Migrating from Wordfast Pro 3 to Wordfast Pro 4

Not only has the user interface drastically changed from Wordfast Pro 3 (WFP3) to Wordfast Pro 4 (WFP4), but the format of linguistic assets (TMs and glossaries) has changed as well as the locations they are stored.

In this guide, we will first discuss ways to organize your projects and after determining the best way for you, we will explain how to migrate your assets from WFP3 to 4.

There are three main ways to organize your projects and the way you choose will depend on your user profile.

Organizing your Projects

Language Project Containers: Simple Wizard

User profile

This setup is for people who are completely new to CAT tools and just want to start using one without reading a manual. It could also be appropriate for translators working for a small in-house translation department.

You create one project per language pair that you translate into; for example, FR-EN and ES-EN. You open the appropriate language project for the job in question and add files for the job to the project. You translate files in the TXLF Editor, then Save Translated Files and deliver to your client. You can eventually remove files from this project if you want.

Pros

• Easy to create a project.
• Fast for starting new jobs in the future.
• TM and project are automatically created and saved to a pre-defined location (e.g. file path: C://username/Wordfast4/projects).

Cons

• No control over TM and project files location.
• No control over TM name.
• All translations, regardless of client, are stored in a single TM.
• Complicated to migrate to unique projects in the future.

Client Project Containers: Simple or Advanced Wizard

This is basically the same as the above example except that projects are per language pair that you translate into and per client; for example, Client ABC FR-EN and Client ABC ES-EN. The pros and cons are the same as above, and the only difference is the user profile. This would be a set-up for a freelance translator who has multiple clients and wants to keep client data in separate TMs. This is also a set-up that most users used for WFP3.

Using the advanced wizard to set up a client project container allows you to specify where you want to save the project and TM. You can also add or create a glossary while going through the project creation wizard and specify its location (unlike in WFP3). Furthermore, you can add references to the project, such as a style guide. Finally, you can create multilingual projects; however, this feature is probably best suited for an organization involving unique projects (see below).

Unique Projects: Advanced Wizard

User profile

This setup is for users who are familiar with CAT tools, handle multi-lingual projects, or involve multiple people in the translation process (e.g. translator, editor, proofreader). It involves creating a separate project for each… project! A project has a definite start and end date and can have several files. While this may seem like the most tedious way of organizing things in the beginning – especially compared to using simple projects – it allows you to take advantage of advanced features and scale your activity for different, unknown needs (for example, outsourcing work to a colleague).

Pros

• Scalability
• Control over TM, glossary, and project files location
• Control over TM name
• Speed up project creation by using previous projects as templates
• Retain project specific preferences (for example, transcheck settings)
• Easy to add multiple TMs and Glossaries

Cons

• Slow in the beginning
• Blacklist not added during project creation wizard

Migrating Linguistic Assets from WFP3 to 4

Migrating your project(s)

No need to do anything for this, you will simply create a new project in WFP4 using the simple or advanced wizard (the latter if you want to specify its location). The project could be called "Source language to Target language," for example "French to English". If you have multiple language pairs, you'll create a separate project for each. However you decide to name your projects, be consistent! This helps you stay organized.

If using the advanced wizard, we recommend a dedicated project folder on your computer and a standardized naming convention for each project. For example: "YYMMDD Client - Project key words". This way you have a chronological time stamp, the client’s name and some key words that describe the project.

Migrating TMs

1. If all of your WFP3 TMs are already saved to the same folder, skip to step 5
2. Open WFP3, go to Preferences > Translation Memory > TM List
3. Click on the first TM in the list, then Export
4. Export each TM as TMX file to a dedicated TM folder. This TM folder should be regularly backed up and its location should not change. Furthermore, consider renaming your TMs at this point to use a standardized naming convention. We recommend "client FIELD ssss tttt wfm". By looking at the TM name, you know which client it is for, general field for the client’s industry, the source and target language, and that the TM is a Wordfast TM.
5. All of your TMs are now ready to be imported into WFP4. We recommend importing TMs on an as needed, per project basis. In other words, import the TM when you create a project in WFP4 for your client. You can use the simple or advanced project creation wizard to do this. If using the simple, make sure to NOT create a TM when creating the project. Once the project is created, you can open it, go to the Project TM tab and click on Import TM. Select the TMX file to import, choose the option "Create New TM", name and save it to your TM folder.
6. You will little by little have old TMX TMs and new WFP4 TMs in your dedicated TM folder. Please note that the format for WFP4 TMs is not a single file (like TXT or TMX) but a folder containing several database files.

Migrating Glossaries

1. Open WFP3, go to Preferences > Terminology > Glossary List
2. Click on the first glossary in the list, then Export
3. Export each glossary as a TBX file to a dedicated glossary folder. This glossary folder should be regularly backed up and its location should not change. Furthermore, consider renaming your glossaries at this point to use a standardized naming convention. We recommend "client FIELD ssss tttt wfg". By looking at the glossary name, you know which client it is for, general field for the client’s industry, the source and target language, and that the glossary is a Wordfast glossary.
4. All of your glossaries are now ready to be imported into WFP4. We recommend importing glossaries on an as needed, per project basis. In other words, import the glossary when you create a project in WFP4 and need to use it. Once a project is created in WFP4, you can open it, go to the Project Terminology tab and click on Import Glossary. Select the TBX file to import, choose the option "Create a new glossary", name and save it to your glossary folder.
5. You will little by little have old TBX files and new WFP4 glossaries in your dedicated glossary folder. Please note that the format for WFP4 glossaries is not a single file (like TXT or TBX) but a folder containing several database files.