And records make blocks. To save space. Coding Spanish, French, and Italian all use the same alphabet. In a similar fashion, there are different kinds of binary code based on a computer's 1s and Os. You don't need to remember that.
Translation is no problem.
You can do that with the touch of a button. Labeling Some tapes are preceded by what amounts to an index of sorts, called a label. A label contains information about the block size and the logical record length. Tapes do not have to be labeled. But tapes usually are labeled.