XTM is an online tool
with a browser-based interface.
This guide focuses on
the workflows STP linguists may encounter when working in the XTM Editor on a
client's XTM server.
For detailed instructions on how to use the functionality of the XTM Editor,
please refer to the official XTM manual where most of the below information is
taken from (starting at page 260):
https://xtm.cloud/docs/xtm-manual.pdf
Logging
in
The PM will provide
you with login credentials:
- Link to the project
- Client name
- Login name
- Password
Navigate to the link
and enter the other credentials.
(Do not change the login credentials!)
Task
list
After logging in,
ignore the dialogue box that opens about passwords, and click straight to the
“Tasks” tab to access the files.
In the Active tab you will see tasks
assigned to you. Click on a task to open it in the XTM Editor
Navigating
the interface
XTM displays all
segments on the same page by default, but this can be changed to a number
between 10 and 500 under Settings.
Navigate between pages with the buttons in the top of the screen.
· The left-hand
menu bar contains the following functions:
- Segment filter
- Change segment status
- Run QA
- Go to next page with QA warnings
- Find & Replace
- Metrics (wordcount)
- Preview
- Settings
- Help
The right-hand menu
bar contains checking tools such as spellchecker and QA and navigation
between flagged segments.
- Check current segment
- Go to previous incomplete segment
- Go to next incomplete segment
- Go to previous segment with a comment
- Go to next segment with a comment
- Go to next segment with invalid tags
- Centralize segment
- Restore from segment history
The editor displays
the document in four columns, which are from left to right:
- Segment ID
- The source language text
- The target language text (this will display the source text in case the target is empty)
- Segment status and character count (current/allowed)
Clicking a segment
will display matches from various sources, but never more than three. They are
ordered by the type of match and then by the date created or changed.
The order is as follows: Exact match, TM Leverage match and Repetition, DB
Fuzzy matches and Internal Fuzzy matches (in score order and then in date
order). MT suggestions will also appear here; this means that for MTPE
projects, the MT output that you need to post edit is not present in the target
segment when you receive the files. The MT content for you to post edit is in
the TM; so, the output that you should post edit for each segment will
appear when you click on each individual segment in question.
Keyboard
shortcuts:
Cheat sheet for
XTM
Comments
To see all comments
in the file, go to Settings and
select "Yes" for "Show all comments automatically".
Segment
statuses
The right-hand column
displays information about the status of the segment and origin of the target
text.
Saving
All edits you make
are automatically saved to XTM Editor.
Concordance
Before selecting this
menu item, highlight a word in either the source or target text. Users can
search for:
Exact match
- to find segments which contain only the words in the search phrase in the
correct order
Phrase match - to find
segments with all the words in the search phrase, but in any order
Broad match - to find
segments with any of the words in the search phrase and other words or
characters
Inline
elements
Inline elements, or
tags, such as text formatting, are represented in the text for translation by
numbers in curly brackets, e.g. {1}. For inline elements with content, the
numbers in brackets are green and come in pairs around the text, e.g. {1} sample
content {1}. When the source document is a Microsoft Word file, and the option
to display hints about inline elements is enabled, XTM Workbench shows the
meaning of inline elements in the docked panel.
The inline elements
without content (e.g. with the anonymization option on) appear alone and are
blue.
If you are missing
any inline elements in a segment but try to approve it nevertheless, the
segment will be highlighted in red and a warning message will appear at the
bottom of the page. If you do not correct the number of inlines, the segment
will be saved, but the translation will not be used when the target document is
generated, or it will not be available in the Find and replace option.
QA
The quality assurance
checks happen automatically when you set a segment to translated or when you
click one of the QA icons.
Spell
checking
If a spelling mistake is detected
during the check then the word is highlighted in yellow. If you click on the word,
then XTM displays a number of suggested spellings for the word. You then have
the option to select one of the suggested words, add the suspect word to the
custom default dictionary and ignore the word in this segment or in the whole
project.
The spell checking utilises the Open Office dictionaries. Separate custom
dictionaries are created for each customer. This means that multiple
translators working on projects for the same customer will use the same custom
dictionary.
Other
QA checks
Apart from checking the spelling, the
QA module also checks for:
- Missing or incorrectly formatted number
- Numbers inside words
- Missing space after punctuation marks
- Multiple punctuation marks in a sentence
- Multiple spaces in a sentence
- Spaces before punctuation marks
- Spaces around inlines
- Spaces around double byte characters
- Trailing tabs or spaces at the beginning or end of a sentence
- Uneven number of opening and closing brackets
- Check non-translatable text in curly brackets
- Forbidden characters – as specified by the system administrator
- Identical source and target
- Repeated words
- Spelling errors
When a QA error is
detected, an orange mark is inserted to highlight the problem
Wrapping
up
The last person
working on a file needs to send the file back to the client by clicking on the
file options and selecting Finish .
The last person will either be a reviser working in XTM or a PM (if the
revision has been done outside of XTM).
If you are translating a file you must NOT click Finish when ready as this sends the file back
without revision.