How to translate medical PDF: a method of retaining typesetting

Key points of this article

For medical PDF, first determine whether it is a scanned copy. The processing results of the scanned copy and the electronic version are quite different, so it is recommended to confirm first.
For information with complex layout, it is suitable to choose bilingual comparison to facilitate checking the terms and dosage figures paragraph by paragraph.
Selecting a medical style when uploading will help unify terminology and reduce the number of different translations of the same drug name.
Whether tables, formulas, and pictures are retained should be checked page by page after output, especially the dosage table and dosage form comparison table.
When machine translation results involve medication and clinical judgment, they should be checked by professionals before use.

Common PDFs in pharmaceutical materials include drug instructions, clinical trial protocols, research reports, medical device registration materials, and academic papers. The common features of these documents are: numerous tables, dense numbers of units and dosages, numerous formulas and abbreviations, and often footnotes and columns. If you directly copy the text and then paste it into the document, the table will be messed up, the dosage units will be easily misplaced, and the layout of the original text will be lost.

This article is written for people who need to translate medical PDFs into another language and want to keep the original layout as unchanged as possible, such as registrants of pharmaceutical companies, scientific researchers in hospitals, medical translators, and clinical workers who need to read foreign language materials. After reading, you will know what to judge before starting, how to complete a translation on OmniDoc, what to check after output, and what content must be reviewed by professionals.

The following method takes OmniDoc document translation as an example. It supports digital and scanned PDFs. The output can be bilingual or translated only. Tables, formulas and pictures will be retained, and it provides academic, legal, medical, technical and other style options. The same general judgment and checking methods apply to other tools as well.

How to preserve formatting in medical PDF translation? One sentence conclusion

First determine whether the PDF is a digital version or a scanned copy, and then select the output method according to the purpose of the file: if the format is complex and needs to be checked paragraph by paragraph, use bilingual comparison; if it is only for reading or internal circulation, use translation only. Select the medical style when translating, and check it one by one according to three categories: tables, formulas, and pictures after output.

your situation	Recommended practices	reason
Digital PDF with more tables and dosages	After uploading, select bilingual control and medical style.	Original and translated text side by side for easy line-by-line checking of dosages and units
Scanned document, text cannot be selected	Upload the translation directly, and also select the medical style	Scanned documents also support translation, but you need to focus on checking the identified numbers.
For reading or internal circulation only	Select only translation	The layout is cleaner and you don’t need to check back and forth when reading.
Papers containing lots of formulas and symbols	Select bilingual comparison and check the formula page by page after output.	When formulas and symbols are misplaced, the original text can be used as a basis for comparison.
For registration, declaration or external release	Make the translation first and then submit it to a professional translator or clinical staff for review	Machine translation results require manual confirmation and cannot be directly regarded as final.

Before you start: Confirm these points first

Taking a few minutes to make judgments before taking action can reduce rework. Let’s look at the file type first. Try using the mouse to select a piece of text in the PDF and copy it. If you can select it, it means it is a digital version; if you cannot select it, or you can only select a whole page image, it is probably a scanned copy. The quality of text recognition in scanned documents will affect the translation results. After output, you should pay more attention to numbers and proper nouns.

The second is the file structure. Confirm whether there are a large number of cross-page tables, multi-column layout, footnotes, headers and footers in the original text. The more complex the structure, the more important it is to check page by page after output, rather than spot-checking the first page.

The third is purpose and audience. Materials used for internal study and materials to be submitted to regulatory agencies have completely different requirements for terminology uniformity and accuracy. The purpose determines whether you should choose bilingual comparison and the depth of review.

Fourth is terminology. Drug names, common names, abbreviations and units in medical materials have fixed translation methods. If there is a glossary in the project, sort it out before translation and check it after translation; if not, at least unify the keywords in the same document.

The fifth is whether it involves clinical decision-making. The usage, dosage, contraindications and adverse reactions in the instructions are related to the actual medication safety. Translations of this type of content must be checked by qualified professionals, and machine translation can only be used as a first draft.

Steps to translate medical PDFs in OmniDoc

Open omnidoc.top, select the document translation function, and upload the PDF file that needs to be translated.
Select the target language in the translation options and set the style to medical to make the terms and expressions closer to the way medical literature is written.
Select the output format: if you need to check paragraph by paragraph, choose bilingual comparison; if it is only for reading, choose translation only.
Make sure that the layout-related settings remain turned on to preserve tables, formulas, and images. If the original text is a scanned copy, follow this step as well.
Submit the translation task and wait for the results to be generated. When the file is long, wait patiently for it to be completed before downloading, and do not submit it again midway.
Download the translation file, open it first to check whether the file is complete, and then check the content page by page.
For the paragraphs that need to be modified, you can directly rewrite the text in the PDF editing function and then re-export it.
Submit the final version to the relevant person in charge for review, and keep the corresponding versions of the original text and the translated version for easy traceability later.

If you need to process a large amount of medical data for a long time, you can download the desktop client at download.omnidoc.top and complete editing and export locally.

Check each item after completion

Don’t just look at the translation results to see if they are neatly typed. It is recommended to check them one by one according to the table below.

Check items	How to see	What if there's a problem?
Number of pages and integrity	Check for missing, duplicate or truncated pages against the number of pages in the original text	Re-upload, or split into segments, translate and then merge
Table structure	Check whether the rows are aligned and whether the header and merged cells are correct.	Use the bilingual control version to compare line by line and manually correct the contents of the cell.
Dose and unit	Check numbers, decimal points, units and measurement symbols one by one	Give priority to correcting digital errors and look back at the original picture of the scanned piece.
Drug name and acronym	Check whether the translation of the same drug name is consistent in the full text, and whether the acronym has a full name.	Export the terms again after unifying the terms, referring to the standard glossary if necessary
Formulas and symbols	Check whether the superscripts, Greek letters and statistical symbols are misplaced.	Modify or keep the picture of the original formula against the original text
Pictures and annotations	Make sure that the charts, flowcharts and annotations are preserved and corresponded correctly	If you can't find the picture, go back to the original and add it.
Professional expression	Please read through the key chapters for people with medical background.	For the contents related to drug use and clinical judgment, the conclusion of manual review shall prevail.

Both machine translation and text recognition can make mistakes. Please check the important contents by professionals and do not use them directly as external finalization.

# which method is suitable for you?

- team for registration or declaration : the bilingual version is used as the checking manuscript, the glossary goes first, and the final version is reviewed by professional translators and registrants respectively. - Clinical staff who need to read foreign language instructions : choose only the translation to browse quickly, and look back at the bilingual control version or the original text when you encounter key information such as usage, dosage and so on. - researchers and graduate students : use bilingual comparison when reading the literature to facilitate the recording of terms; citation shall prevail on the original text, and the translation is for understanding purposes only. - Medical translator *: the machine translation can be regarded as the first draft and revised paragraph by paragraph in the editing function to keep the terminology of the full text uniform.

# frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. Can the scanned version of medical PDF be translated directly?

Sure. OmniDoc supports translation of scanned PDF. However, the text recognition quality of the scanned piece will affect the result. After output, we should focus on checking the numbers, units and proper nouns, and check them against the original picture if necessary.

2. Why is the form misplaced after translation?

When the structure of the original table is complex and there are many spread or merged cells, it is easy to misplace. It is recommended that you first compare with the bilingual control version, and then modify the contents of the cell in the editing function. If the dislocation is serious, the page where the form is located can be translated separately and replaced.

3. What's the difference between medical style and ordinary style?

Medical style will make the translation closer to the expression habits of medical literature and help to keep the terminology and sentence patterns consistent. It can not replace the professional revision, and the contents related to drug safety still need to be manually reviewed.

4. Can the translation be directly used to submit registration materials?

It's not recommended. The machine translation results need to be checked by professionals paragraph by paragraph and compared with the project glossary and regulatory requirements before they can be used as formal materials.

5. How to tell whether the PDF is scanned or not?

Use the mouse to select a text in PDF and try to copy it. Can select and copy text, mostly digital version; can not select or can only frame the whole page image, usually a scanned piece.

# Summary

The key to the translation of medical PDF is to first judge the type of document, then choose bilingual control or only translation according to the purpose, and unify the terminology with medical style. After output, it is checked item by item according to the table, dose, formula and picture, and the contents related to medication and clinical judgment are reviewed by professionals, so as to ensure the reliability of the content while keeping typesetting.

Open OmniDoc, upload the document and start translation.