How to...
Work in the translation editor

When you created your project, you added all resources relevant to your work. But what can you do if you do not have any relevant translation memory at hand? If you have already translated documents on related subjects, make use of them to create new translation memories. This process is called alignment. You can align a document and its translation in going to LiveDocs and by clicking Add Alignment Pairs on the LiveDocs ribbon tab. After adding files you want to utilize, click OK, and memoQ matches the source-target segment pairs immediately. You can, and should, check this alignment for possible errors, but it is still a great help when you are in need of a translation memory. To learn more about the process, see Alignment.

If the active translation memories are likely to contain many segments from the source text, insert them all at once by instructing memoQ to pre-translate the document. Choose Pre-translate on the Preparation ribbon tab and all segments that are found in the translation memory will be entered automatically. To learn more about the process, see Pre-translation.

To start translating, click the right side of the grid next to the first row. Type in your translation. When you are finished, press Ctrl+Enter. memoQ then writes the translated segment into the working translation memory, and proceeds to the next segment. You do not need to save the document during translation because memoQ automatically saves every single change to the hard disk right after you make them. When you confirm a segment, color of the status box becomes green and a green tick appears next to it.

memoQ automatically searches the translation memories and term bases every time you start translating a new segment, and the findings of these searches are listed in the translation results pane on the right. Inserting the most suitable hit from this list might be easier than translating the segment from scratch. For details about dealing with the Translation results pane, see How to leverage translation results. and Navigate the translation editor.

If you do not want to spend time with inserting translation results manually, enable memoQ to insert the best hit automatically. It will find the best hit by checking the match rates of all hits for a segment, but you should first define a minimum match rate under which a hit is not acceptable for automatic insertion. The best hit for a segment is inserted when you confirm a preceding segment and jump into the next one with the cursor. The segment you jump into should be empty, pre-translated or assembled from fragments. If the segment is not empty, the hit to be inserted should be of higher match rate than the one already being in the segment. Of course, you should always check the inserted translations and revise them if necessary. To learn more about the process, see automatic lookup and insertion.

A function called auto-propagation – if enabled – continuously monitors whether the segment you are translating is a repetition, and if it is, automatically propagates your confirmed translation into all other identical segments. You can enable this function by choosing Translation Settings > Auto-Propagation on the Translation ribbon tab. To learn more about this tool, see Auto-propagation.

Sometimes you may be unsure how to translate a word or expression in the current segment, but you do not receive any suggestions for it on the hit list. This is because the sentence as a whole was not found in the translation memories, and the words in it were not found in the term bases. What can you do in this situation? Instead of dealing with the whole segment, look up the problem word or expression itself in the translation memories. To do this, use memoQ’s built-in concordance facility: select the problem word or expression in the source cell, and press Ctrl+K. If the translation memories have segments containing the word or expression, memoQ will list them in a separate window, along with their translation. To learn more about this tool, see Concordance.

Terms may have several different forms and some of them are not listed in the translation results pane. For example, the term base may contain the term go, but not the term went. Let us say that your text contains the latter. As you probably know that went is an alternate form of go, you can search for the basic form directly in the term bases and find out the meaning of the alternate form this way. To do a direct search, use memoQ’s built-in term base lookup facility: select a part of the problem word or expression in the source cell, and then press Ctrl+P. If the term bases have terms containing that part of expression, memoQ will list them in a separate window, along with their translation. To learn more about the process, see Look up a term.

Term bases act as do-it-yourself dictionaries - while working in the translation grid, you can add any number of terms to the term bases you use in your project. If you find a repeated expression in the source text that you wish to add to the term base, select it and press Ctrl+E. In the Create term base entry dialog that appears, enter the translation of the word or expression to the right, and click OK. memoQ will immediately add the term pair to the term base you indicated. Further occurrences of the term will automatically be highlighted. If the target cell already contains the translation of the term you want to add, you can select both the source and the target expressions, and then press Ctrl+E. memoQ will automatically fill out both fields in the Create term base entry dialog. For details about the process, see Add a term.

In addition to regular text, the translation grid may contain also formatting tags. Since improper handling of tags can cause many problems, make sure you are familiar with their concept before you start translating the document. To learn more about formatting, see Work with formatting.

Once you have finished your translation, it is time to export it so that you can submit your work to your client or to your project manager. The way you can do it is defined by the nature of the project - whether you were working online, or by using the offline copy of an online document, or you received an offline document by e-mail and plan to submit your translation the same way. For details on exporting documents in these types of projects, see the topic Deliver your translation.