Phrase TMS for translators

Phrase is a cloud-based TMS (translation management system) with a CAT tool interface that has many similarities with memoQ. Phrase Desktop Editor is an offline client for editing Phrase TMS translation files (MXLIFF). It is free to download and use.

The full user manual for Phrase TMS can be found here: https://support.phrase.com/hc/en-us/categories/5709486381084-Phrase-TMS

A Sandberg PM will provide you with server credentials (username and password) that may be different between different projects. The server URL itself that you need to use is always https://cloud.memsource.com/

Note that you should NOT use these credentials to log in to Phrase TMS directly or to use the browser-based CAT editor, unless you are specifically instructed to do so. The credentials should only be used in the Phrase Desktop Editor to access the online resources.

All STP staff have Phrase installed. If you need to ever install it on your local PC, download the installer from Phrase's website and follow their installation instructions: https://phrase.com/download/.

All work in Phrase should be performed on the MXLIFF files provided by the PM using the Desktop Editor.
Please do not work directly on the web editor in Phrase TMS, unless you are specifically instructed to do so.

When a PM sends you a project in Phrase, it will consist of one or more MXLIFF files to open in the Phrase Desktop Editor. Open Phrase, and go to File > Open to select your files.

The first thing you need to do is enter the user credentials provided by the PM (you might be prompted for these as soon as you open the Desktop Editor).
Enter them under Tools > Preferences > Login. If they are correctly entered, the Login button in the bottom right of the editor will light up green. You will also see a green light next to any project resources you are connected to.
Without correct login info to match the file(s), you will not be able to access the TM, TB and other resources on the client Phrase TMS server.

Every segment in the file must be confirmed before delivery. Confirm with Ctrl + Enter. You will see a green tick mark appearing next to the segment when it's confirmed. It is very important to always respect the spacing of a segment, particularly if it ends with a space: this is because the client will end up generating a target file that might have segments glued together without proper spacing and Phrase does NOT apply spaces automatically (like memoQ does for example).

Some clients may leave useful context notes in segments, and for some accounts, these notes can also contain a direct link to the client's own query system - your project instructions should specify if this is the case for your project. You can see any context notes by activating the window from the Tools menu or by using the shortcut Ctrl + N. This makes the Context Note window appear at the bottom part of the editor.

Checking the TM/TB/MT matches

The editor layout is very similar to memoQ. On the right hand side, you will see the matches from the TM (exact matches green, fuzzy matches orange, always at the top), followed by entries in the Termbase (yellow), followed by the machine translation (MT) suggestion (blue). You will only see MT suggestions if the client project manager has switched this on. Use the shortcut CRTL+[number] to insert a match entry into the target segment.

You can do a concordance search in the TM and TB by highlighting the words you want to search and using the shortcut CTRL+K for a fuzzy search, or CRTL+Shift+K for an exact search. You can also use the Search tab in the lower right-hand corner.

You can add a comment in a segment by clicking on the comment icon (speech bubble) next to a segment.

You can split segments by placing your cursor in the source segment in the location where you want to split the segment in half, and using CTRL+E. To join segments, select the first one of the segments you wish to merge and use CTRL+J. This will merge it with the segment below it.

You can filter for segments using one or more filters at the same time. Click on the triangle at the top of the editor view to show and hide the filter options. Tick the boxes for the filters you want to apply. To clear the filters, untick the boxes.

Use the source and target segment filter panes on top of the translation editor to filter for segments containing specific words or characters. If you want to use Find or Find and Replace, use the shortcuts CTRL+ F and CTRL+H respectively.

You can also sort segments in this same window. Select the sorting option you want, and select No Sort when you want to clear the sorting.

Make sure to save your work every now and then by going to File> Save or using CTRL+S. Remember to also confirm segments into the TM as you go along, to make sure you don't lose any work should the programme crash.

At the very bottom of the screen you can see a pane listing the number of segments, words, and characters in the file. The black number on the left is the total amount of segments/word/chars in the file, and the green number on the right is the number of confirmed segments/word/chars in the file. Make sure to mark segments as confirmed when you go along to update the figures.

Note that some clients will request a post-editing analysis of a project, which will include calculating MT leverage. In practise, this means that any segment translated with the help of MT (that is, where the segment has been populated with an MT suggestion) will be analysed based on edit distance and leverage similar to TM match leverage will be applied. Read more on post-editing analyses here: https://support.phrase.com/hc/en-us/articles/5709712007708-Analysis-TMS-

Your PM will always discuss with the client how MT is used and instruct you accordingly.

Disabling automatic insertion of MT in the settings does not affect the post-translation analysis. The important thing to understand here is that if the client uses post-analysis to pay us for jobs, the post-analysis will calculate the edit distance between the "best possible suggestion" and the final translation even if you don't actively utilise the suggestion (by wiping the MT suggestion in the text, or not inserting leverage from the TM or MT engines). So there's no getting around this fact, and if you are getting an productivity increase from the TM/MT resources it is likely to mean a lower compensation in the post-analysis. The pre-analysis should only be seen as an indication of compensation.