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When you work in Smart Editor, you have integrated access to Translation Memories (TMs), Term Bases (TBs), relevant Machine Translation (MT) engines and built-in QA tools – and you can see a context preview for supported formats. This means that you will be able to work faster and smarter, getting more work done in less time.

Since everything happens online, your work is saved continuously, so you can close the browser and come back to your work later. As long as you are online and have a stable connection, your work will be saved once you click one of the save options at segment level.

 

Browser

Smart Editor is optimised for Google Chrome, which we therefore recommend for the best user experience.

However, Smart Editor also works in other common browsers, such as Edge and Safari.

 

View

Customising the layout

You can customise the layout by selecting

  • the compact or normal view (“View”>“Compact”)
  • where you would like to see the source: in the left-hand column, or in a stacked view only in the current segment (“View”>”Source”)
  • your preferred font size among four size options (“View”>”Font size”)
  • how tags are displayed (“View”>”Tag display”)
Customising the panel

You can customise the panel by selecting

  • the position of the panel (“View”>”Panel position”)
  • which element(s) should be displayed in the panel, namely:
    • the preview (“View”>”Preview”)
    • the QA summary (“View”>”QA Summary”)

You can also change the width of the panel

and the height of each panel section

Adjusting the layout of the Info section

The Info section contains the following tabs:

  • Suggestions
  • Terms
  • History
  • Concordance
  • Symbols
  • QA

You can navigate between these tabs by clicking on the tab heading. If the panel width is too narrow to display all tabs, you can use the arrows.

If you prefer to have the Info section displayed under the current segment, you can customise this by going to “View”>”Inline segment info”. After activating this option, the tabs contained in the Info section are displayed as in the example below.

Note that if you would like to visualise the Suggestions, Terms and History in the panel at the same time (without having to switch between the individual tabs), you can detach them by going to “View”>”Detached segment info tabs”, and select the tabs you would like to detach.

Once the tabs to be detached are selected, each one appears in a dedicated section in the panel.

Please note that when detached, the Suggestions, Terms and History tabs remain in the panel even when the inline segment info view is activated.

Displaying whitespaces

You can activate the visualisation of whitespaces under “View”>”Show whitespaces”.

Whitespaces are then marked with a green dot.

 

Preview

Activating the previews

For supported file formats, you can activate or deactivate document previews under “View”>”Preview”.

Three types of preview can be shown, including

  • Source: preview of the source file(s)
  • Target: preview of the target file(s)
  • Other: preview of PDF reference files, when available (these are the PDF files also found on the job page under Project Reference Files)

When activated, the previews appear in the panel.

It is also possible to popup each preview to its own window.

Dynamic segment-preview navigation

When you click on a segment in Smart Editor, the corresponding section is automatically highlighted in the source and target preview. And vice versa: clicking on a section in the source or target preview will automatically take you to the corresponding segment in Smart Editor.

Preview layout

You can change the options under “Show” to modify the layout of the previews.

Zooming in

You can zoom in on the preview with your mouse wheel to see more details.

Refreshing

You can update the target preview to instantly see your edits for supported formats by clicking on the refresh button.

Supported file formats

The file types that are supported in the source and target previews are:

  • .docx
  • .pptx
  • .html

For other file types, such as Adobe InDesign (.indd, .idml), a PDF of the source file may be available as reference under the “Other” preview.

Multiple files

When a job contains multiple files, a green row stating the file name will appear in the list of segments at the start of each new file. In the example below, segments 1-5 belong to file 1.

The number of files is also indicated in the green row (in the example above, the job consists of 5 files).

When a job that contains more than one file is opened in Smart Editor, the preview indicates “Multiple files” until a segment is opened.

Once you start working in the segments, the preview will only display the file that corresponds to the active segment. In the example below, segment 1 is being edited, and since it belongs to file 1, the preview displays file 1 only.

Tip: If you would like the preview to display all files, you can close the current segment by clicking on the segment ID.

Please note that if a file is not supported in the preview (such as .txt files), the preview will not display any content.

If you are working on a Subtitle Localisation job that contains multiple video files, you can navigate between the video files as shown below.

Please note that this option is only available when no segment is open. As with other file types, once a segment is opened, the video preview will display the video that corresponds to the active segment.

Please also note that the file selector is located at the top of the list of segments in subtitling mode (Caption, Subtitle Styling and Subtitle Burn-in jobs).

 

Segments

Pre-translation baseline

Smart Editor shows the pre-translation baseline for each segment in the list, e.g. 100% match, 101% match, fuzzy match or MT output. The same information is displayed throughout the job.

 

Please note that after modifying a pre-translated segment, the symbol with the TM matching score or “MT” will appear struck through:

Segment statuses

Segments in Smart Editor can have one of the following statuses

  • Needs attention: segments that are not 100% or 101% matches have this status when initiating a job.

  • Draft: segments that have been edited but not saved, and segments which have been saved as draft have this status.

  • Confirmed: segments that have been saved have this status. Segments that have been saved but for which saving to the TM was skipped also have this status, however they are indicated by a different icon.

The status for each segment is indicated by an icon.

The segment statuses are used to calculate the progress in the progress bar. In the example below, 11 segments are confirmed out of 46 segments in total.

Please note that the progress bar does not represent the number of words, but rather the number of confirmed segments.

Saving segments

You can select how each segment can be saved from one of three options:

  • Save
  • Save without TM
  • Save as draft

Saving a segment as a draft can be helpful if the translation you have entered is not final. You can easily find the segments you have saved as draft using the filters.

We recommend only using the “Save” option once your translation is final, as the segment is saved to the TM.

Please note that when you use the options “Save without TM” and “Save as draft”, your changes are only saved to the target file for this job (and not to the TM).

Segmentation rules

Smart Editor divides the source text into segments based on language-specific punctuation rules. Please note it is currently not possible to split or merge segments in Smart Editor.

Navigation
Setting the behaviour after save

You can configure the navigation behaviour after saving under “Edit”>”After Save”.

You can choose from three options:

  • Go to next needs attention segment: after clicking the Save button or using the Save shortcut [Ctrl + Enter], the next segment with the status “needs attention” opens.
  • Go to next segment: after clicking the Save button or using the Save shortcut [Ctrl + Enter], the next segment opens, regardless of its status.
  • Stay on current: after clicking the Save button or using the Save shortcut [Ctrl + Enter], no other segment opens.
Pagination

Smart Editor splits the document into pages and you can choose how many rows are shown on each page. The default is 50 and the maximum is 100.

If you receive a job with more than one source document, the content of the documents will appear one file after the other.

Jumping to a specific segment

To jump to a particular segment quickly and without having to go through the different pages in your current job, you can type the ID of the segment you would like to find in the dedicated ID field located on top of the list of segments.

After entering the ID and pressing enter, you are redirected automatically to the segment with the ID you specified.

For large projects containing a high number of pages, you may also use this technique to quickly go to a specific page by entering the ID of a segment which is located on the page you would like to consult.

Auto-Propagation
Working with auto-propagation

Auto-propagation allows repetitions in the file to be translated consistently by propagating translated segments.

Please note that auto-propagation works with repetitions only, not 100% matches.

Repetitions are pre-translated, but not auto-confirmed. You can spot a repetition and its children within a job thanks to the chevron (double arrow) symbol.

When you hover the mouse cursor over this symbol, the first occurrence (parent) of a repetition indicates the number of repetitions, and the other occurrences (children) indicate the segment ID of the first occurrence.

Changes to a repetition can be auto-propagated to all unconfirmed children. After saving the first occurrence of a repetition, a dialog box opens to allow you to select your preferred repetition settings.

If you select to apply changes to all repetitions, they will be auto-propagated and all repetitions of the first occurrence will be marked as “Confirmed”.

Please note that the repetition save action also takes the state of the segment into account (Draft, Saved, Saved without TM). This means that you can approve all repeated segments very quickly with one click.

Multi-select actions

In order to save multiple segments at once, you can use the multi-select actions.

You can find this functionality in the section located on top of the list of segments.

After clicking on the downward-facing arrow, you can save multiple segments at once. Select the segments you would like to save, then click on “Multi select actions” to select the type of save action to apply.

Locked segments

When working on Smart Editor jobs, you may encounter locked segments. These segments are marked with a padlock icon located to the left of the source segment.

In the example below, segment 4 is not locked, whereas segment 5 is locked.

There are two main reasons why segments may be locked:

1) The locked segments do not need to be translated or checked in the current job, and were locked at the customer’s request. In this case, the locked segments cannot be unlocked. Please note that these segments are not shown when working outside Smart Editor after downloading an SDL package or an Excel file. However, they would be shown in an XLIFF file downloaded from Smart Editor.

2) The locked segments are Exact or Context Matches. In this case, the project manager decides whether the locked segments can be unlocked or not and makes the appropriate setting.

When the padlock icon is grey, the segment cannot be unlocked.

When the padlock icon is green, you can click on it to unlock and edit the segment.

A hover text also indicates whether a segment can be unlocked or not.

Please note that downloading SDL packages, XLIFF and/or Excel files is not permitted for jobs that contain this type of segments and the download option will not be available for these jobs in Smart Editor.

 

Filters

You can find the filter above the segments in Smart Editor.

You can use five different filters:

  • Needs attention: shows only the segments that are NOT 100% and 101%. This is a dynamic filter. Each time you change the status of a segment, the filter will update.
  • Draft: shows only segments that have been saved as “draft” by the user during the current job. This is a dynamic filter. Each time you change the status of a segment, the filter will update.
  • Confirmed: shows only segments that are confirmed by the user during the current job. This is a dynamic filter. Each time you change the status of a segment, the filter will update.
  • Auto approved: all segments that originated from the TM as 100% or 101%/TM will show as auto-approved. This is a static filter. It shows the status the segments had when the job was initiated. If you change the status of a segment, it will still show up with its initial status in this filter.
  • New content: shows only segments that were not auto-approved when the job was initiated. If you change the status of a segment, it will still show up with its initial status in this filter.

 

History

You can use the History tab in the “Info” panel to view any previously saved versions of the current segment. Each entry in the history includes a timestamp, the job type under which it was created and who created it.

 

Shortcuts

List of shortcuts

You can find the list of supported keyboard shortcuts in the upper right corner. A legend explaining the symbols used in Smart Editor can also be found there.

Mac/Windows compatibility

Almost all of the shortcut keys work for Mac, but some are not compatible* and/or have variations:

Windows MacOS variations
Ctrl + Down Does not work with multiple desktops
Ctrl + Z Cmd + Z
Ctrl + Shift + Z Cmd + Shift + Z
Alt + 1-6 Does not work
F1-9 Fn + 1-9
F10 Does not work
Ctrl + G Cmd + G
Ctrl + Shift + G Cmd + Shift + G

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Tested with:

  • MacOs Big sur
  • 11.2.1
  • Chrome 11.2.1 Mac