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Batch processing > Pseudo-translate files

Use the Batch Processing > Pseudo-translate Files settings to specify what settings are used when you run the Pseudo-translate batch task. This enables you to simulate how a translated document will look after translation and how much extra engineering work will be required before actual translation is done.

These settings appear in multiple dialog boxes in SDL Trados Studio.

BoxDescription

Pseudo-translation type

Select how words are selected from the target language dictionaries to simulate translation:

  • Random - When this option is selected, words from the source document are replaced with words of the same length at random from the target language dictionary. That means if you run the pseudo-translate task multiple times, different translated words will be in the output each time.
  • Deterministic - When this option is selected, words from the source document are always replaced with the same word that is the same length from the target language dictionary. That means if you run the pseudo-translate task multiple times, the same translated words will be in the output each time. However, if you want a more natural look to the translation, you want to select Random instead.

Leading/Trailing Tags

Specify settings to mark the start and end of each string to indicate that pseudo-translation has been applied to that paragraph or segment.

Append character to the start

Enter the character that you want to add to the beginning of each paragraph or segment.

Append character to the end

Enter the character that you want to add to the end of each paragraph or segment.

  • Alter on paragraph unit level
  • Alter every segment

Select if you want to add the characters specified above at the start and end of every paragraph or segment.

Text length modification

During translation from a source language into a target language, the length of the text is usually changed. In order to simulate this behavior, the length of each string is based on statistically calculated expansion.

Expend Target segment by factor

Enter the factor by which you want to expand the segment by to simulate translation. This puts additional characters on the end of each segment.

Text transformation

Choose if you want to replace words with actual characters in the generated document or if you want to replace them with $ signs.

Apply pseudo-translation from the dictionary

This takes actual words from a target language dictionary and inserts them into translation to simulate actual translation. Which words are selected depends on which Pseudo-translation type you selected above. Selecting this option allows you to introduce new characters that are typical for a target language.

Apply pseudo-translation using $ (dollar) sign

This inserts $ (dollar) signs in place of every character in the translated document.

For example, this may be useful if:

  • you do not want to be disrupted by the language (especially if you understand the target language) and you only care about potential layout problems.
  • you are processing an XML document where you need to specify which content should be translated in the file type settings. If you simulate translation of the document using pseudo-translate, you can easily see when text has not been processed because it will not be replaced by $ dollar signs. Therefore, you can tell if you need to adjust your XML settings to specify something as translatable or untranslatable.

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