Version control and a single source for translation, writing and publishing texts
1C:Translator lets you methodize translation of documentation: you import texts from a directory, the application automatically builds a dictionary for them that you should fill and after the automatic translation you proofread the result and make last corrections. Thanks to the fact that previous versions of texts are saved, you can restore the lost data when in case of an error.
You can use condition directives to define which parts of text should be included in various export options. This allows you to use this application as a single source, for example, to build PDF book and at the same time publish some pages on the site.
You can publish texts directly from the application interface. There is an example of web-service that is required to use this feature; the example is suitable for Bitrix CMS.
Besides the translation, you can create and edit texts having source text fields hidden; this allows you to use the application for writing books and articles.
Semiautomatic translation
The normal translation process made semiautomatic, but for critical texts where you would like to exclude automatic translation, you can omit the automatic translation and translate entire the text manually. The translation memory feature provides you the fuzzy search inside the dictionary that finds phrases that match approximately.
The accuracy of this search method will increase with inputting the dictionary and training of translation memory. To train the translation memory you can use already translated texts and the Translation memory training tool. This tool splits original text and its translation into sentences and helps you to match them by specifying which translated the sentence to use for source sentence.
Text index and changes highlighted in new versions and editions
To assist you with the translation of updates the application compares changes in source texts and in translations with a single character precision and shows changes that were made starting with the last ready version. This comparison is made in background without interrupting users' work. When the indexation is finished, you have information on changes, the dictionary and external and cross-links.
Indexing fills the dictionary with all strings of texts and this allows you to calculate the volume of unique strings that you are going to translate. Indexing also finds places where dictionary entries are used and this lets you estimate the labor of replacement of translation and meaningfully decide whether the replacement is relevant or not.
Terminology integrity
When you translate technical texts it is important to keep the integrity of the terminology that you use to let your user who reads the documentation of your application find the button with the same caption in this application that is described in the documentation. The application displays context where the dictionary entry is used and translations of its parts to help with translation of dictionary entries. It is recommended to use the proofreading stage after the translation to find and correct errors that can be made during the filling of the dictionary. The first proofreading stage is supposed to be made by the employee himself and the second stage that increases quality and ensures the single style – by the editor.
These features are great for new translations, but when your project evolves you inescapably will need to improve the terminology and make corrections. You can make these replacements in all dictionary entries and texts semiautomatically using the Check terminology tool. You can replace either all occurrences that you can see before the replacement, or selectively for texts where you think that the replacement should be made. This tool helps you keep the integrity of the terminology not only in the current project, but also in related projects.
Integration with third-party applications for translation and proofreading
The application can be integrated with popular translation web services, including: Microsoft, Google, Yandex, and Baidu. Many of them are free if you use less than a specific volume.
For proofreading this application supports integration with Microsoft Word. In its settings you can define appropriate options of checking syntax, grammar, and style. This feature is available for both texts and dictionary entries.
If you find limitations of the built-in text editor critical, you can use an external editor instead. After the external editor is closed, the text will be updated automatically inside the application.
Translating application interfaces and sources
The translation algorithm varies depending on the type of text: for normal text only the translation memory is used, for translation of source codes of programs the text is parsed according to the programming language syntax. Popular formats of storing resource strings, including PROPERTIES, RC, RCB, and XML are supported. You can translate no only application interfaces, but also source code if it is written, for example, in Russian, which is common for applications powered by 1C:Enterprise platform. To translate initial data you can use SQL dumps and XML files. Besides applications itself, you can translate schemas of business processes that are implemented in those applications, for this, export schemas in XML format (XPDL, BPMN).
The dictionary import and export over XML and spreadsheets lets you migrate keeping you current progress from other translation tools, for example from Edit interface texts tool of the 1C:Enterprise platform Designer mode. To help you translating applications powered by 1C:Enterprise platform, the application includes ready dictionaries with the script language terms and the most part of 1C:Subsystems Library.
Working with a vast amount of texts
When you translate HTML texts and Microsoft Word documents, you can find useful splitting them into smaller texts by headers. You can work with parts of a large document independently and thus collaborate with other team members to finish the book together.
To translate into several target languages you can use the root project to store the source document and sent texts to translation to other projects from this project. If you need to make the translation of changes systematic, you can automate import and sending to translation actions and execute them by a schedule.
During the translation process, texts pass workflow points of discussion, may change states, be excluded from the translation, sent to validation and correction, approved by the editor and accepted for payment. Dictionaries have a similar workflow that includes discussions that the editor can use to teach translators to use the common style entire the project.
Collaboration and access sharing
Various user roles allow the various levels of access to data. An employee that works on one of the projects is unable to see other projects if they are not members of that project's team. By default, employees can see only texts that require their attention in the list of texts. They also see highlighted texts that are not ready yet, but the milestone deadline expired already.
To work with outsourcers on translation of some texts you can use the Freelancers feature: you can select required texts and set them a responsible with access, limited with only those texts and only having when they should change in those texts something. It is possible to work with the Infobase using thin client for Windows or Linux, or using a web browser.
Project management, calculation of translation cost, employee KPI
Texts and dictionaries that you translate are grouped into projects. Projects can be split into milestones, which after that can be split into submilestones without depth limitation. Milestone can have a responsible person assigned. For projects, you can define the price of the translation of a normalized page by team members and their productivity comparing to normal productivity. The project also defines the translation direction. Languages that are used for this definition include all parameters required for translation, among others the alphabet and language codes for various applications that are integrated with 1C:Translator. Translation tasks are submitted and accepted with documents that keep the volume of submitted and accepted work.
To plan and control the work you can use a report that shows in real time the percent of execution for all milestones as well as the cost and completion date estimations. To prepare bills for employees you can use both, a report that shows the amount of translated characters and the report that shows the amount of time spent on that. Employees can see their own key performance indicators to understand their efficiency in limited versions of those reports.
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