Pre-Translation in Wordfast Pro
Q. Why pre-translate a file?
You might want to pre-translate a file in the following cases:
- You are sending the translation job to someone as a package or bilingual file and do not want to send them the translation memory (TM) for security or confidentiality purposes.
- You are sending the translation job to someone as a package and you do not want them to modify 100% match segments, edit source segments, or merge segments.
- You are sending the translation job to someone as a package, they do not have a Google or Microsoft MT API key, and you want them to post-edit a machine translation (MT).
- You want to get a fast, machine translated version of your file in the same format and avoid time-consuming copy and paste as well as desktop publishing when using an online MT engine.
Q. How do I pre-translate a file?
The easiest way to pre-translate a file is during the project creation. There are two options at the bottom right of the Project Creation wizard that allow you to pre-translate the file using your TM and/or your MT engine. Tick the pre-translation box and eventually the MT box if so desired.
Once you have created the project, in the Current Project view under the Project Files tab, you can lock segments from editing using the Analyze icon. After clicking the icon, in the Analysis window, you have Analysis Options to pre-translate the file (if for example you didn’t do so when creating the project) as well as lock 100% matches and prevent source editing or the merging of segments.
Finally, you can also pre-translate a file using several TMs and generate a bilingual TXLF via Quick Tools, under the Analysis tab.
Note:
The only way to pre-translate using MT is from the Project Creation wizard or by opening one or several (using chain files) TXLF files in a project and then using the Translate All icon with a MT engine enabled under Preferences.
-- Updated by Alina 28 January 2019
