Working with the Translation Environment

Contents

What the Translation Environment is

When you selected a document for translation and opened it, OpenTM2 takes you to the Translation Environment. It is the environment where you:

  • Type the translation
  • Can view and copy translations for specific terms
  • Can view and copy previously translated text segments
  • Can decide whether you use the keyboard or the mouse for a task

To save you from paper-shuffling, OpenTM2 automatically looks up terms in dictionaries and retrieves previous translations. You see the findings on the screen, and you can copy them if they are appropriate for your current context.

To conveniently do this, the Translation Environment is divided into the following subwindows:

  • The “Translation” window
Displays the text to be translated, broken into segments. The first segment ready for translation is shown with a yellow background.
All formatting information is displayed in red. To avoid that it takes up too much space on your screen or distracts you from the actual text, you can reduce or hide it. By default it is protected from being overwritten. This ensures that the layout of the original text is retained in the translation.
In this window you perform the actual translation with an editor that provides functions that are especially useful for translating.
You do the actual translation by inserting or overtyping text. While editing the translation document, the original document is in the background. You can switch to it whenever necessary.
  • The “Translation Memory” window
Displays translation proposals that are based on previously translated segments.
OpenTM2 finds these proposals by looking through a database called Translation Memory that contains all text segments you ever translated together with their corresponding translations.
When first created, the Translation Memory is empty. It is gradually filled as you continue translating. If it contains a segment that matches your currently active segment, OpenTM2 lets you know how you translated it before.
These proposals can be exact or fuzzy, depending on how precisely they match the current original segment. It is up to you to decide if you copy the proposal as is, or modify it to suit your current context.
Exact proposals can occur multiple times in a Translation Memory if the same sentence has been translated in different contexts. This fact is shown in the “Translation Memory” window by a [x++] string preceding the original segment, where x represents the number of available proposals. To display all proposals, double-click or press the assigned shortcut key. To permanently set this option, see Setting up the profile.
If only the tagging differs between a segment and a proposal, the proposal is still considered to be an exact match. When you copy the proposal, its tagging is adapted to the tagging in the segment currently being translated.
If the Translation Memory offers more than one fuzzy proposal, the first proposal is most likely to fit in the current context. In the second or third fuzzy proposal the differences to the current original segment increase, and you have to be careful when you copy them.
To ease your decision which multiple fuzzy proposals to consider, you can customize OpenTM2 to display a quality number with every fuzzy proposal. This quality number (a percentage number) ranks different proposals, and you might just ignore proposals below a certain level. See Setting up the profile about how to customize OpenTM2.
To learn how to copy a Translation Memory proposal see Translation-specific functions.
  • The “Dictionary” window
Displays translations that are found for terms in the currently active segment.
The title bar of this window contains the dictionaries used for the translation. Depending on what you specified on the Dictionary page of the “Customize Translation Functions” window (see Setting up the profile), the dictionaries and the translation of the source terms are numbered.
When a new segment is activated, OpenTM2 automatically looks up specific terms of this segment in the related dictionary. For example, if the term proposals is to be looked up, it is reduced toproposal. If a translation for proposal has been found in a dictionary, it is shown in the “Dictionary” window.

Whenever you activate a segment for translation, the “Translation Memory” and the “Dictionary” window reflect this by presenting appropriate translation proposals for this segment.

To learn how to copy a dictionary proposal see “Translation-specific functions” on page xx.

What the colors mean

OpenTM2 shows the status of segments in the “Translation” window by different colors. The default settings are:

Status Text Background Meaning
Translated Black Grey Segment has already been translated.
Active Black Yellow Currently active segment ready to be translated.
Not translated Blue Grey Segment has not been translated yet.
Not translatable Red Grey Segment contains no translatable information.

How markup tags are displayed

OpenTM2 lets you choose how to display markup information in a translation document:

Style Meaning
Protect The markup tags are shown but you cannot change them (default).
Unprotect The markup tags are shown and you can overwrite and change them.
Hide The markup tags are not shown.
Shrink All markup tags outside segments are not shown. A replacement character is shown instead.
Compact The information that is not to be translated and the markup tags within a segment are replaced with a character.
Compact+1 Markup tags are shown up to a length of 10 characters and cannot be changed. Longer markup tags are followed by three dots (…), for example [Style=@Out… .

Changing the display of markup information

You can change the tag representation style by opening the Style menu and selecting a style command of your choice.

Figure 2 (below) contains examples of a Microsoft (R) WORD document that show you how the text is presented, depending on the selected style. The following symbols are used to show information that is protected and cannot be translated:

  • <>
Appears when you select shrink and compact style. The symbol is a placeholder for information that cannot be translated.
  • #
Appears when you select compact style. This symbol shows that there is information in a segment that cannot be translated.

These symbols are protected and have the same color as markup tags (the default is red). You can change them as follows:

  1. Select Profile Settings… from the Options menu of the Translation Environment.
  2. Select the Display page.
  3. In the Display Settings box, change the respective symbols.

The shrink and compact styles are useful when you translate documents that contain numerous markup tags, such as RTF documents. The various style options let you display the text in a less cluttered form. The markup information is replaced by the symbols of your choice, and you can concentrate on the text that is to be translated.

if two or more markup tags appear after one another in a text, they are replaced by only one symbol depending on the style you chose.

 Protected/Unprotected: 
 [style:heading 2] 
 Planning Forms
 [paragraph: 0005,E8] 
 [style:Normal] 
 While reading this chapter, you will complete one or more of the following
 planning forms, which are included in [italic]Planning Forms[/italic],
 GX24-4093:
 [paragraph: 0005,F5]
 [style:Normal]
 [field: 3913]SYMBOL 183 \.f "Symbol" \.s 10 \h[field end: 0015] [efield] 
 • Processor Configuration (Forms B3, B5, or B7)
 [paragraph: 0005,ED]
 [style:Normal]
 [field: 3913]SYMBOL 183 \.f "Symbol" \.s 10 \h[field end: 0015] [efield] 
 • Integrated DASD/Tape Devices (Form C2).

 Hide: 
 Planning Forms

 While reading this chapter, you will complete one or more
 of the following planning forms, which are included in
 Planning Forms, GX24-4093:
 • Processor Configuration (Forms B3, B5, or B7)
 • Integrated DASD/Tape Devices (Form C2).

 Shrink: 
 <> 
 Planning Forms
 <> 
 While reading this chapter, you will complete one or more
 of the following planning forms, which are included in
 [italic]Planning Forms[/italic], GX24-4093:
 <> 
 • Processor Configuration (Forms B3, B5, or B7)
 <> 
 • Integrated DASD/Tape Devices (Form C2).

 Compact: 
 <> 
 Planning Forms
 <> While reading this chapter, you will complete one or more
 of the following planning forms, which are included in
 #Planning Forms#, GX24-4093:
 <> 
 #Processor Configuration (Forms B3, B5, or B7)
 <> 
 #Integrated DASD/Tape Devices (Form C2).

Figure 2. Markup display styles

Displaying the original of a translation proposal

To view the source of a translation proposal double-click anywhere within the “Translation Memory” window. The “Source of Proposal(s)” window shows the original text of a proposal found in the Translation Memory, for example, the English original of a German translation. The original text of an exact match is preceded by [0], that of a fuzzy match by [f]. This window also shows the segment that is currently active in the original document. The source of a proposal is displayed below the currently active segment. These segments are compared with one another, and differences are indicated by color.

You can change the colors by selecting Colors… from the Options menu of the “Translation” window.

OpenTM2 indicates the correspondence and differences between the source text of a found proposal and the currently active source text. This helps you determine how strongly you can rely on a translation proposal. If the source of the proposal differs from the segment currently to be translated, do not take the match as is, but change it so that the translation matches the original you are currently translating.

The following gives you an example how OpenTM2 indicates differences:

  • Terms that occur in the source of the translation proposal but not in the currently active source segment.
Current segment:
0 - These are the descriptions of the products that will eventually be shown at the 2000 fair.
Translation proposal (German):
1[f] - Dies sind die Beschreibungen der Produkte, die dann auf der COMDEX Messe 2000 gezeigt werden.
Source of proposal:
1[f] - These are the descriptions of the products that will eventually be shown at the 2000 COMDEX fair.
The part that differs is underlined here. The proposal must be altered to reflect the meaning of the current segment.
  • Terms that are different in the source of the match compared to the currently active segment.
Current segment:
0 - These are the descriptions of the products that will eventually be shown at the 2000 fair.
Proposal (German):
1[f] - Dies sind die Beschreibungen einiger Produkte, die dann auf der Messe 2000 gezeigt werden.
Source of proposal:
1[f] - These are the descriptions of some products that will eventually be shown at the 2000 fair.
The part that differs is shown in bold. The proposal must be changed to reflect the meaning of the current segment.
  • Terms that occur in the currently active segment but not in the source of the proposal.
Current segment:
0 - These are the descriptions of the products that will eventually be shown at the 2000 fair.
Proposal (German):
1[f] - Dies sind die Beschreibungen der Produkte, die auf der Messe 2000 gezeigt werden.
Source of proposal:
1[f] - These are the descriptions of the products that will ? be shown at the 2000 fair.
The part that differs is indicated by a question mark. The proposal must be altered to reflect the meaning of the current segment. That means, a translation for the term eventually, which is not included in the source of the proposal but in the current source, must be added at the ? position.

Text that is identical in the active segment and in the source of the proposal is not highlighted. However, you can have the identical parts displayed in a color of your choice.

Making a window active

The following windows are listed when you open the File menu in the Translation Environment:

  • “Translation”
  • “Translation Memory”
  • “Dictionary”
  • “Original”
  • “Source of Proposal”

All documents you opened for reference purposes, in addition to the document you translate are listed. You open another document by selecting Open… from the File menu of the Translation Environment.

Use this option to quickly move to a certain window while working in the Translation Environment. It is especially helpful if a window is hidden behind another window. If you select this window from the list, it becomes immediately active and is displayed in the foreground.

Checking how segments were translated

Translated segments can have been translated from scratch, copied from a Translation Memory and changed, or copied from a Translation Memory and not changed.

OpenTM2 lets you know how many of the translated segments have been translated by one of these methods. When you save the translation, you can request a summary in the “Document List” window showing how many segments have been:

  • Translated from scratch
  • Copied from a Translation Memory proposal
  • Copied from a Translation Memory proposal and then changed

This feature can be useful if translations are paid depending on the way they have been translated. Translated segments that have been translated from scratch may be paid higher than segments that have been copied from a proposal in the Translation Memory. It helps to find out how many segments have been translated in one of the above ways.

Influence of Windows regional settings (Windows control panel => “Regional and Language Options”)

The regional settings of Windows control the display of textual data within standard entry fields and multi-line entry fields; i.e. when the regional settings have been set to “Chinese”, German umlaut in description fields (folder description, memory description) will not be displayed correctly. As the Global Find&Replace function use a standard multi-line entry field for the found text, the displayed text may be incorrect when the regional settings do not match the target language of the documents being searched.

Note:

The displayed text in the Translation Environment windows is not affected by the Windows regional settings as all data is in Unicode. The display may be incorrect however when the selected fonts do not support the characters being displayed.

Working with bidirectional language documents

Translation Environmentbidirectional languages bidirectional languages Arabic languagesee bidirectional languages Hebrew languagesee bidirectional languages OpenTM2 enables you to translate documents from and to Arabic and Hebrew, and it supports Arabic and Hebrew dictionaries and spellchecking. These languages are “bidirectional” languages; the presentation of text is from right to left, and embedded numerals, or segments of text in languages such as English, are presented from left to right.

The following sections describe the prerequisites for the bidirectional language support in OpenTM2, and how you can control the display of bidirectional documents. The particularities of the Translation Environment and OpenTM2’s built-in editor, when used with an Arabic and Hebrew document, are explained. Finally, minor items that you should be aware of when translating from or to a bidirectional language are listed.

Prerequisites for bidirectional language support

Under the Windows NT (R), Windows (R) 2000 and Windows XP operating systems OpenTM2 requires that the System Locale is set to Arabic or Hebrew in the system preferences. If you open an Arabic or Hebrew document and it does not display its text right-aligned and you cannot read it from right to left, you need to set the System Locale. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, then selectRegional Settings. You find a panel similar to the following. Set the System Locale and start over.
Eqfb7s03a.gif

Figure 3. Setting the System Locale for bidirectional languages
If you do not have these settings correct, drop-down boxes and dialog control panels might not show text in the correct language.

Controlling the bidirectional display

You can control whether embedded text in a bidirectional language document, like numerals and foreign language text phrases, are displayed from left to the right or reverted.

The decision depends on your personal preference and on the amount of embedded text in a document.

customizingfor bidirectional languages visual display optionTo change the direction, you can customize the Translation Environment as follows:

  • Open the Options menu
  • Select Profile settings…
  • In the “Customize Translation Functions” window, select the Display page.
  • Select or clear the Visual display check box, and click Set to save the profile settings.
  • Selecting this check box displays embedded text in the same direction as the Arabic or Hebrew text, from right to the left.

Eqfb7s03b.gif

Figure 4. Controlling the bidirectional display
Remember to clear this check box if you work with non-bidirectional documents.

Translation Environment with an Arabic document

When you open an Arabic document, you recognize the usual “Translation” window, “Dictionary” window, and “Translation Memory” window. However, the contents of these windows look different in several aspects. The following Translation Environment example assumes a translation from English to Arabic:
Eqfb7s03c.gif

Figure 5. Translation Environment with an Arabic document

 

  • In the “Translation” window the text is aligned to the right, and the ruler runs from right to the left (ruler digits are always shown as Latin digits). The reading order is from right to the left for English and Arabic words. While you are typing, the cursor moves from right to the left. The cursor control keys let the cursor move as depicted on the keys.
  • In the “Dictionary” window all words are aligned to the left. The reading order of English words is from left to the right, and the reading order of Arabic words is from right to the left.
  • In the “Translation Memory” window the English source text is aligned to the left, and its reading order is from left to the right. The Arabic translation proposals are aligned to the right, and their reading order is from right to the left (same alignment and reading order as in the “Translation” window).
  • Shaping of Arabic characters is supported. (Arabic characters can assume up to four different shapes depending on their positions in words and their connectivity traits of the surrounding characters. The proper shape is selected by a shape-determination routine.)
  • Ligatures of Arabic characters are supported. (A ligature is a graphic character consisting of two or more characters that are joined together. For example, the joining A and E form the ligature Æ.)
  • Digits in the proposal window are displayed as Latin digits.
  • The Find and Replace function in the Translation Environment allows you to select the Case Respect or Case Ignore option. However, these options have no effect with Arabic language documents.

Translation Environment with a Hebrew document

When you open a Hebrew document, you recognize the usual “Translation” window, “Dictionary” window, and “Translation Memory” window. However, the contents of these windows look different in several aspects. The following Translation Environment example assumes a translation from English to Hebrew:
Eqfb7s03d.gif

Figure 6. Translation Environment with a Hebrew document

 

  • In the “Translation” window the text is aligned to the right, and the ruler runs from right to the left (ruler digits are always shown as Latin digits). The reading order is from right to the left for English and Hebrew words. While you are typing, the cursor moves from right to the left. The cursor control keys let the cursor move as depicted on the keys.
  • In the “Dictionary”window all words are aligned to the left. The reading order of English words is from left to the right, and the reading order of Hebrew words is from right to the left.
  • In the “Translation Memory” window the English source text is aligned to the left, and its reading order is from left to the right. The Hebrew translation proposals are aligned to the right, and their reading order is from right to the left (same alignment and reading order as in the “Translation” window).

Further considerations

Defining shortcut keys

When a document with Arabic or Hebrew source or target language is opened, the keyboard properties are automatically changed to the Arabic, respectively Hebrew, input locale.

If you want to assign your own keys or key combinations for certain editor functions (Options menu, Keys…, Assign Keys), select the English input locale before doing so. This ensures a proper key assignment and a proper display of all key assignments. When finished, switch back to the previous input locale.

The treatment of braces – no symmetrical swapping

OpenTM2 does not interchange the order of some directional pairs of characters, such as left and right parentheses ( ), less-than and greater-than signs < >, left and right brackets [ ], and left and right braces { }.

< > is used in “Translation Memory” windows to denote matches. < > is used to denote shrink and compact styles.

You need to manually translate these characters in accordance with the logical sequence of a sentence.

The treatment of text in dialog boxes

In dialog boxes, for example, the Find and Replace box, the entry fields show the standard Windows (R) behavior, regardless of whether the bidirectional language is active. Text is aligned to the left, and cursor movement is from left to the right.

This behavior cannot be changed in OpenTM2. It is assumed to be acceptable because of the shortness of the text.
Eqfb7s03e.gif

Figure 7. Dialog box example with a bidirectional language

Translation Memory considerations

When you edit a Translation Memory with the Translation Memory editor, Arabic and Hebrew source and target segments are aligned to the left, with a reading order from right to the left.

During the creation of an Initial Translation Memory (with the Create option, which causes a visual presentation on the screen), the contents of Arabic and Hebrew documents are aligned to the left, with a reading order from right to the left.

Working with Thai language documents

OpenTM2 supports the translation of documents from and to the Thai language. This language is special in its character representation, character composition, word spacing, and writing order, therefore OpenTM2 provides a Rich Text Format (RTF) editor that can process Thai language documents.

This RTFEdit editor is required for Thai documents, but can also be used for all other document formats supported by OpenTM2. In contrast, OpenTM2’s “Standard” editor supports all document formats except the Thai document format.

Another difference that you might notice: RTFEdit is a proportional fonts editor; the standard editor is a monospace fonts editor.

The following sections describe the preparation for a translation, shows a typical Translation Environment scenario, and lists particularities and limitations.

Preparing for a translation

When you start translating a Thai document for the first time, the Thai font is not automatically selected in the Translation Environment. You need to manually set the font.

From the Translation Environment, select Fonts from the Options menu. This takes you to the “Font” window:
Eqfb7s03g.gif

Figure 8. Setting fonts and colors for the Translation Environment
Select a font that supports the Thai script. You can also click Defaults, then OK, which selects an appropriate font for all Translation Environment windows shown on the left side of the “Font” window.

The window allows to customize and fine-tune the Translation Environment similar to OpenTM2’s standard editor, as described in Customizing colors and fonts. Be sure to select only fonts that support the Thai script. Your changes are reflected in the Preview area.

Translation Environment with a Thai document

When you open a Thai document, you see the usual three windows that make up the Translation Environment. In all windows Thai characters are properly displayed. You do not necessarily notice any differences because of the Rich Text Format editor, except that you can type and edit Thai characters.
Eqfb7s03f neu.GIF

Figure 9. Translation Environment with a Thai document
The RTFEdit editor provides the same functions as the standard editor, with a few exceptions:

  • Copying Translation Memory proposals with the Ctrl-<number_of_proposal> keys requires a non-Thai keyboard or the use of the numeric pad.
  • When you open a document with a Thai source or target language with the RTFEdit editor, a Thai keyboard is automatically selected.

Spellchecking is available from the Translation Environment, as described in Spellchecking a document. Note that no spelling aid is given for the Thai language.

Using Find and Replace

You can use the Find and Replace function in the Translation Environment with one exception: the Case Respect and Case Ignore options can be selected, but have no effect for the Thai language.
Eqfb7s03h.gif

Figure 10. Using the Find and Replace window with Thai scripts
The Global Find and Replace function also works properly with Thai documents. When using this function with Thai text, ensure that the “Whole words only” option is not selected. The following example shows a search for a Thai character in Thai source files.
Eqfb7s03i.gif

Figure 11. Using the Global Find and Replace window with Thai scripts

Using Thai dictionaries and abbreviation lists

You can use Thai dictionaries the usual way, as described in Working with dictionaries. The headwords can be in Thai, as well as the translations. The following dialog box shows an example of how an entry in an English-Thai dictionary is edited. Ensure that the Thai keyboard is selected before editing or adding entries.
Eqfb7s03j.gif

Figure 12. Editing a Thai dictionary entry
You can maintain abbreviation lists, as described in Maintaining abbreviation lists, also for the Thai language. The following dialog box shows an example:
Eqfb7s03k.gif

Figure 13. Editing a Thai abbreviation list

Translating HTML documents

The EQFHTML4 markup table is enabled for the Thai language. The following example shows a preview of an HTML document.
Eqfb7s03l neu.GIF

Figure 14. Sample of a Thai translation preview of an HTML document

Limitations of the current Thai support

Note the following limitations of OpenTM2’s current Thai support:

  • Thai support is only available on Personal Computers that have Thai fonts installed. Code page 874 is supported.
  • The sentence recognition in documents with Thai source language is not always correct.
  • The dictionary lookup dialog box does not display the Thai translation correctly because of the fixed pitch size in this dialog box.
  • Names of folders, files, translation memories, dictionaries, and terminology lists should not contain Thai characters.
  • The Translation Memory editor cannot display Thai characters. During the creation of an Initial Translation Memory Thai characters cannot be displayed.
  • Further, Thai word counting, spelling check and machine translation are not supported.

Commenting segments in the editor

The segment comments is used to exclude specific memory proposals from the usage in automatic substitution. These memory proposals may contain special translations which make only sense in very rare situations or the target of the memory proposal may not match the source of the proposal because of errors in the document which had to be corrected by the translator.

The comments are entered in the segment properties window in the Translation Manager editor and are saved to the memory when the segment is saved.

The segment comments in the Translation Environment are maintained using the segment properties window. This window is opened using the “Segment properties window” menu item of the “File” pulldown or by assigning a key to the “Segment properties” function and pressing this key.
SegmentProperties.gif

Figure 15. Segment properties window
For normal documents the segment properties window shows the comment style and the comment text, for documents in XLIFF folders additional properties are shown. The window is a modeless window: i.e. it can be left open while working with the other windows of the Translation Environment.

The windows always shows the properties of the currently activated segment.

Storing segment comments in the Translation Memory

Whenever a segment with a comment is saved in the Translation Environment (e.g. by pressing Ctrl-Enter) its comment and comment style is saved together with the segment source and segment translation in the Translation Memory.

In the memory proposal window the proposals with comments are prefixed with [Note].
TranslMemWindow.gif

Figure 16. Translation Memory window
By double clicking the [Note] indicator the comment of the proposal is displayed in the “Proposal comment” window
ProposalComment.gif

Figure 17. Proposal comment window

 

Handling of commented segments in the automatic substitution of the analysis

The new option “Ignore memory proposals with comments” controls the way memory proposals with comments are processed. When this option is selected memory proposals with comments are not used for automatic substitution. The same option is available for the EqfAnalyzeDoc API call and for the EQFBATCH comment line tool.