10.3 - Project Monitoring

IDevice Icon Reading Activity
Let us now take a look at another very useful aspect of SDL Trados - its system of reports.
 
Before any project/document is worked on in the main editor view, it is usually worthwhile to have a quick look at one of the reports generated during the automated project preparation. To view it the Reports View has to be activated by clicking the button in the Navigation pane on the left.
 
The Prepare task generates three reports for each target language:
 
Translation Count, Pre-translate Files, and Analyze Files.
 
Preliminary file analysis is an essential step of every project, as it gives the translator an idea about time and difficulty of the file at hand. Project managers (in a translation agency) appreciate information of this sort even more, since it helps them decide the rate to be paid to translators.
 
 
Pre-translated Files Report
 
Let us now take a look at the Pre-translate Files report by clicking the corresponding link in the Navigation pane on the left-hand side. This report type provides an overview of how many segments have been automatically pre-translated using the TMs you specified during project creation. Take a look at the Totals section, which provides pre-translation statistics on all project source documents.

In the above example, all source documents combined contain 31 segments (278 words). 21 segments (199 words, i.e. 71.58%) have been translated using the project MTs. All in all, 10 segments (79 words, i.e. 28.42%) need to be translated manually.
__________________

Reflection #1: How much would you charge your client for translating this particular pre-translated file?



Analyze Files Report
Another report type comes in handy when working with project packages. This report provides useful information on the scope of the project, e.g. the total number of words, the number of repeated segments, the number of segments for which matches have been found in the TM, etc.
 
Now, let us take a closer look at the actual report's results and read the Totals from bottom to top:

  • The last (Total) row in the above example displays the total number of segments (22) and words (229).
  • The row New shows the number of segments and words for which no TM matches have been found.
  • In the rows above New you find the number of segments and words for which fuzzy matches have been identified.
  • The row 100% shows the number of exact matches.
  • The row Context Match 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 100% matches.
  • Repetitions shows the number of segments and words for which no TM matches have been found, but which are repeated within the document(s).

__________________

Reflection #2: What is the difference between a 100% match and a Context match?


For suggested answers to reflection questions click the following button: