Dates Wordfast Classic
Due to the great variety of date formats, WFC only recognizesmajor formats, such as a flat, regular date like 12 January 2016 (proposed as, for example, 12 janvier 2016 in French). Abbreviated date formats that are complete (year, month, day) for unequivocal recognition are also recognized:
| The meeting is scheduled for 2016/12/31. |
| La réunion est prévue pour le 2 |
| PL 2016/12/31 |
| PL 31-12-2016 |
| PL 31/12/2016 |
Note that WFC proposes three formats here: the original one, and two that were reversed to fit non-English formats, using the two major separators.
The set of signatures is automatically generated by WFC based on your language setup. This set of signatures is provisionally generated for a few languages such as CS, DA, DE, EN, ES, FI, FR, IT, JA, HU, NL, NO, PL, PT, RU, SV, ZH. The set of signatures assumes that EN-US is either the source or target language. Other languages may be submitted by the community and will be available by download.
Customization
The set of signatures resembles a standard Wordfast Glossary file, and can be edited. It is located in the same folder as wordfast.dot, and is named, for example, WfCnv-en2fr.txt for an English-French language pair. The content is organized as follows:
(...)
| # | acre | # | hectare | {cnv:*0.4046} |
| # | acre | # | mètre carré | {cnv:*4046} |
| # | acres | # | hectares | {cnv:*0.4046} |
| # | acres | # | mètres carrés | {cnv:*4046} |
| # | cu. feet | # | mètres cubes | {cnv:*0.283} |
| # | cu. foot | # | mètre cube | {cnv:*0.283} |
| # | cu. in. | # | cm3 | {cnv:*16.38} |
| # | cu. mile | # | kilomètres cubes | {cnv:*4.1618} |
| # | cu. miles | # | kilomètres cubes | {cnv:*4.1618} |
| # | lb. | # | kg | {cnv:*0.453} |
| # | lbs | # | kg | {cnv:*0.453} |
| # | pound | # | kilogramme | {cnv:*0.453} |
| # | pounds | # | kilogrammes | {cnv:*0.453} |
etc.
The first column has the signature for a source-language measurement; the second column has the target-language equivalent; the third column has the conversion formula. For example,
| # | acres | # | hectares | {cnv:*0.4046} |
then WFC will calculate 120 x 0.4046, and suggest 48.552 hectares. Values rounded to the nearest 5% and 10% are also proposed (like 50 hectares in that example).
In the signature file, the same measures may appear under different forms, like various abbreviations (pound; lb; lb.), or singular and plural forms (pound; pounds). This redundancy is meant to enhance the chances of spotting the pattern in the source text. The sharp sign # is a placeholder for a numeric value. Unlike glossaries, wildcards are not used, this is why singular and plural forms of the same measures are used in the signature file. Note the unorthodox English lbs abbreviation in the supplied signature set. They are necessary because of the poor quality of some technical documents. You may even enter a custom and horrific lb's (OMG!) if the English you are translating is of appalling quality. CAT tools belong to the realm of what's practical rather than what's ideal.
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