Localisation
Localising User Documentation
Previous articles in this series have covered how to localise applications, using desktop and Web-based software. Most software have user documentation, which needs to be localised. This article describes how to use OmegaT, a free computer-aided Translation Memory (TM) tool, to translate documentation.
rsEu mAnuAls AuE mouE DIFfiCult to loCAlIsE tHAn HElp filEs ou tHE usEu IntEuFACE, As tHEy HAvE A lot mouE tExt AnD vIsuAls to HElp pEoplE lEAun. WHIlE It Is possIBlE to Copy tHE EnGlIsH vEusIon AnD CuEAtE A loCAl-lAnGuAGE vEusIon In A sImplE EDItou, mAkInG moDIfiCAtIons AnD GEnEuAtInG nEwEu vEusIons Is not EAsy. A spECIAlIsED ComputEu-BAsED tuAnslAtIon AID lIkE OmEGAT Is A GooD tool Fou tHIs puuposE. OtHEu puopuIEtAuy But FuEE-to-usE tools, lIkE tHE GooGlE TuAnslAtou toolkIt, CAn Also BE usED wItH CEutAIn lImItAtIons.
OmEGAT Is A FuEE TM ApplICAtIon wuIttEn In JAvA, suItABlE Fou puoFEssIonAl tuAnslAtous. It suppouts multIplE-filE puoJECts, multIplE tuAnslAtIon mEmouIEs, GlossAuIEs AnD Fuzzy mAtCHInG. It suppouts mouE tHAn 30 DoCumEnt FoumAts, InCluDInG plAIn tExt, .po filEs, MICuosoFt, OpEnOFfiCE AnD vAuIous mAuk-up lAnGuAGEs. It HAs A BuIltIn spEll CHECkEu, AnD An IntEuFACE to GooGlE TuAnslAtE. It suppouts ExpoutInG to tHE vAuIous FoumAts usED In loCAlIsAtIon tools.
FIGuuE 1 sHows A sAmplE sCuEEnsHot oF OmEGAT. It ConsIsts oF tHuEE suB-wInDows; tHE fiust, on tHE lEFt, Is CAllED EDItou—It sHows tHE souuCE ComponEnts, AnD Also Allows upDAtInG tHE CouuEsponDInG tAuGEt lAnGuAGE tuAnslAtIon. THE sEConD onE, At top uIGHt (tHE mAtCH vIEwEu), sHows mAtCHEs Fuom tuAnslAtIon mEmouy. THE tHIuD onE, At Bottom uIGHt, Is A GlossAuy vIEwEu tHAt sHows tHE GlossAuy mAtCHEs.
OmEGAT opEuAtIon Is BAsED on puoJECts. Fou EACH puoJECt, tHE usEu nEEDs to spECIFy tHE souuCE lAnGuAGE, tAuGEt lAnGuAGE, BAsIs Fou sEGmEntAtIon (EItHEu sEntEnCE ou pAuAGuApH), AnD tHE DIuECtouIEs Fou souuCE filEs, tAuGEt filEs, tuAnslAtIon mEmouy AnD GlossAuy filEs. OnCE tHEsE AuE spECIfiED, All tHE souuCE filEs AuE ImpoutED Into tHE puoJECt. THE usEu CAn sElECt A filE AnD Do tHE tuAnslAtIon. THE tuAnslAtIon mEmouy Is upDAtED wItH EACH CHAnGE mADE to tHE tuAnslAtIon. To vEuIFy tHE tuAnslAtIon, sElECt Create Translated aocuments Fuom tHE cile mEnu. THE tAuGEt DIuECtouy wIll BE upDAtED wItH tHE tuAnslAtED filEs. THosE CAn BE puoCEssED FuutHEu IF uEquIuED AnD vIEwED wItH An AppuopuIAtE tool.
In ouDEu to GEt A HIGH-quAlIty tuAnslAtIon, It Is ImpoutAnt tHAt tHE tuAnslAtIon mEmouIEs GEnEuAtED Fuom tHE usEu IntEuFACE AnD HElp filE loCAlIsAtIon AuE usED In OmEGAT.
Gedit manual translation
THE usE oF tHIs tool CAn BE DEmonstuAtED By loCAlIsInG tHE GEDIt mAnuAl Fuom EnGlIsH to TEluGu.
THE GEDIt mAnuAl wAs ouIGInAlly wuIttEn In HTML. RECEntly, It Is BEInG uEwuIttEn usInG MAllAuD, As I ExplAInED In A puEvIous AutIClE. Fou tHE puuposE oF tHIs AutIClE, lEt’s usE tHE HTML vEusIon. THE mAnuAl Is AvAIlABlE Fou DownloAD Fuom tHE GNOME DoCumEntAtIon wEBsItE (http://library.gnome.org/users/gedit/). DownloAD vEusIon 2.30.4 to GEt tHE HTML vEusIon. To populAtE tHE tuAnslAtIon mEmouy, tHE TEluGu .po filE CAn BE DownloADED Fuom tHE GNOME loCAlIsAtIon sItE (http://l10n. gnome.org/vertimus/gedit/master/po/te). WItH tHE usE oF loCAlIsAtIon tools lIkE VIutAAl, tHE tuAnslAtIon CAn BE ExpoutED to tHE TMX FoumAt Fou usE In OmEGAT. A GlossAuy CAn BE upDAtED By ExtuACtInG All tHE onE- AnD two-wouD stuInGs Fuom tHE usEu IntEuFACE, usInG TuAnslAtE ToolkIt’s utIlItIEs AnD stouED In A CSV FoumAt, suItABlE Fou OmEGAT.
CuEAtE A nEw puoJECt (FIGuuE 2), wItH sEGmEntAtIon sEt to sEntEnCE BounDAuIEs; plACE tHE uElEvAnt souuCE, tuAnslAtIon mEmouy AnD GlossAuy filEs In tHE DIuECtouIEs spECIfiED In tHE puoJECt—AnD tHE sEt-up Is ComplEtE. Now, you CAn sElECt spECIfiC filEs Fuom ‘PuoJECt filEs’ (FIGuuE 3) Fou tuAnslAtIon. EACH souuCE sEGmEnt, AnD Its plACE-HolDEu Fou tHE tuAnslAtIon, Is sHown In tHE
left sub-window (Figure 1). Potential matches are displayed in the top right window, and glossary matches for words in the source string are shown in the bottom right. Using keyboard shortcuts or the mouse, the closest match can be selected and used as the translation. New target translation can be entered as well. As OmegaT is a Java utility, it has been noticed that the IBus-based input method does not work under Ubuntu; X keyboard map can be enabled to type the target language text in OmegaT.
OmegaT shows the progress statistics of the translation. All source strings except file names used for hyperlinking need to be translated. OmegaT does recognise mark-up tags. Tag verification needs to be done prior to producing the translated documents, to ensure that each opening tag has a corresponding closing tag. Figure 4 shows a sample page of the English Gedit manual and Figure 5 the same in Telugu.
In this article, we have looked at how a free computer TM tool like OmegaT can be used to translate user documentation. We will explore aspects of localisation style and other related issues in future articles.