Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Text Alignment 
The amount of white space and thus the readability of the text are affected 
by the way text is aligned on the page. There are four principle types of 
text alignment. 
Centre alignment 
is useful for headings and titles. Right 
alignment involves placing the end of each line of text flush along the 
right-hand margin. Conversely, left alignment involves the start of each line 
of text being placed flush along the left-hand margin. The result is what is 
known as “ragged right” edge along the right-hand side of the text caused 
by the uneven line length (Mancuso 1990:144; D’Agenais & Carruthers 
1985:185). 
Justified alignment involves “stretching” each line so that the start of 
each line is placed flush along the left-hand margin and the end of each line 
is placed flush along the right-hand margin. This type of alignment is 
achieved by adding additional spaces between certain words in order to pad 
the length of shorter lines. 
This decision to use one type of alignment over another, in particular 
ragged-right versus justified is not without its problems. Where some stud-
ies, such as Gregory & Poulton (1970), have shown that may be more diffi-
cult to read, others such as Fabrizio 
et al.
(1967) and Hartley & Burnhill 
(1971) found no difference in reading speed or comprehension between 
ragged-right and justified text.
While justified text looks neater on a page, it is more difficult to read 
than ragged-right text if there are rivers of white space running down the 
page. The problem here is that the additional and often unpredictable 
spaces added to the lines make it difficult
for the eye to proceed at a con
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Software User Guides & Quality
rate along the line of text. Each time an extra long space is encountered,
the eye pauses briefly. Such pauses or hesitations are known as “fixations.”
In contrast, the even spacing between words in left aligned text elimi
nates this and the uneven line length adds variety for the reader and makes 
the text less monotonous. It is widely recommended that body text be left 
aligned (D’Agenais & Carruthers 1985:185).