10.2 - Adding Sources

IDevice Icon Reading Activity

After the project identification information has been set, it is time to set the working languages and add resources:

 

Selecting files and languages

1. From the Source Language dropdown list select Czech or English (the language of the document to be translated).

2. From the Target Language list select your preferred target language (a project can have only one source language, but several target languages).

3. Now select the source files to translate. Click the Add Folder button in the top-left corner. Select files for translation.


4. All files contained in the selected folder have been identified as translatable documents. This is indicated in the Usage column.

5. Suppose 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 button Change File Usage.

6. In the Change File Usage dialog box select Reference, then click OK.
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Reflection #1: What is the condition for a file to be translatable?

 


Adding a TM

1. On the Translation Memory and Automated Translation page select the translation memories (TMs) for your project. Note that you can select more than one TM per language pair. When you select several TMs, they are all searched during translation.

2. On the left-hand side, click the project language pair, then drill down to Translation Memory and Automated Translation.

3. To add a TM click Add -> File-based Translation Memory. Repeat the process for any other TM, e.g. General English - Czech.sdltm.

Imagine 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. Moreover, the Software TM must be updated during the translation process, but not the General TM.

Therefore, make sure that the check box in the column Update is NOT selected 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.

4. Click Next to continue.
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Reflection #2: Why is it important that the General TM is not updated?

 


AutoSuggest Dictionary

Next, we add an AutoSuggest dictionary. Remember that AutoSuggest dictionaries are separate databases used for recognizing and suggesting segment fragments. They may be generated from translation units stored in TM. The minimum number of these TUs is 25,000.

1. Click the icon AutoSuggest Dictionaries on the left-hand side of the dialog box. Click the Add button in the lower right corner.

2. Browse to the location of the AutoSuggest dictionary for your language pair.

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Reflection #3: Imagine that in all your TMs put together, you have no more than 20,000 units. What options do you have to reach the minimum of 25,000 TUs necessary for creation of your own AutoSuggest dictionary?


Termbases

1. On the Termbases page you can add one or more termbases to the project. To add a termbase, click the Add button.

2. In the Select Termbases dialog box click Browse, and select the path where the sample termbase is stored, then double-click the file *.sdltb.

3. Wait for the termbase to be loaded, then confirm with OK.

4. A message box opens telling you that the termbase languages have been mapped to your project languages. Click OK.

5. In the Indexes list at the bottom of the dialog box you can verify whether the correct termbase languages have been selected for your project. Then click Next.

 

The very last steps in project setup involve a sequence of predifined tasks. These will among other things involve pre-translating all your source documents using the TMs that you added. After the project has been created, you will only need to focus on the segments that have been left untranslated.

Click Finish to start the automated project preparation. This will display the Preparing Project page. SDL Trados would run a number of automated tasks on the source documents, e.g. file analysis, pre-translation. The progress bars indicate how all processes are progressing. Clicking the Close button closes the New Project wizard and everything is ready for the translation process in the Editor view.

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Reflection #4: How do you understand the process of pre-translation?

For suggested answers to reflection questions click the following button: