Write your own rules

Use the Write your own rules feature to create your own style rules based on existing content that reflects your company's style guide and formatting rules.

DeepL will extract potential style rules from either your input text or uploaded files.

Learn more about style rules in general in this article. 

Create rules manually

To create a new rule via Write your own rules, do the following:

1. Open an existing list or create a new one
2. Click Write your own rules
3. Enter a rule name
4. Specify the rule by entering a text instruction
5. Optional: Use Preview your rule to view an example of your applied rule
6. Click Save

The new instruction can now be applied to your own texts and translations. You can also enable or disable an instruction for Translator and Write by checking the respective box.

When creating your own rules, you should try to adhere to the following best practices:

• Select a source language for language-specific instructions. This step is optional, but provides better results when the instruction is applied.
• Your rules should be written in English or in the target language. 
• Formulate the rule in a positive way by saying what it should do, rather than what it should not do. 
• Each rule should have only one instruction.
• Provide details on when and how the rule should be applied.
• You should not include too many conditions per rule.
• You should not write your rules as if you are writing a chatbot prompt.

You can write your own rules for the following languages:

Extract rules from text input

Define your own style rules via free text input. These rules can be applied for both DeepL Translator and Write.

To create style rules via free text input, you have two options:

• (Admins only) Create a new list
• Add new rules as custom instructions to an existing list

To create a new list and add style rules via free text, do the following:

1. Go to Style rules in the navigation bar
2. Click + New list
3. Enter a name for the style rule list and select a target language
4. Select the option From a sample text and click Continue
5. Select the tab From text
6. Enter your text for rule extraction (use up to 8000 characters)
7. Click Generate to start the rule extraction

This will create a new list of style rules containing the extracted rules from your text. 

Extracted rules will be displayed in the Write your own rules tab and you can add more rules via free text input here later as well. You also have the option to add pre-defined rules to your list.

Extract rules from files

Upload a file to extract one or multiple style rules for both DeepL Translator and Write. The file you upload should contain text that reflects the style you wish to use, not an existing style guide. After extracting the rules, they can be manually edited via the Write your own rules tab. These rules can later be shared with your whole team.

To extract rules from a file, do the following:

1. Go to Style rules in the navigation bar
2. Click + New list
3. Enter a name for the style rule list and select a target language
4. Select the option From a sample text and click Continue
5. Select the tab From file
6. Upload a file by clicking Browse or drag and drop your file in the window (PDF, up to 20 MB per file)
7. Click Generate to start the rule extraction

This will create a new list of style rules containing the extracted rules from your file. 

To extract rules from a style guide, do the following:

1. Go to Style rules in the navigation bar
2. Click + New list
3. Enter a name for the style rule list and select a target language
4. Select the option From an existing style guide and click Continue
5. Upload a file by clicking Browse or drag and drop your file in the window (PDF, up to 20 MB per file)
6. Click Generate to start the rule extraction

Extracted rules will be displayed in the Write your own rules tab and you can add more rules via free text input here later as well. You also have the option to add pre-defined rules to your list.

You can only upload one document per new style rule list. The number of extracted rules might vary depending on the contents of your uploaded file.

Rules for file translation

Rules about about formatting aren't applied to file translations. File translations will retain their original text and list formatting to guarantee coherent translations. Formatting rules may include but are not limited to the following:

• Bold or italicized text
• Underlined text
• Heading formatting (H1, H2, etc.)
• List formatting (e.g., bullet points)