It is well known that the length of a text can vary depending on the language pair involved in the translation. Just to cite an example, most European language text is longer than the English text, "often by as much as 30 percent more".
If the length of the target text changes when translating written documentation, translators should adapt elements such as number of pages, references, and indexes. In the case of translating software interfaces, translators or localisators may have to adapt the size of buttons and dialogue boxes so that the target text fits in them. In any case, it is good practice to keep menu names, commands and other software text as short as possible when translating user interface items.
As a rule, software localisation tools allow users to resize dialog boxes. However, translators should still remain creative, prefer shorter translations, abbreviate words and be consistent with the use of terminology in all software components – software (interface) and documentation (cf. Esselink, 2000:67).