Translation rules formatting

[rvaldivia]

Hi Everybody,
I am new to this forum and I have a question. A friend of mine and I are debating about what is correct to do when we need to translate a document (e.g. a birth certificate) that has "boxes", lines, etc in the text. I have seen official translations that ignore the format of the document (i.e. they use "sections" or "numbers" or "rows") and concentrate merely on translating the text. My friend, on the other hand wants to "reproduce" (like a phootocopy) the same document (inlcuding boxes, lines, etc.) In other words, she wants to have the same exact document as the original but in English. Is that correct? (I think that we can't reproduce formats that belong to institutions, goverments, etc. all we do is translate the text). Can somebody comment on this and better if there is one place (or website) to check?.
I appreciate your help. Thanks!