OmegaT+ Quick Start

Basic Operation

When OmegaT+ is started it will look similar to the image given here (this is on Linux under Enlightenment Desktop and using Java 6):

OmegaT+ has a single window with separate internal views that can be independently moved within the main window or placed outside of it. The upper right view is the Translation Editor, where translation is performed. The bottom center and left views are the Match and Glossary Views, where matches and glossary entries are displayed. On the left is the Documents view that displays all the available project documents that can be translated and some simple project statistics.

OmegaT+ extracts content from original documents, displays the content as segments in the Translation Editor, and adds completed translation segments from the editor into a project's translation memory. After translations are completed, OmegaT+ is used to generate the translated documents by creating new copies of the original documents with the original segments replaced by translated segments from translation memory.

OmegaT+ maintains translation work in "translation projects". For each project, OmegaT+ creates a project directory structure to contain the original documents, translations, glossaries, translation memories, and specific translation project information.

Initial Steps to Start Translating with OmegaT+

1. Create a New Project

Select New Project... from the Project menu.

Navigate to a directory where the project files are to be saved and type in a name for the translation project. This name will also be the name of the project folder and all project files will be stored in this folder.

OmegaT+ will prompt for confirmation or change to the project directories that are to be created. It will look similar to this image:

Note: <path> and <projectname> are placeholders for the actually directory path and name of a project. A user will see these replaced with the real path and the name of the project they have chosen.

Simply accept the location of the subfolders (directories), but make sure that original and translation language (locale) codes are correct. If the location of files/documents used is different than the default, make sure to keep track of these locations for later reference.

Then click <OK> to accept the project setup.

Now copy original documents into the /originals directory of the translation project. Note that, OmegaT+ can only work with OpenDocument(ODF), OpenOffice.org(OOo), HTML, Java resource bundle, and plaintext file formats for the purposes of translation. Any other files put into this directory will be ignored and copied into the /translations directory when translations are generated.

2. Open the New Project

Select Open Project... from the Project menu.

Select an existing translation project, this will have an OmegaT+ icon (), and click <Open>.

OmegaT+ will present segments inside the Translation Editor view from the first document in the project. OmegaT+ loads the first document, presented in the Documents view, by default. There is no particular order to these, but they can be ordered using the table features. Select other documents for translation in the table by clicking with the mouse.

3. Translate Segments

For the current segment, OmegaT+ highlights the original text in blue and displays a copy of the original text below it between two tags <segment 0001> and <end segment>. Type a translation between the two tags by overwriting the text.

Press <Enter> to advance to the next segment.

When <Enter> is pressed several things happen automatically: OmegaT+ adds the translated segment to the translation memory and then searches the translation memory and glossary for matches for the next untranslated segment.

If the segment activated has possible matches from within translation memory, they will be displayed in the Matches view. If the same segment matched any terms in the glossary they will be displayed in the Glossary view.

If there is a match available it can be inserted into the current segment in the editor view as follows:

• Select the desired match using Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, etc.
• Press Ctrl+I to insert it at the cursor's current position, or
• Press Ctrl+R to overwrite the entire current segment by it.

A few points. During the editing of segments any replacement of a segment by a translation will be automatically propagated to all other original segments that are exact copies of the one having been edited. This occurs because these are full (100%) matches within the project and it is a convenient way to speed up translation. This may not be what is desired in all circumstances because the context of a particular segment may dictate changes be made, so just keep this in mind.

Also note that whenever there is a full match with segments that are contained in external TMX (in /tms), these are not autopropaged throughout to all matching segments because these are external resources, the ones that are autopropagated are from the projects internal translation memory only. That is, the ones autopropagated are accepted translations within the project, the external one are not accepted yet at the point where they are presented as full matches.

4. Generate Translated Documents

After translation of segments is complete (or at any time it is invoked), OmegaT+ can generate translated documents by creating a copy of the original document with all the finished segments from translation memory replacing the original ones.

To create the translated documents, select Create Translated Documents from the Documents menu. OmegaT+ will generate translated versions of all valid original documents into the /translations directory, regardless of how much translation has been completed.

At any time the current state of the translated documents can be checked by simply invoking Create Translated Documents. It is possible to alter existing translations in a translation project and then recreate the translated documents as often as desired. Please make a habit of saving a project's translation memory and generating the translated documents regularly. This will aid in preventing loss of valuable data and help to catch any problems sooner in your work than after expending much effort.

Later, once you get used to working with OmegaT+ and consistent results are given, you can relax these practices a little. They have really just been mentioned here out of concern for new users, who may need a little time to get used to the application--and we certainly don't want anybody to loose their work.

Comments on Tagged Formats

In Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), OpenDocument Format(ODF), OpenOffice.org(OOo), XML Hypertext Markup Language(XHTML), or similar tagged documents, certain parts of the contents often have special formatting. For example, a sentence may be mostly in italics with a word in the middle in bold.

OmegaT+ marks up these format changes using special tags, which must be transfer to the translated version of the text.

An Example...

Here is an example of a segment in HTML:

Here is how OmegaT+ will display it (tags in blue here only):

The tags can be manipulated in the course of translation. Whenever this is done it is important to not mix up the tags. The tags are paired and should remain so. The ordering is also to be maintained. So in the above you cannot mix one end of a bold tag pair with one end of an italic tag pair. You can also not mix the first italic pair tags into the second italic pair tags and vice versa.

Of course, you can change the text within the tags. The tags can also be moved to other locations in the segment as a pair. It is also possible to add new tags (if you know what they are and maintain proper ordering).

OmegaT+ can automatically detect mistakes in translated documents that use tags when generating translations. To do this, first turn on auto tag validation via Documents > Tag Validation > Validate Tags (auto). Else, check tags manually by clicking Validate Tags in the same menu. It is also a good idea to open the document in its associated viewer or editor to double-check the formatting.

Licence