to their current language.

When you use AI-assisted translations with Localazy, your style guide configuration directly informs how the AI translates your content. The AI considers your specified tone, formality, audience expertise, and custom instructions when generating translations.

Settings like Accuracy (accurate vs. fluent), Transcreation (literal vs. adaptive), and URL handling give you fine-grained control over translation behavior. Combined with context from your project description and general instructions, the AI can produce translations that align much more closely with your brand standards.

The style guide complements your glossary terms and works in conjunction with other quality features like placeholder validation. This layered approach to quality control helps ensure consistent, on-brand translations across all your content.