6.3 - Translation Basics

IDevice Icon Reading Activity

Translation Process

Once you open any source file that is translatable in the editor view, you should be aware of the following rules and facts:

 

1. As soon as you start typing the translation, the icon next to the segment changes to the following symbol, which indicates that this segment has been edited:


This symbol also indicates that this segment is still in draft status, and has not been added to the translation memory (TM).

2. Suppose you are happy with the way you have translated your first sentence. You would therefore like to confirm the translation and save it to your TM. To do this press Ctrl+Enter. Once you do that the icon changes into another one that indicates that your translation has been confirmed and saved to the TM:

3. By confirming a single segment might cause that your translation will be automatically inserted into segment, which is identical to the one you have just translated. This feature is called Auto-propagation. It means that whenever you translate or edit one instance of a segment that is repeated within your document, all other occurrences of the same segment will be updated. The fact that the segment has been automatically translated is indicated by the exact match icon:

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Reflection #1: Why is it necessary to segment the source text before translation process?

 

This very similar icon (with different percentage value) means that you need to adapt the suggested translation before it could be confirmed and saved in the TM:

 

Editing a Fuzzy Match

The Translation Results window above the document helps you find changes you need to make to the suggested translation by highlighting the differences.


At the top of the window you see the current segment from the document. The segment below is the source segment retrieved from the TM. Differences are highlighted with strikethrough and underline formatting. On the right-hand there is the segment translation from the TM, which has also been inserted into the document.

Segments may contain untranslatable elements such as numbers, which are called PLACEABLES, as they are placed inside the target segment rather than being translated. Note that placeable elements are marked with a blue underline in the source segment. For instance, the only difference between 2 source segments is a number, i.e. 200 vs. 1,000. Fortunately number differences are adapted into the target translation automatically.

 

Text Formatting

TMs may also store character formatting differences. To modify the suggested translation by applying bold formatting to the target segment:

1. Select the word in the target segment.
2. Click the button for Bold writing.
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Reflection #2: Why should you want to save with the translation also its formatting?

 

A different case of formatting is shown in the following example:

Sometimes, when translating a longer segment, more than one distinct text formats may be used to highlight the meaning. In such cases, the following steps should be taken to apply the correct formatting:

1. First, translate the segment without applying the character formatting.

2. Highlight the part in your target segments to which the character formatting needs to be applied and press the following keyboard combination: Ctrl+,

3. This will open a list with all types of character formatting that are used in the source segment. Choose the format that fits the source text.

 

 

Copy Source to Target

When translating business correspondence, you are bound to deal with segments that do not require translating. They might be pasted into the target segment. Rather than relying on the Windows clipboard (i.e. copy/paste), you can use the Copy Source to Target button located on the top of the Translation Results window.

Click this button to duplicate the source segment into the target cell (the default keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Ins). Then confirm the segment with Ctrl+Enter.

The Copy Source to Target function is highly useful for target segments that are identical or very similar to their source-language counterparts, e.g. sentences that contain a lot of untranslatable product names.

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Reflection #3: How should the TUs with identical source and target segments be handled when the translation project/assignment is finished?

 


For suggested answers to reflection questions click the following button: