Workgroup ID creation form

Fill in this simple form and click the button to create a Workgroup ID. With a Workgroup ID, a team of translators can work online on the same project and pool the translation units they produce as they work, with full TM-matching and context-search capabilities. The following article provides more details. Note: using the online VLTM in read-only mode is explained on the previous page.

Wordfast VLTM Workgroups: an overview

The Workgroup ID is a 10-character password entered in Wordfast, that enables translators to share translation units in read/write mode within the VLTM, over the web. The Workgroup ID defines an area of confidentiality within the VLTM.

A workgroup is created for a certain period of time (between 1 and 24 months, to accommodate most translation projects), after which all its translation units are deleted from the VLTM. During this time, all workgroup members have a read/write access to their private portion of the VLTM, identified by the Workgroup ID. Members of other groups cannot see or use these private translation units: confidentiality is preserved within the group.

As an added value, members of a workgroup receive matches coming from the public part of the VLTM. If the VLTM has two matches of identical value (like 100%), the VLTM will supply the private match (the match that belongs to the group) in priority. The public part of the VLTM is fed with donated translation memories or various aligned material that has fallen in the public domain. On the other hand, private TUs are never made public: the owners of Wordfast pledge not to make public, sell, license, or otherwise disclose private TUs. When the workgroup's period ends, private TUs are simply deleted.

We assume the following workflow is used by workgroups, with minor variations:

1. A workgroup/project manager (the PM) obtains a Workgroup ID with the form above. The PM distributes the ID to members of the group. Note: if a project involves many language pairs, the same Workgroup ID can be used. TUs in different languages will not collide. Thus, one same Workgroup ID can be used for one client, or one overall project, regardless of how many languages are used. This will ease the PM's work.

2. After documents are translated by members of the group, they are sent back to the PM, who ensures spell-checking and/or proof-reading, and client validation. Proofreaders or editors can also use Wordfast and access the VLTM.

3. Finally, the PM cleans up the final, bilingual documents (using Wordfast, Trados Translator's Workbench™ or any other tool) to generate the final, clean TM, which is kept locally.

Thus, ownership of the real, final TM is yours, locally - there is actually no need to download all TUs from the private workgroup upon project completion.

Translators are welcome to use the workgroup TM alone (create a one-member workgroup). This practice is accepted.

We advise PMs to always use the same 4-figure PIN number when generating Workgroup IDs (the same PIN number will generate a different Workgroup ID every time).

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