Style Guide

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This style guide is intended to give translators as much background information as possible to ensure that they fully understand the message, intent, and nuances of the source text. This style guide is also intended to provide translators with the most important conventions that apply to the project and to their language. Please keep in mind that the objective of a style guide is to minimize mistakes and inconsistencies in formatting, terms, and style.

1. Style Company Background What product/service is being presented?What is the tone of the text?Brand, product, and feature names Personal names Keyboard shortcuts Formulas 2. Conventions Times Dates Phone numbers Addresses URLs Currencies Prices Numerals Punctuation rules Headings and Titles Units of measure 3. Other instructions Honorifics

1. Style

Company Background

Notion is a startup based in San Francisco that gives users an all-in-one workspace where they can take notes, manage projects, share docs, and collaborate with others on their work. It was founded in 2016 with a mission to "empower everyone to shape the tools that shape their lives."

What product/service is being presented?

Notion: The all-in-one workspace for notes, projects, docs, and collaboration.

Notion is available as a web app, desktop app, and mobile app to help anyone organize and customize their work. People can use it as an individual for personal organization and productivity. They can also use it as a team to share information and work on projects together.

Notion is free for individuals to use, but offers Team and Enterprise Plans with additional and advanced features for teams and entire companies to get the most out of the product, respectively.

Read the story behind the product: www.notion.so/about

We've heard Notion described in many ways. It can be as simple as a blank piece of paper, making writing feel light and delightful. It can be as complex as a relational database that stores huge amounts of data. We sometimes compare it to a set of Legos (if Legos were designed by The New York Times). But at its core, Notion is a toolbox of software building blocks that let you manage your life and work however you find most useful.

Source: https://www.notion.so/notion/Join-Us-e7aeb157238a4603a2964b28c646f07f#da6e1c2267414997b24ec0ce94188591

What is the tone of the text?

Helpful - Always looking for the chance to add value.

Clear - Get info across as simply and quickly as possible.

Visual - Show the product and how it works at every opportunity.

Tasteful - Less Reddit, more New Yorker. Minimal. Elegant.

Quirky - Dashes of wit here and there, not too much. Playful.

Unstudied - We sound like humans, not like marketing. Our polish comes from precision (no typos) not from cliched or overly-clever turns of phrase.

Humble - Customer is always right. We're in service to them. Hospitality first.

Brand, product, and feature names

Do not translate brand, product, or certain Notion product-specific feature names.

Examples:

Brand and product names

Notion
Mac
Windows
iOS
Android
Evernote
Slack
Google

Notion product-specific feature names

Web Clipper

Personal names

Keyboard shortcuts

Do not translate keyboard shortcuts.

Examples:

command, cmd, control, ctrl, shift, space, windows key, tab, enter, etc.

Formulas

🚫 Do not translate

Formula property keywords

prop()

Formula constants

e, pi, true, false

Formula operators

Note: always followed by opening and closing parentheses ()

if(), add(), subtract(), multiply(), divide(), pow(), mod(), unaryMinus(), unaryPlus(), not(), and(), or(), equal(), unequal(), larger(), largerEq(), smaller(), smallerEq()

Formula functions

Note: always followed by opening and closing parentheses ()

concat(), join(), slice(), length(), format(), toNumber(), contains(), replace(), replaceAll(), test(), empty(), abs(), cbrt(), ceil(), exp(), floor(), ln(), log10(), log2(), max(), min(), round(), sign(), sqrt(), start(), end(), now(), timestamp(), fromTimestamp(), dateAdd(), dateSubtract(), dateBetween(), formatDate(), minute(), hour(), day(), date(), month(), year()

✅ Do translate

"" English text in double quotes within formulas

Examples:

concat("add", "text")

concat should NOT be translated because it's a formula function

add and text should be translated because they are both English text in double quotes

formatDate(prop("Date"), "dddd, MMMM D, YYYY") - this one has a gotcha in it

formatDate should NOT be translated because it's a formula function

prop should NOT be translated because it's a formula property keyword

Date should be translated because it's a string in double quotes

dddd, MMMM, D, YYYY should NOT be translated even though it's in double quotes because the text inside is not normal English (i.e., these are function parameters)