SDL Trados Studio 2011 - Intermediate

SDL Trados Studio 2011 Intermediate for Translators

Innovation Delivered.

Training Course

Tab le o f Contents

SDL TRADOS STUDIO 2011 INTERMEDIATE FOR TRANSLATORS 1SDL plc Confidential. Copyright 2011 SDL plc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: IntroductionScope of this Training Course ... 1-2

Chapter 2: Processing Multiple Files with ProjectsWhen to Create a Project ... 2-2Creating a Project ... 2-2

Entering the Project Details ... 2-2 Selecting the Project Languages ... 2-5 Selecting the Project Files ... 2-6

Selecting Translation Memories ... 2-7 Adding an AutoSuggest Dictionary ... 2-9 Adding a Termbase ... 2-10 SDL PerfectMatch ... 2-13

Project Preparation ... 2-13 Creating a Project Template ... 2-15 Viewing the Project ... 2-15

Summary ... 2-17

Chapter 3: Project Statistics and ReportsProject Statistics ... 3-2

Viewing the Confirmation Statistics ... 3-2 Viewing the Pre-translate Files Report ... 3-2 Viewing the Analyze Files Report ... 3-3

Analyze Files Results ... 3-4Summary ... 3-4

Chapter 4: Translating The Project FilesViewing the Project Files ... 4-2Filtering Segments ... 4-2Selecting from Multiple TM Matches ... 4-3Inserting Special Characters ... 4-5Removing Formatting ... 4-6Filtering the Display Based on Strings ... 4-7Global Find and Replace ... 4-8Display Filtering for Quicker Review ... 4-10Searching in Multiple TMs ... 4-10Changing the Segmentation on the Fly ... 4-12

Splitting Segments ... 4-12 Merging Segments ... 4-12

Context Matches ... 4-13Previewing PowerPoint Files ... 4-14Going to a Particular Segment ... 4-18Creating AutoText Entries on the Fly ... 4-19Summary ... 4-21

Tab le o f Conten ts

2 SDL TRADOS STUDIO 2011 INTERMEDIATE FOR TRANSLATORSSDL plc Confidential. Copyright 2011 SDL plc.

Chapter 5: Finalizing the ProjectFinalizing the Project ... 5-2Exporting the Target Files ... 5-3Marking the Project as Complete ... 5-4Summary ... 5-5

Chapter 6: Merging Project FilesThe Sample Project Scenario ... 6-2

Creating a Project Based on a Template ... 6-2 Selecting and Merging the Project Files ... 6-3 Viewing the Merged File ... 6-5 Translating the Merged File ... 6-5

Summary ... 6-6

Chapter 7: Segment Verification SettingsAbout Segment Verification ... 7-2QA Checker 3.0 ... 7-2

What is QA Checker 3.0? ... 7-2 Configuring QA Checker ... 7-2

Opening the Project Settings ... 7-3 Segment Verification ... 7-4 Inconsistencies Check ... 7-5 Punctuation Check ... 7-6 Number Check ... 7-7 Saving the QA Checker Profile ... 7-7

Terminology Verifier ... 7-8 What is Terminology Verifier? ... 7-8 Configuring Terminology Verifier ... 7-8

Summary ... 7-10

Chapter 8: Translating the Merged FileAuto-PropagatioN ... 8-2Terminology Verification on the Fly ... 8-2Punctuation Check on the Fly ... 8-3Changing the Auto-Propagation Options ... 8-4Selecting your Preferred Spell Checker ... 8-5Checking for Forbidden Terms ... 8-6Configuring the Hitlist Settings ... 8-7Interactive Character Count ... 8-10Previewing HTML Files ... 8-10Summary ... 8-12

Chapter 9: Reviewing FilesThe Sample Scenario ... 9-2Tracking Changes ... 9-2

Re-opening the Sample Document ... 9-2 Toggling On Track Changes ... 9-2 Tracking Changes ... 9-3

Adding Comments ... 9-3

Tab le o f Contents

SDL TRADOS STUDIO 2011 INTERMEDIATE FOR TRANSLATORS 3SDL plc Confidential. Copyright 2011 SDL plc.

Summary ... 9-4

Chapter 10: Automated Quality AssuranceVerifying the Entire Document ... 10-2

Running the Segment Verification ... 10-2 Correcting Mistakes ... 10-3

Summary ... 10-7

Chapter 11: Finalizing the ProjectFiltering for Changed Segments ... 11-2Accepting and Rejecting Changes ... 11-2

Accepting a Change ... 11-2 Rejecting a Change ... 11-2

Deleting Comments ... 11-3Finalizing the Project ... 11-3

Exporting the Target Files ... 11-4 Marking the Project as Complete ... 11-5

Summary ... 11-6

Chapter 12: Customizing Keyboard ShortcutsCustomizing the Keyboard Shortcut for a Particular Function ... 12-2

Chapter 13: Continuative CoursesRecommended Further Training ... 13-2

SDL Trados Studio 2011 - Advanced ... 13-2 SDL MultiTerm 2011 ... 13-2

Copyright 2011 SDL plc.All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be duplicated in whole or in part or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of SDL plc.

MultiTerm, SDL PhraseFinder, SDL TermBase, SDLX, Trados, TranslationZone and Translator's Workbench are registered trademarks of and AutoSuggest, QuickPlace, TagEditor and Trados Studio are trademarks of SDL plc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Unless stated to the contrary, no association with any other company or product is intended or should be inferred.

Although SDL takes all reasonable measures to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the product, this documentation is provided as-is and all warranties, conditions or other terms concerning the documentation whether express or implied by statute, common law or otherwise (including those relating to satisfactory quality and fitness for purposes) are excluded to the extent permitted by law.

Information in this documentation, including any URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of SDL plc.

Chapter

INTRODUCTION

This introduction provides a quick overview of the topics in the SDL Trados Studio 2011 Intermediate for Translators training course.

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In t roduct ion1

1-2 SDL TRADOS STUDIO 2011 INTERMEDIATE FOR TRANSLATORSSDL plc Confidential. Copyright 2011 SDL plc.

SCOPE OF THIS TRAINING COURSE

In the SDL Trados Studio 2011 Getting Started for Translators training course you learned how to translate files using CAT technologies, i.e. translation memories, AutoSuggest dictionaries and termbases.

This training course takes your skills to the next level. Among other things, you will learn how to:

C Process multiple files by creating projects

C Run tasks such as file analysis and pre-translation

C Read project reports and statistics

C Run find/replace operations

C Display only particular segments in a document, e.g. all unconfirmed segments, all segments that contain a particular term, etc.

C Merge multiple files into one

C Use automated quality assurance features for checking translations e.g. for extra blank spaces, potential length problems, terminology errors, etc.

C Fine-tune your auto-propagation settings

C Review files and track changes

C Customize keyboard shortcuts

The main focus of this training guide is on practical life examples, for which training sample files are available.

We recommend that you copy the sample files to your desktop, so that you can find them more easily, i.e.: ..\Desktop\Sample Files.

Chapter

PROCESSING MULTIPLE FILES WITH PROJECTS

In this chapter you will learn how to:

C Create a project for effective handling multiple files

C Select the project language pair

C Add source and reference documents to the project

C Add TMs, AutoSuggestion dictionaries and termbases to the project

C Automatically prepare the project files

C Create a project template from the current project

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WHEN TO CREATE A PROJECT

The Home screen of SDL Trados Studio 2011 features four prominent buttons through which you can access some of the most frequently used functions. The training course SDL Trados Studio 2011 - Part I focused on translating single files using the Open Document function.

In this training course we are going to introduce you to the New Project function. A common question is: when would I use Open Document and when would I rather click New Project? As a general rule, you would use New Project when you need to process several files that need to be translated into one or several target languages. That way you avoid having to open and save each file individually.

A good example is a web site that is composed of e.g. 100 pages. If you deal with a project like this, you will certainly not want to open and save all documents one by one.

In this exercise you will learn how to create and process a small sample project. The sample files for this exercise can be found in the following sub-folder: ..\Sample Files\01_Project.

CREATING A PROJECT

For this exercise we assume that you need to translate a few of documents, which you want to handle through a project.

Entering the Project DetailsTo start the creating the project take the following steps:

1. After starting SDL Trados Studio 2011 click New Project on the Home screen or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N.

Pr ocess ing Mul t ip l e F i l es w i th P ro jec ts 2

SDL TRADOS STUDIO 2011 INTERMEDIATE FOR TRANSLATORS 1-3SDL plc Confidential. Copyright 2011 SDL plc.

2. This will open the first screen of the New Project wizard. Leave the default settings unchanged and click Next to proceed.



3. On the Project Details page enter a descriptive name for your project into the Name text field. As this project involves a short documentation on a spell check module, the project name could be, for example, Spelling Checker Documentation.

NOTEDAll project files are by default stored in your documents folder, e.g. C:\Users\\Documents\SDL Trados Studio\Projects. The application automatically creates a sub-folder that is named after your project within your personal Projects folder. You may also store your projects in a different location, e.g. on a central drive. To do this click the Browse button and select a different location. Just note that for each project you need to use an empty sub-folder to avoid potential file conflicts.

4. Activate the Due Date check box. By doing so you will enable a field in which you can enter the project due date. Click the arrow button next to the text field to open a calendar in which you choose your due date, e.g. one week from your current date.

NOTEDSetting a due date is not mandatory, but it helps you keep track of timelines and dates when you need to work on multiple projects.

5. Click Next to continue.



FOR MORE INFORMATIONV

Project Details Window

Selecting the Project Languages1. Now the Project Languages page is shown. Our sample files are in English. Therefore make sure

that English (United States) is selected in the Source Language dropdown list.

2. From the Target Language list select the target language by double-clicking your target language in the Available list, i.e. German (Germany).

NOTEDA project can have only one source language, but several target languages. However, in this exercise we will use only one language pair.

3. Click Next to continue.



Selecting the Project Files1. Now the Project Files page is displayed. This is where you select the source files to translate. Click

the Add Files button in the top left corner of the New Project wizard.

2. This opens the Add Files dialog box. Browse for the folder in which the sample documents are stored, i.e. ..\Sample Files\01_Project\Documents. Select all files that are contained in this folder and then click the Open button.

3. This will add 5 files to your project: 3 DOCX files, 1 PPTX file, and 1 PDF file.

4. All files contained in the selected folder have been identified as translatable documents. This is indicated by the value in the Usage column, which has been automatically set to Translatable for each file.



5. Let us assume that the PDF document that was given to you by your customer is only for reference, i.e. it must not be translated. In this case you need to change the file usage. Highlight the PDF file, and click the Change File Usage button.

6. This opens the Change File Usage dialog box. Here, select the Reference radio button then click OK.

7. Confirm the message that says that the file usage has been changed successfully by clicking OK, then click Next to continue.


C About Project Files

C About File Usage

Selecting Translation Memories

On the Translation Memory and Automated Translation page you select the TM(s) and AutoSuggest dictionary to use for your project. Note that you can select more than one TM per language pair. When you select several TMs, they are searched sequentially during translation.

Take the following steps:



1. On the left-hand side of the dialog box select All Language Pairs -> Translation Memory and Automated Translation.

NOTEDTMs are added below All Language Pairs, even if your project contains multiple language pairs. When you add a TM under All Language Pairs, it will be automatically assigned to the correct project language pair.

2. To add the first TM click Add -> File-based Translation Memory.

3. Browse for the sub-folder that contains the TMs from this project, i.e. ..\Sample Files\01 - Project\TMs. Double-click the TM file Software_EN-US_DE-DE.sdltm. This will be your primary TM for the project.

4. Repeat the above step for the TM file General_EN-US_DE-DE.sdltm, which will be used as secondary TM.

NOTEDImagine the following scenario: the Software TM is a memory that suits the requirements of your project, as you are dealing with software documentation. The General TM might contain useful hits too, but it should be considered a secondary TM. More importantly, the Software TM must be updated during the translation process, but NOT the General TM.



5. Make sure that the check box in the column Update is NOT activated for the General TM. This means that this TM should only be searched, i.e. you can use this TM for looking up segments and carrying out concordance searches. However, new translations will not be stored in this TM.


How to Add Translation Resources to a Project

Adding an AutoSuggest Dictionary

Next, we add an AutoSuggest dictionary. Remember that AutoSuggest dictionaries are separate databases used for recognizing and suggesting segment fragments.

1. AutoSuggest dictionaries CANNOT be added under All Language Pairs. They need to be assigned specifically to a language pair. Therefore click English (United States) -> German (Germany) and then AutoSuggest Dictionaries.



2. Click the Add button in the bottom right corner of the dialog box.

3. In the Open AutoSuggest Dictionary dialog box browse to the folder where the sample AutoSuggest dictionary is stored, i.e. ..\Sample Files\AutoSuggest Dictionaries and double-click the file i.e. EN-DE.bpm to select it.

4. Now that the AutoSuggest dictionary has been added click Next to continue.

C How to Add an AutoSuggest Dictionary

Adding a Termbase

1. On the Termbases page you can add one or more termbases to the project. To add a termbase to your project take the following steps:



1. Click the Add button to open the Select Termbases dialog box.

2. In the Select Termbases dialog box click Browse, and go to the path in which the sample termbase is stored, i.e. ..\Sample Files\01_Project\Termbase. Then double-click the file Software.sdltb to select it.

3. When the termbase name (i.e. Software) is shown in the Select Termbases dialog box click OK.

4. An message box opens informing you that the termbase languages have been mapped to your project languages. Just click OK to close the message box. Your termbase should now be shown under Termbases.



5. Note that in the Indexes list on the bottom of the dialog box you can verify whether the correct termbase languages have been selected for your project. The Project Language column shows the language name and the flag of the corresponding project language. The Index column shows the name of the termbase index that has been assigned to the respective project language.

6. As the termbase indexes have been correctly assigned, you do not need to change anything. Just click Next to continue.




C How to Add a Termbase

SDL PerfectMatch

You can skip the SDL PerfectMatch screen simply by clicking Next. The SDL PerfectMatch function is not part of this training course.

NOTEDNote that this feature is not available in the Freelance edition of SDL Trados Studio 2011.


SDL PerfectMatch

Project PreparationThe following screen lists the so-called batch tasks that will be performed on the project files. Batch tasks are used to automate steps such as file conversion, word/repetition count, etc.

By default, the task sequence Prepare without project TM is selected. This task sequence contains a number of batch tasks, which prepare the sample files in the following way:

C Convert to Translatable Format: converts all project files to SDL XLIFF for further processing.

C Copy to Target Languages: creates working copies of the files and stores them in separate, language-specific folders to avoid conflicts and accidental overwriting of the source files.

C Apply PerfectMatch: compares the current source files to translated, bilingual previous files for reliable pre-translation. This step will not be applied during this exercise.

C Analyze Files: performs a word and segment count, calculates repetition rates and the TM leverage, i.e. determines the number of exact and fuzzy matches that can be retrieved from the TM(s).



C Pre-translate Files: if exact matches are found in the TMs, they will be automatically inserted into the documents when this task is executed.

FREELANCET

In the Professional version of SDL Trados Studio 2011 you can customize the task sequence to suit special processing and workflow requirements. This is not possible in the Freelance edition.

1. Click Finish to start the automated project preparation.

2. This will display the Preparing Project page. The application is now running the individual batch tasks automatically to prepare the project files. Wait for the progress bars to indicate that all processes are completed.


Project Preparation



Creating a Project TemplateNow that you have finished creating the project you might have gotten the impression that creating a project involves a lot more clicks than opening a single file, as you need to go through the different screens of the wizard, select TMs, termbases, etc.

This might be true at first glance. However, remember that projects can save you a lot of time and effort when you need to translate a medium or large number of files. Moreover, you can create project templates so that in subsequent projects you only need to give a name to the project and add the source files. All the other settings, e.g. selection of languages, TMs, termbases etc. will be provided by the template.

Let us assume that in the future you expect to have many other projects that follow the same pattern. Therefore it makes sense to create a template based on the current project. (In one of the following chapters you will learn how to use this template to create a second project more quickly.)

To create the template take the following steps:

1. Select the Create a new project template based on this project radio button on the bottom of the New Project wizard. Then click Close.

2. In the Save Project Template dialog box enter the name for your template, e.g. Template English-German, then click Save to create the template file.

NOTEDWe are going to use this template in another chapter to create a second project more quickly.

Viewing the ProjectClick the Projects View button on the bottom of the Navigation pane. In this view you see the newly created project listed in the Projects view.



For each project listed here, you can view essential information such as the project name, the status (e.g. In Progress), the due date, etc.

To see where the project files are physically stored on your hard disk take the following steps:

1. Right-click the project and select Open Project Folder from the context menu.



2. This will open the folder in Windows Explorer where all project files are stored, e.g. source and target documents. For our sample project the folder contains the following sub-folders:

3. The en-US folder contains the original files. The de-DE folder stores the working copies in SDL XLIFF format. These are the files that you will actually work on during translation. The Reports folder contains the reports that were generated by the Analyze Files and Pre-translate Files batch tasks. We will take a closer look at a report in the next chapter. The *.sdlproj file is the project file that contains all the project information, e.g. the project name, due date, location of TMs, termbases, etc.

You can now close Windows Explorer.

SUMMARY

C When you need to translate multiple files, it is recommended to use create a new project rather than open each file individually.

C A project can have only one source language, but many target languages.

C Project creation is fully wizard-based. In the different wizard screens you provide the project name and due date, select the source files, TMs, termbases and AutoSuggest dictionaries.

C Files that can be translated in SDL Trados Studio 2011 are marked as translatable (e.g. DOC, PPT, PDF, etc.). However, you can change the file usage and mark it as reference, if it should be excluded from the translation process.

C At the end of the project creation the files are automatically prepared using so-called batch tasks, which convert, analyze and pre-translate the files.

C You can create a template from the current project if you expect to have more projects in the future that follow the same pattern, i.e. same language pair(s), same TMs, termbases, etc. This speeds up project creation significantly.

Chapter

PROJECT STATISTICS AND REPORTS


C Get an overview of the project statistics and determine the amount of pre-translated content

C Read a pre-translate report

C Read a file analyze report

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Pro jec t S ta t i s t i cs and Repor ts3


PROJECT STATISTICS

Studio provides comprehensive information on the results of the project preparation tasks, such as the number of words that have been pre-translated, repetition rates, etc.

Viewing the Confirmation StatisticsWhen the project was created the files were pre-translated using exact matches from the selected TMs. To get an overview of how much content has already been pre-translated by leveraging the TMs take the following steps:

1. While still in the Projects View click the Confirmation Statistics tab on the bottom of the application window.

2. This shows a bar chart in the lower right part of the application window. The Not Translated bar indicates the number of untranslated words, i.e. the new content that still needs to be translated or edited.

3. The Translated bar shows the number of translated words. This is the content for which exact matches have been found in the TMs.

NOTEDThere are other statuses such as Reviewed and Signed-off. However, we will not deal with them at this point.

Viewing the Pre-translate Files ReportThe bar chart provides a good overview of how much content has been pre-translated. To get more details let us take a look at the Pre-translate Files report. To do this take the following steps:

In t roduc t ion 3


1. Click the Reports View button on the bottom of the Navigation pane on the left-hand side of the application window.

2. Click Pre-translate Files in the upper part of the Navigation pane.

3. This will display the corresponding report on the right-hand side. This report provides an overview of how many segments have been automatically pre-translated using the TMs that you specified during project creation. Take a look at the Totals section, which summarizes the pre-translation statistics for all source documents. The Translated row shows the number of segments, words and characters as well as the percentage of pre-translated content.

4. The Untranslated row shows the number of segments, words, characters and the percentage of content that still needs to be translated, i.e. which has not been changed during pre-translation. These can be either no matches or fuzzy matches.

TIPEBelow the Totals section you find the File Details, which list the pre-translation statistics for every single file.

Viewing the Analyze Files ReportYou can get even more information from the Analyze Files Report. This report not only gives you the number of pre-translated segments and words, but also gives you information on how many fuzzy matches the TMs contain, information on repetitions, etc.

To view the Analyze Files Report take the following steps:

Pro jec t S ta t i s t i cs and Repor ts3


1. Click the Analyze Files in the upper part of the Navigation pane. This will show the Analyze Files Report on the right-hand side.

2. Take a look at the table with the heading Totals. This section of the report gives you an overview of all the files contained in the project.

Analyze Files Results

Read the Totals from bottom to top:

C The Total row in the above example displays the total number of segments and words.

C The row New shows the number of segments and words for which no TM matches have been found.

C In the rows above New (e.g. 50%-74%) you see the number of segments and words for which fuzzy matches have been identified in the TM(s). By default, fuzzy matches are not pre-translated.

C The 100% row shows the number of exact matches.

C The Context Match row shows the number of segments and words for which so called context matches have been found in the TM. These are segments for which a 100% match has been found in the TM AND which are preceded by the same segment as the segment from the TM. This is why context matches are considered even more reliable than normal 100% matches.

C The PerfectMatch row shows the number of segments and words that have been pre-translated using SDL PerfectMatch (PM). PM leverages previously translated, bilingual files for even more reliable in-context pre-translation. However, since we did not provide any previous files when setting up the project, this row is not relevant for us.

C The Repetitions row shows the number of segments and words for which no TM matches have been found, but which are repeated within the document(s).

SUMMARY

C The Confirmation Statistics in the Projects View provide an overview of the number of translated and untranslated words in a project.

In t roduc t ion 3


C From the Reports View you can access more detailed information.

C The Pre-translate Files report, which was generated by the pre-translate batch task, provides detailed information on the number of pre-translated segments, words and characters.

C The Analyze Files report, which was generated by the analyze batch task, provides detailed information on the TM leverage, i.e. the number of exact and fuzzy matches that could be retrieved from the TM(s) for one or several documents in a project.

Chapter

TRANSLATING THE PROJECT FILES


C Select matches from multiple TMs

C Find and replace a term in a document

C Change the segmentation on the fly by merging and splitting segments

C Quickly go to a particular segment

C Filter for segments in the editor

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Tr ans la t ing The P ro jec t F i l es4


VIEWING THE PROJECT FILES

To view the files contained in your project take the following steps:

1. Click the Files button to switch to the Files View.

2. In this view all project files (translatable and reference files) are listed on the right-hand side. The file list shows, among other things, the total number of words for each file as well as a progress bar, which visualizes the percentage of pre-translated content for each file.

For example, the first translatable document in the list (Configuration.doc.sdlxliff) has been pre-translated by 60%. To open the first file for translation in the Editor view, double-click the file name.

FILTERING SEGMENTS

As you can see, this document contains a number pre-translated (exact) matches.

Let us assume that you would like to focus on those segments that are not translated. Studio can filter the Editor view to show only a certain type of segments, e.g. all unconfirmed segments This feature is called display filter. To activate the display filter feature take the following steps:

1. Select the View -> Toolbars -> Display Filter menu command.

2. This will add the Display Filter toolbar to the Editor view.

Trans la t ing The Pro jec t F i l es 4


3. From the Display dropdown list in the Display Filter toolbar select Not translated.

4. Now only the untranslated segments are displayed. Start by translating the first segment that is now shown. For this segment, you should get some AutoSuggest matches, which you can insert into your target segment.


Display Filter Toolbar - Editor View

SELECTING FROM MULTIPLE TM MATCHES

After confirming the first segment with Ctrl+Enter you should be in the segment. Take a look at the Translation Results window above the document.



The TM is offering three matches, which are sorted according to their fuzzy match value, i.e. highest match first.

The highest match will typically be the one that you will use, as it is often the one closest to the current segment and therefore requires the least changes. However, it can happen that you prefer a lower match.

To select from several TM matches you can take the following steps:

1. To move up and down in the TM match list, use the Select Next Match and the Select Previous Match toolbar buttons. This will highlight the selected match in the Translation Results window and insert the corresponding translation into the target cell in the editor.

2. Instead of using the above mentioned toolbar buttons you can also press the Alt key and the number of the corresponding TM match, i.e. Alt+1 for the first match, Alt+2 for the second match, etc.

3. Note that all three matches come from the same TM. The name of the currently selected TM match is shown in the status bar of the Translation Results window.

4. In our example either the first match is likely the best. Therefore, use the first translation suggestion (i.e. press Alt+1), and edit it as required, and confirm it by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

5. You should now be in the following segment, for which no match has been found. Therefore, you need to translate from scratch. However, there will be a few AutoSuggest matches to help you. Translate the segment and confirm it by pressing Ctrl+Enter.



6. You should now be in the next segment, for which a high fuzzy match has been found. Here you just need to replace the string Microsoft Word with the target language equivalent of application. Then confirm this segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

INSERTING SPECIAL CHARACTERS

For the next segment a fuzzy match has been found. In the target segment, you need to add the translation for the string for example Win95 or Q4. Note that this string is preceded by an en dash.

Studio offers an easy way of inserting special characters such as the en dash. Just take the following steps:

1. Place the cursor at the corresponding position in the target segment

2. Click the En dash toolbar button to insert the required special character.

3. Now continue by adding the translation for e.g. Win95 or Q4 after the en dash. Do not forget to apply italics formatting using the QuickPlace feature. To do this select the part of the segment that needs to be formatted, then press Ctrl+I and select the required formatting from the list.

TIPEThrough the toolbar you can insert a number of other special characters, e.g. the copyright or trademark as well as quotes characters. Note that this toolbar is dependent on the respective file type. Therefore, it might look different when working on other file formats.



REMOVING FORMATTING

You might have noticed that the current target segment contains some bold formatting, which is not there in the source segment, i.e. the English word numbers is not formatted as bold, however, its translation in the target segment is. Let us assume that you would like to remove the bold formatting from the target term that is highlighted below:

To do this take the following steps:

1. Select the formatted word.

2. Click the Force bold off toolbar button. This will turn off the bold character formatting from the selected word.

Note that the above steps can be taken to effectively remove formatting, i.e. the removed character formatting will not be shown in the Editor view or when generating the target file.

However, you should note the following: by default, Studio does not show any tags for character formatting. Only the formatting itself is displayed in WYSIWYG-fashion, which is convenient. However, even if you do not see the tags, they are still used internally and stored in the TM.

The default setting is not to display tags that apply character formatting. Sometimes, however, it can be useful to display character formatting tags, e.g. for troubleshooting purposes. To show the formatting tags take the following steps:

1. click the Toggle display of formatting tags toolbar button.

2. By clicking this button you can toggle on and off the display of formatting tags. When the display of formatting is turned on your current target segment will look as shown below:

Note that the selected word (for which you forced off bold formatting) is still enclosed in tag pairs. By moving the mouse pointer over a tag you can display a tooltip that indicates what the tag actually means. The first tag pair is for switching bold formatting on:



The second tag turns off bold formatting, thereby overriding the first tag:

As you can see, the segment contains tags, even if they are not displayed by default. Moreover, the tags will be stored in your TM. As turning off formatting inserts yet another tag pair, you may want to deactivate the formatting in a different way to prevent your TM from being cluttered with additional tags.

Take the following steps:

1. While the formatting tags are still displayed remove the inner tag pair, i.e. the one that turns off bold formatting. You can use the DEL or Backspace key to do that.

2. When you remove the opening tag of the pair, it will be ghosted. The tag pair will only be completely removed when you also delete the closing tag.

3. Note that now only the tags that apply bold formatting remain. Therefore the corresponding word is again shown with bold formatting. Now remove the other tag pair that encloses the word.

Note that by taking the above steps you have effectively removed both the tags and the character formatting. As this example has shown, toggling on the display of formatting tags can offer you a more effective and cleaner way of resolving tag and formatting issues. In the above example it helped us avoid storing additional tags in the TM.

Now, toggle of the display of formatting tags by clicking the corresponding toolbar button again:

Finally, confirm the segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

FILTERING THE DISPLAY BASED ON STRINGS

Go to segment 12. For this segment no match has been found in the TM. However, the termbase will suggest a translation for the term dialog box.

Note that the term dialog box occurs in several (pre-translated) segments. Let us assume that you would like to check whether in the previous occurrences have been translated according to the termbase.



To facilitate this task you can use the display filter function again. In addition to displaying only segments of a specific category (e.g. all untranslated segments), you can also choose to show only segments that contain a particular string. To do this take the following steps:

1. From the Display dropdown list select All segments to make certain that all segments are shown, i.e. also the pre-translated ones.

2. Then enter the term dialog box into the Containing text field, and press Enter.

3. This will display only the three segments that contain the term that you entered above. This makes it easier to verify these particular target segments:

4. As you can see the term dialog box in the two pre-translated segments the term was translated differently from the termbase. Imagine that the target term that is used in segments 3 and 4 was correct in the past. However, in the meantime another term has been agreed upon and entered into the termbase. Now you need to reflect this change in the document and in the TM.

GLOBAL FIND AND REPLACE

You could, of course, edit both segments and replace the outdated term with the new one. However, when the outdated term occurs very frequently, you may rather want to use a global find and replace operation.

To do this take the following steps:

1. Select the Edit -> Replace menu command, which will open the Find and Replace dialog box.

NOTEDMake sure that your the is placed somewhere inside the text. If the cursor is placed, e.g. in the Translation Results window, the Edit -> Replace command is not available.

2. Enter the term to be replaced into the Find what text field (i.e. Dialogfenster).



3. Enter the new target term into the Replace with text box (i.e. Dialogfeld). Then click the Find Next button.

4. This will highlight the first occurrence of the Find what string in the target column.

5. Click the Replace button in the dialog box to replace the selected string. This will highlight the next occurrence of the Find what string.

6. Click the Replace button again to replace the second occurrence.

7. As you have replaced all occurrences of the search string, a message appears to inform you that no more matches have been found. Click OK to close the message, and then click Close to close the Find and Replace dialog box.

8. Since the segments have been changed by the find and replace operation, they are now in Draft status. This also means that the recent changes are NOT reflected in the TM. Therefore you need to confirm these segments one by one by pressing Ctrl+Enter.



9. To display all segments again, click the toolbar button Reset all filters.


How to Find and Replace Text

The last segment is a repetition of the first segment. Therefore it has been auto-propagated from the first occurrence. Auto-propagated segments are by default not confirmed. Therefore, confirm the segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

NOTEDIn one of the following chapters you will learn how to change the default behavior of the auto-propagate function, so that auto-propagated get confirmed automatically.

DISPLAY FILTERING FOR QUICKER REVIEW

Let us take a look at another use case for the display filter function: imagine that you have finished translating the document, and you would now like to take a quick look at all pre-translated segments, i.e. the 100% matches and the CMs.

To do this select 100% matches from the Display dropdown list. The editor will now only show the pre-translated segments. The helps you do a sanity check on the pre-translated content.

Next, let us assume that you would like to focus on the newly translated content. To do this select New translated content from the Display dropdown list. This shows only the newly translated segments (no matches and fuzzy matches). This can save you a lot of time during proofreading, as it helps you skip exact matches during proofreading.

Now that you have finished translating and editing the document, you can save the changes using the File -> Save menu command, then close the document by clicking File -> Close.

SEARCHING IN MULTIPLE TMS

To translate the second file in the project take the following steps:



1. Switch back to the Files view and double-click the second translatable document (Language_Support.doc.sdlxliff) to open it in the editor.

2. Click inside the first segment of the newly-opened document. Note that 99% matches have been suggested for segment 1 (Language Support). Both hits are shown in the Translation Results window.

3. Note that two TM results are marked with a green + icon, which indicates that two different translation solutions have been found for the same source segment. Whenever this is the case, a multiple translation penalty of 1% is applied. This is why the TM results are not considered 100% matches. This is to point out that there are several possible matches, and you have to decide which translation best fits the current context.

4. Take a look at the bottom of the Translation Results window. This shows the name of the TM (i.e. Software or General) in which the match was found is displayed. Let us assume that you prefer the second match. To insert the second translation solution, click the Select Next Match button in the toolbar of the Translation Results window and confirm the segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

TIPEAlternatively you can also use Alt+2 to select and insert the second match.


Translation Results Window



CHANGING THE SEGMENTATION ON THE FLY

Splitting SegmentsSDL Trados Studio 2011 segments source documents according to a set of pre-defined rules. For example, exclamation marks, question marks, and colons are considered segment delimiters, while semicolons or soft breaks are NOT treated as delimiters. This is why segment 2 two contains two sentences, which are separated by a semicolon:

You can, however, change the segmentation on the fly by splitting segments. Let us assume that you would like to split this segment along the semicolon character, as you prefer shorter segments:

1. Place your cursor behind the semicolon in the source segment, then click the right mouse button.

2. Select Split Segment from the context menu.

3. Observe that segment 2 has been split into two segments: 2a and 2b. Translate both segments and confirm them by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

Merging SegmentsLet us now take a look an example of how to do the opposite, i.e. how to merge two separate segments into one. Let us assume that you want to join segments 3 and 4. Segment 3 only contains a single word, as the colon after the word Note is considered a segment delimiter.

To merge the above segments take the following steps:

1. Click both segment ids while keeping the Shift key pressed.



NOTEDTake care to click the segment ids, i.e. do NOT click inside the actual source text.

2. While the mouse pointer is still over the segment id column, click the right mouse button, and select Merge Segments from the context menu.

3. Note that the two segments have been merged into one. Translate and confirm the (expanded) segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

4. Translate the last segment (i.e. segment 5). Note that after merging segments 3 and 4, the segment id 4 has disappeared, and the last segment still has the id 5. This means that the segments in a document are not re-numbered after merging, and the segment ids remain unique.

5. Save the document (File -> Save) and close it (File -> Close).

NOTEDYou can only merge segments within the same structural element, e.g. segments within the same paragraph. For example, you cannot merge segment 1 and 2a in this sample document, as they are found in different paragraphs. When you try to merge segments in different paragraphs, the Merge Segments command is grayed out.

CONTEXT MATCHES

Now you need to translate the next document, which is a PowerPoint file. Take the following steps:

1. Switch back to the Files view.

2. Double-click the file New_features.ppt.sdlxliff to open it for translation in the Editor view. Note that first segment has been pre-translated using a context match (CM), which is indicated with a green CM icon in the translation status column. You can also see that the translation is confirmed.



A CM is even more reliable than a 100% match. A CM is given when the following conditions are met:

C The current segment is identical to a previously translated segment stored in the TM.

C The segment above the current segment and its translation are identical to a previously translated document, i.e. the segments occur in the same sequence as in a previous document.

NOTEDIn the above example you might wonder why a CM was given, as there is no preceding segment. However, the fact that the current segment is at the beginning of the document also counts as context information. Since this segment was at the beginning of a document last time it was translated, Studio returned a context match.

TIPEYou may want to adapt the font sizes for this document. To do this select the Tools -> Options menu command. In the Options dialog box click Editor -> Font Adaptation. Then activate the Adapt font sizes check box and select your preferred minimum/maximum font sizes for the source and target content from the dropdown lists.

3. The remaining segments in this document all need to be translated from scratch. The source segment New! is repeated several times, therefore it will be auto-propagated to all occurrences. Finish translating the document and confirm each segment.

PREVIEWING POWERPOINT FILES

Let us assume that after having translated the PowerPoint document, you would like to preview the layout, e.g. to check whether the target text fits into the text boxes on the slides. To generate a preview of the PowerPoint slides, take the following steps:

1. First, make sure that the cursor is placed inside the first target segment.

2. Move the mouse pointer over the Preview tab in the top right corner of the application window. This will cause the Preview window to slide in.



3. Before you generate the initial preview, let us switch off the auto hide feature, so that the Preview window does not disappear when you move the mouse pointer out of it. To do this click the Auto Hide button (i.e. the pin button).

4. The pin icon should now be pointing down, which indicates that the Preview window has been fixed. To better use your screen space, move the Preview window, so that it occupies the right-hand side of the application window. To do this move the mouse pointer over the title bar of the window and keep the left mouse button pressed.

5. Start moving the window. As soon as you start dragging the window it starts floating freely and direction indicators will appear on the screen.



6. While still dragging the window move the mouse pointer over the direction indicator on the right-hand side and release the mouse button.

7. The Preview window should now be fixed on the right-hand side. Click the link in the center of the window to generate the initial preview.



8. Below you see what the preview for the first slide looks like. The preview only shows the slide for the segment that is currently selected in the side-by-side editor.

9. Move down to the second segment, which belongs to slide 2. Note that the corresponding slide is now shown in the preview.



NOTEDYou might have noticed that the preview shows white text against a black background. In the editor of Studio the fonts appear in gray, so that the text is readable when set against the white background in the editor. This color adjustment is done automatically. However, the colors are NOT changed in the actual PowerPoint file.

TIPEWhen you resize the Preview window, it is helpful to click the refresh button to make certain that the current slide is displayed properly.

Click the Close button in the top right corner of the Preview window to close the preview.

Save the document by clicking the File -> Save menu command. Then close the document by clicking the File -> Close menu command.

GOING TO A PARTICULAR SEGMENT

Now take the following steps to translate the last document in the project:

1. Switch back to the Files View.

2. Then double-click the last document (The_Check_Spelling_Command.doc.sdlxliff ) to open it for translation in the Editor view.

Note that this document contains only two untranslated segments.

This time, instead of using the display filter to show only the untranslated segments, let us do the following: imagine that you would like to jump to a segment of a particular category, e.g. to the next untranslated segments. To do this take the following steps:



1. Select the Edit -> Go To menu command (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G).

2. This opens the Go To dialog box. Select Category from the options on the left-hand side of the dialog box.

3. Activate the Untranslated check box, then click Next.

4. This will lead you directly to the untranslated segment. Click the Close button to close the Go To dialog box.

5. Note that the cursor is now placed inside the target cell. A fuzzy match has been found and the corresponding translation entered into the target cell. The suggested translation is missing the equivalent for on the toolbar as well as the picture tag.

6. Insert the tag at the corresponding position in the target segment by pressing Ctrl+, and by selecting the tag from the QuickPlace list.

7. Then finish translating the current segment (but do NOT yet confirm it).


The Go To Function

CREATING AUTOTEXT ENTRIES ON THE FLY

Before you confirm the current segment take a look at the following sentence: this one also contains the term toolbar, for which no equivalent has been found in either the termbase or in the AutoSuggest dictionary. However, you have already translated this term (e.g. with Werkzeugleiste) in the current segment.

If you expect to encounter the same term frequently in this or in other documents, it makes sense to add it to your so-called AutoText list, so that it can later be offered through AutoSuggest. To do this take the following steps:

1. Highlight the target term for toolbar in segment 4 and press Alt+F7.



2. This will open the Add AutoText Entry dialog box. Note that the selected target term has already been entered. Click the Add button to add the entry to the list field below and finally confirm with OK.

3. Confirm segment 4 by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

4. Now start translating segment 5. After typing the first 4 letters of the target term for toolbar, an AutoSuggest match will be offered from your AutoText list. Insert the full term by pressing Enter.

After you have finished translating the current document save it by selecting the File -> Save menu command. Then close the document by selecting the File -> Close menu command.

NOTEDThe strings that you add to the AutoText list are not part of the termbase or the AutoSuggest dictionary, but belong to a separate list, which you can view by selecting the Tools -> Options menu



command. Then select AutoSuggest -> AutoText and pick your respective target language from the Target Language dropdown list. This will show you the list of available AutoText entries.

SUMMARY

C The display filter function allows you to easily show, for example, only 100% pre-translated segments, new translated content, untranslated segments, etc.

C You can also use the display filter to show only segments that contain a particular term.

C When your TMs offer several matches, you can switch between the TM matches by pressing the Alt key plus the number of the corresponding match.

C When several 100% matches are offered, each match receives a penalty of 1%, i.e. instead of e.g. two 100% matches you see two 99% matches.

C Character formatting tags are by default not displayed. However, using a toolbar button you can choose to display character formatting tags, which can be useful for removing formatting from a segment.

C Special characters such as en dash can be quickly inserted using the corresponding toolbar buttons or keyboard shortcuts.

C The go to function, which can be called through Ctrl+G, can be used to jump to a particular segment, e.g. go to the next untranslated segment.

C The segmentation can be changed on the fly by splitting or merging segments. Segments that belong to different structural elements (e.g. different paragraphs) cannot be merged.

C An interactive preview can also be generated for PowerPoint files. The preview will always display the current slide.

C Studio supports global find and replace operations to quickly replace strings in your target segments. Segments that have been changed by a find and replace operation are set to draft and need to be re-confirmed.

C You can create AutoText entries on the fly by selecting a target term and by pressing Alt+F7. This is the quickest way to enhance your AutoSuggest sources.

Chapter

FINALIZING THE PROJECT


C Use a batch task to generate the finalized target files from the translated SDL XLIFF files, thereby finalizing the project

C Copy the finalized target files to a location of your choice (e.g. for delivery of the finished target documents)

5

F ina l iz ing the Pro jec t5


FINALIZING THE PROJECT

You have finished translating all source documents of your project. Let us assume that you now want to deliver the final target documents to your customer. There are two things that you need to do:

C Make certain that the content of your translated SDL XLIFF files is fully reflected in your TM.

C Generate the native format (i.e. DOCX and PPTX) from the translated SDL XLIFF documents.

To achieve both goals, take the following steps:

1. Switch to the Projects view.

2. Right-click your project and select Batch Tasks -> Finalize from the context menu.

3. This opens the Batch Processing dialog box. Note that the Finalize task sequence performs exactly the two required tasks, i.e. it updates the TMs and generates the target documents in their respective native formats. Click Next to continue.

F ina l i z ing the P ro jec t 5


4. The following screen lists the project files and indicates the translation progress for each file. As you have fully translated all files, the progress bars should be at a 100%. Click Finish to run the batch tasks.

5. Wait until both tasks are completed, then click Close.

EXPORTING THE TARGET FILES

Now that the target files have been generated in their native document formats, you will certainly want to retrieve them, so that you can send them to your customer. The best way to do that is to export the files to a location of your choice. To do this take the following steps:

1. Right-click the project name again and select Batch Tasks -> Export files from the context menu.

F ina l iz ing the Pro jec t5


2. In the Batch Processing dialog box click Next, which will lead you to the Files page, on which the files to export are listed. No further action is required here, just click Next again.

3. On the Settings page do the following: on the left-hand side of the page select All Language Pairs -> Batch Processing -> Export Files.

4. On the right-hand side of the page click the Browse button and select the folder to which you want the target files to be deployed, e.g. your desktop.

5. Click Finish, that wait for the task to complete, and then click Close.

6. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the folder to which you exported the target files. Note that the Export task creates sub-folders for each target language. For example, if your target language is German, you will find the target files in the subfolder de-DE.

MARKING THE PROJECT AS COMPLETE

After finalizing a project you should mark it as complete. This is especially useful if you work on a number of projects, and you want to be able to see which projects are already completed. Note that running the Finalize task sequence does NOT set the project to complete, i.e. the project will still be tracked as In Progress. To set our sample project as complete take the following steps:

1. Right-click the project name in the Projects view, and select Mark as Complete from the context menu.

F ina l i z ing the P ro jec t 5


2. When prompted, confirm with Yes.

3. Note that the Status column now shows Completed for the sample project (i.e. no longer In Progress).

SUMMARY

C After finishing translating all files in a project you can apply the Finalize task sequence to the project to generate the target files in their respective native formats.

C The Finalize task sequence also makes sure that your TM reflects the latest target content, which is especially useful when you did not translate the SDL XLIFF files yourself, but want to import the SDL XLIFF content into your TM.

C Using the Export task you can copy the target files from the project folder structure to a location of your choice.

C After you have completed the project you should mark it as complete, so that it is flagged as Completed in the Projects view.

Chapter

MERGING PROJECT FILES

In this chapter your will learn how to:

C Create a project based on a project template

C Merge several files into one SDL XLIFF document for easier processing

6

Merg ing P ro jec t F i l es6


THE SAMPLE PROJECT SCENARIO

In the following exercise you will learn how to set up another project based on the template that you created when setting up our first project.

Moreover, you will learn how to merge source documents into one master SDL XLIFF file. This can sometimes be useful as it facilitates operations such as find and replace. It may also improve repetition handling, as the auto-propagate feature can be applied throughout all project files.

NOTEDOf course, at the end of the project, the master file will be split into the individual files.

The sample files for this exercise can be found in the following folder: ..\Sample Files\02 _Merging Files and Quality Assurance.

Creating a Project Based on a TemplateTo create the new project take the following steps:

1. Click the New Project toolbar button to start the New Project wizard.

2. On the Project Type screen of the wizard select your previously saved template from the dropdown list. Then click Next.

3. This time the project documents contain instructions on how to search a termbase. On the Project Details screen enter the name of your project, e.g. Termbase Search. Select a due date, e.g. a week from the current date, then click Next.

4. The project template saves parameters such as the language pair(s). As this information has been taken over from the template, just click Next to continue.

Merg ing P ro jec t F i l es 6


Selecting and Merging the Project FilesOn the Project Files screen you add and merge the files to process. Take the following steps:

1. This time we add a folder to our project. Click the Add Folder button.

2. In the Browse For Folder dialog box select the sample folder that contains the source files to translate, i.e. ..\02 - Merging Files and Quality Assurance\Documents.

3. The original folder structure is fully reflected in Studio. You will see the folder that you just added on the left-hand side below the project name. Next to the folder you see the number of files that it contains. Click the Documents folder to view the files that it contains on the right-hand side.



4. Select all files that you have just added. Then click the Merge Files button.

5. This opens the Merge Files dialog box. Enter the name of your merged files into the Merged file name text field. This will be the name of the SDL XLIFF file that is going to contain all segments of the individual files. As a name you can enter e.g. MasterFile. In the Files list below you see the names of the original files that are going to be merged.

NOTEDThe actual HTML source files will not be merged. When merging files you generate one SDL XLIFF file out of multiple source files rather than having one SDL XLIFF file per source document. You can also merge files of different type. That means that it is possible to merge e.g. PPT files with DOC, XLS, HTML, etc.

TIPEMerging files can be especially useful when handling multiple files with fairly similar content, i.e. documents that contain a lot of cross-file repetitions. This is actually the case with our sample documents.

6. Now click OK. On the Project Files page of the New Project wizard you will now see the name of your master SDL XLIFF file.

Merg ing P ro jec t F i l es 6


7. Click the + icon next to the merged file. This will expand the view to show the source files that it will contain.

8. At this point you can already click Finish to create the project, as all further settings (TMs, termbases, batch tasks, etc.) will be taken from the template. This example illustrates how templates can streamline the project creation process significantly. When using a template all you have to do is to name the project and add the source files.

9. Once all tasks have been completed, click Close.

Viewing the Merged FileTo view the merged file take the following steps:

1. Click the Files button to switch to the Files view.

2. Here you will see your master SDL XLIFF file. If you click the + icon next to the master file, you can expand the view to show the names of the original source files.

3. This view shows the overall progress and the number of words for the merged file and the individual files.

Translating the Merged FileTo start translating the merged file take the following steps:

1. Double-click the MasterFile.sdlxliff to open it for translation in the editor.



NOTEDDuring translation, editing and review you will only work in the merged SDL XLIFF file. It is only when you finalize the project or save the merged file as target that the application will split the merged file into single files in their respective native format (here HTML).

2. Take a look at the Navigation pane on the left-hand side of the application window. It shows the name of the merged file. By clicking the + icon next to it you can again expand the view to show the single files that it contains.

3. You can quickly jump within the merged file by clicking the name of the respective source file in the Navigation pane.

4. Moreover, tag markers in the merged file indicate where one file ends and where the next one begins. That way you can easily ascertain which file you are currently working on.

Now make sure that you are at the beginning of the merged document. In the next chapters you will learn how to configure the segment verification settings and to translate the file while leveraging the QA potential of SDL Trados Studio 2011.


C About Project Templates

C Merge Files

SUMMARY

C Using project templates can speed up the project setup process significantly. If you have a template in which settings such as TM, termbase selection etc. are pre-defined, all you have to do is name the project and add the source files.

C You can merge several files into one master file. This facilitates repetition handling over several files, global find and replace operations, etc.

C You can merge files of different types (e.g. PPT, DOC, HTML, etc.) into one SDL XLIFF master file.

C Using the Navigation pane on the left-hand side of the editor you can quickly jump from file to file.

C The merged SDL XLIFF file is split into individual files when finalizing the project.

Chapter

SEGMENT VERIFICATION SETTINGS


C Configure the automated quality assurance (QA) settings to check e.g. for punctuation inconsistencies, repeated words, etc.

C Configure the terminology verification settings to check e.g. for the use of potentially forbidden terms

C Export QA settings to a file

7

Segment Ver i f i a t ion Set t ings7


ABOUT SEGMENT VERIFICATION

In addition to spell checking and tag verification SDL Trados Studio 2011 can verify segments for other types of issues such as:

C number errors

C wrong punctuation

C repeated words

C inconsistently translated repetitions

C failure to use translations from the termbase

C usage of potentially forbidden terms

C etc.

Verification can happen in the following ways:

C In real-time, i.e. upon confirming a translation, the target segment is immediately checked for a number of pre-defined QA criteria. The user sees a warning icon next to the segment concerned.

C In batch mode, i.e. a QA check is performed on the whole document after translation or on a number of files.

Currently SDL Trados Studio 2011 comes with two built-in verification plug-ins:

C QA Checker 3.0

C Terminology Verifier

QA CHECKER 3.0

What is QA Checker 3.0?SDL Trados Studio 2011 provides functionality to check translations for potential problems such as wrong numbers, punctuation errors, segment length problems, etc.

Configuring QA CheckerQA Checker 3.0 offers a wide variety of freely configurable quality assurance options to suit very particular quality requirements. In this section you will learn how to configure some commonly used QA options.

Note that QA options can be configured on a project-specific basis, as projects might have specific QA requirements. In this exercise we will configure QA Checker specifically for our current project. This means that before we start translating we would like to configure the QA options, so that we can benefit from QA check during translation.

TIPEQA Settings can also be configured during project creation and saved as part of a project template.

To configure your QA settings take the following steps:

Segment Ve r i f i a t ion Se t t ings 7


Opening the Project Settings

1. Select the Project -> Project Settings menu command.

2. In the Project Settings dialog box select Verification -> QA Checker 3.0 on the left-hand side of the dialog box. This will show links to the various QA settings categories on the right-hand side.



Segment Verification

1. Double-click Segment Verification and take a look at the options on the right-hand side of the dialog box. The option Check for forgotten and empty translations is the only setting that is active by default. This setting checks your document for segments that you have neglected to translate.

2. Each verification option is associated with three possible severity levels: Error, Warning and Note, with Error being the most severe category. This category is by default assigned to forgotten translations, as omissions usually constitute a serious problem.

3. Let us take a look at another option on this page, i.e. the length verification. Imagine that in the past you have had problems with translations that turned out a lot considerably longer than the corresponding source segments. You would therefore like to be alerted to all target segments that are longer then the source by more than 20%.

4. To do this activate the Longer by check box. Replace the default value of 50 with 20. This means that each target segment that is longer than the source by over 20% (based by default on the number of characters) will be reported.



Inconsistencies Check

1. Now click the link Inconsistencies, which will display another set of QA options on the right-hand side of the dialog box.

2. Activate the Check for inconsistent translations check box. This will check whether repeated segments within a document have been translated differently.

3. Also, activate the Check for repeated words in target check box. This will point out target segments with repeated words, e.g. you you said that.

4. The default severity level for this option is Warning, i.e. yellow alert. Let us assume that that you deem word repetitions to be a critical issue, as they make a bad impression. Therefore, raise the severity level to Error by selecting the corresponding value from the dropdown list.



Punctuation Check

1. Click the Punctuation link to display another set of options related to possible punctuation errors in your document.

2. Activate the Check that source and target end with the same punctuation check box. When you activate this setting, the application will, for example, report segments that end with a question mark in the source segment, but with an exclamation mark in the target segment.

3. A common type of error are redundant spaces, e.g. instead of inserting one space you accidentally hit the space bar on your keyboard twice. To be sure, this is a cosmetic error, but it can be hard to spot just by looking at a segment. To check your translations for this type of error activate the Check for multiple spaces check box.



Number Check

The last option we would like to take a look at in this exercise is the number verification. Click the Numbers link, and then activate the activate the Check numbers check box on the right-hand side.

Saving the QA Checker Profile

This section just provides a few examples of the available QA Checker options. There are actually a lot more settings that you can activate. As QA Checker configurations can be quite sophisticated and project-specific, you can also export your QA Checker settings to a configuration file. This file (or QA Checker Profile) can then be loaded, e.g. in other projects or sent to other users.

To export your QA settings to a profile take the following steps:

1. Click the QA Checker Profiles link.

2. Then click the Export settings button.

3. In the Export Settings dialog box enter a name for your QA Checker profile, e.g. MySettings. The extension *.sdlqasettings will be automatically appended to the profile.



NOTEDProfiles can be loaded by clicking the Import Settings button and selecting the profile. Any existing QA settings will be overwritten when importing a profile.


How to Specify Settings for the QA Checker

Now that you have finished configuring the QA Checker, let us take a look the Terminology Verifier module.

TERMINOLOGY VERIFIER

What is Terminology Verifier?Terminology verification allows you to check whether you used the correct terminology has been used in your translation. For this purpose, the translated document is verified against a termbase. This allows you to check for the following:

C Has the translator actually used the target terms from termbase?

C Has the translator used terms that are not allowed according to the termbase?

C Does the termbase contain source terms that have no target term?

Configuring Terminology VerifierTo configure the Terminology Verifier take the following steps:

1. Click the Verification icon. Make sure that the Terminology Verifier check box has been selected.



2. Now select Terminology Verifier -> Verification Settings.

NOTEDThe verification settings that you configure here refer to the termbase that is selected in the project or project template. This is the termbase that you can find under Language Pairs -> All Language Pairs -> Termbases.

3. Activate the Check for possible non-usage of target terms check box. This option will verify if the target terms from the termbase have actually been used in the translation.Example: according to the termbase the English term user needs to be translated with Anwender. If you translate this term with e.g. Benutzer, the Terminology Verifier will issue a warning.

4. Then activate the Check for terms which may have been set as forbidden check box. This will check your translation for the occurrence of terms that (according to the termbase) are not allowed.

5. The sample termbase uses a Status field to flag whether terms are allowed or not. Select the Status field from the Term picklist fields dropdown list.



6. Scroll down the in the Select forbidden values list and check the value not allowed.

7. Finally, click OK to close the Project Settings dialog box and to apply the verification settings.


Terminology Verifier > Verification Settings

In the following chapters you will learn how to use the segment verification during and after translation.

SUMMARY

C SDL Trados Studio 2011 offers powerful, fully configurable segment verification plug-ins apart from spelling checkers and tag verification.

C QA Checker 3.0 can be configured to check your target documents for omissions, potential length issues, number and punctuation errors, etc.

C Terminology Verifier checks your translations for failure to use target terms suggested by the termbase and flags the potential use of terms that are marked as not allowed.

C The termbase needs to have an attribute field that flags a term as e.g. not allowed, forbidden, obsolete, etc.

Chapter

TRANSLATING THE MERGED FILE


C Configure the auto-propagate options for custom repetition handling

C Select your preferred spell checker module

C Use real-time segment verification to ensure higher quality and consistency during translation

C Use the interactive character count to observe length limitations during translation

C Change the hitlist settings of the active terminology recognition

C Preview HTML files

8

Tr ans la t ing the Merged F i l e8


AUTO-PROPAGATION

Start your translation by taking the following steps:

1. Translate the first segment and then confirm it. After confirmation your translation will be propagated to segment 3, which is a repetition of segment 1.

2. Translate segment 2 (write e.g. In Termbanken suchen) and confirm it by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

3. This will lead you to the auto-propagated segment 3. Imagine that you now have a better idea of how to translate this segment. Therefore you change the auto-propagated target segment to something else, e.g.:

4. Confirm the changed translation by pressing Ctrl+Enter. Note that the background of the 100% match indicator has become transparent. This indicates that a suggested match has been changed.

Note that the first occurrence of this source segment has not been changed by the auto-propagate feature. This is because the following default rules apply to the auto-propagation:

C Confirmed segments are not changed by auto-propagation

C Auto-propagation does not confirm segments

C Auto-propagation works from top to bottom

Later in this chapter you will learn how to change the auto-propagation options, but for now let us leave the default settings unchanged.

TERMINOLOGY VERIFICATION ON THE FLY

Segments 4 and 5 have already been pre-translated, and have been skipped.

The following three segments are very short, e.g. Normal Search and Fuzzy Search. Translate segments 6 and 7 by inserting the termbase suggestions, then confirm them.

However, for segment 8 take the following steps:

1. Pretend that you missed out on the translation offered by the termbase for Full Text Search. Enter a term other than the one suggested by the termbase (see example below).

Trans la t ing the Merged F i l e 8


2. Confirm the segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

3. After confirming the segment a warning icon appears next to the segment. Move the mouse pointer over the icon. This will display a tooltip with a detailed error description, i.e. in this case it will tell you that you failed to use the term from the target termbase.

4. Go back to segment 8 and insert the translation from the termbase. Note that the warning icon becomes gray as soon as you start correcting the term, as the error is now pending.

5. Press Ctrl+Enter to confirm the segment again. Note that this has removed the warning icon.

PUNCTUATION CHECK ON THE FLY

Segment 9 (i.e. Note:) can be used as an example of how the punctuation check from your QA Checker profile works. Take the following steps:

1. Translate this short segment, but omit the colon at the end on purpose.

2. Confirm this segment by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

3. Again a warning icon is shown. Move the mouse pointer over the warning icon to display a tooltip with the error description. This time you are alerted to the fact that the end punctuation in the target segment is not consistent with the source.

4. Go up to segment 9 and correct the problem by adding the colon at the end of the target segment and press Ctrl+Enter to confirm.

Tr ans la t ing the Merged F i l e8


CHANGING THE AUTO-PROPAGATION OPTIONS

Now continue as follows:

1. Confirm segment 11, which has been auto-propagated. This moves you to segment 12, which has been auto-propagated.

2. Imagine that you are not too happy with the way you translated this segment the first time. You would therefore like to change the target segment. Reformulate the target segment, e.g.:

3. When you now confirm this segment the first occurrence (segment 2) will stay unchanged. However, in order to avoid time-consuming find and replace operations, you want auto-propagate to adapt all occurrences of a segment if you change one of them, even if the other occurrences are already confirmed and can be found ABOVE the current segment.

4. To change the auto-propagate settings accordingly select the Tools -> Options menu command. Then drill down t