Translating mixed-source language files

AnyTM enables you to translate files that contain text in more than one language, for example, a file that contains content in English, French and Dutch, but which needs to be translated into German. AnyTM enables you to handle this type of file, and automatically leverages and updates the right TM depending on the language of the segment being translated. When you translate mixed-source language files, you can retrieve translation matches from different sources.

Procedure

  1. Decide whether you want to use TMs:
    • For all future projects - Go to File > Options > Language Pairs > All Language Pairs > Translation Memory and Automated Translation.
    • For the current project - Go to the Projects view, and select the project. On the Home tab, select Project Settings, and then go to Language Pairs > All Language Pairs > Translation Memory and Automated Translation.
  2. To add all the TMs you want to use for your file, select Use > AnyTM: Any file-based TM.
  3. Select the Lookup and Update checkboxes of all the TMs. This will ensure that all the TMs will be updated (but only with the segments in the matching source language).
  4. Select OK to save your settings.
  5. Go to the Advanced tab, and select Mixed-source language translation to activate mixed-source language editing for this project.
  6. In the Mixed-source language translation pane, select the This project contains content in more than one source language checkbox.
  7. Select Add to add all the source languages that occur in the file, to the Project source languages list. You can also select Autodetect all, and AnyTM will try to automatically detect all the source languages in the current file and add them to the list.

    You are now in mixed-source language editing mode, which means AnyTM will automatically start choosing the right TMs that match the current segment's source language when performing lookups and updates.

    As you move through the file, you will notice that AnyTM automatically adjusts the Segment source language drop down box to match the actual source language of the current segment. This selection determines which TMs are used for lookups and updates. You can also control the drop down box manually by clearing the Auto-detect segment source language checkbox.

    You can also use other translation providers such as MT in mixed-source language mode. In order to do this, select Use > AnyTM: other provider and add the other providers. This will ensure that the source segment language selection is taken into account and for instance the right source language information is sent to the machine translation engine.

    You can use the mixed-source language in combination with the reverse language feature, so you could use a German > Dutch TM in the example above and AnyTM would automatically detect that this is the reverse language direction, create a reverse TM and keep the two TMs in sync.

    Batch operations (batch TM update in particular) are not supported in mixed source language mode. We recommend that you update the TM as you translate the document by confirming each segment. If you run batch update, all the TMs will be updated, regardless of whether they match a segment's source language.