QA settings (for Japanese to English, but others too) Thread poster: Rod Walters
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Rod Walters 
Japan
Local time: 15:25
Japanese to English
Does anybody have any suggestions for ideal QA settings for Japanese to English?
I'm trying to figure out how to get Japanese punctuation converted to English, as well as numbers (including kanji) if possible. However, the interface is not at all intuitive, and the Help is not helpful. For example, on several tabs there is a pull-down labelled "Language". Well, which language is that? I'm working with two languages...
The Help also says, "You can edit these settings; ho... See more Does anybody have any suggestions for ideal QA settings for Japanese to English?
I'm trying to figure out how to get Japanese punctuation converted to English, as well as numbers (including kanji) if possible. However, the interface is not at all intuitive, and the Help is not helpful. For example, on several tabs there is a pull-down labelled "Language". Well, which language is that? I'm working with two languages...
The Help also says, "You can edit these settings; however, be very careful because this is where you change global settings." Since there is some risk of annoying problems if you get something wrong, how about having some help with getting the right settings for each language pair? A built-in feature, or a downloadable patch or something?
I'd be happy to cooperate in developing the settings for Japanese, if only I had some better idea of how to make the settings.
This issue has the potential to increase productivity considerably, so I'd like to see a more helpful interface and more detailed and informative Help. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | QA, automatic translation functions, and typing aids | Jun 12, 2009 |
Hello Rod,
You started the thread by asking for input on QA (quality assuance), but then continue with questions about automatic translation features. These are very different functions. QA points out possible errors based on predefined settings, while the auto-translatables function uses user-defined rules to suggest (and, in some circumstances, automatically insert) translations or localized versions for pieces of text. It is commonly used to "convert" date formats and number form... See more Hello Rod,
You started the thread by asking for input on QA (quality assuance), but then continue with questions about automatic translation features. These are very different functions. QA points out possible errors based on predefined settings, while the auto-translatables function uses user-defined rules to suggest (and, in some circumstances, automatically insert) translations or localized versions for pieces of text. It is commonly used to "convert" date formats and number formats, but can be used for any type of text.
There is also a third type of feature that comes into the picture here, which we call Typing aids in general. There are two types in MemoQ, one is called AutoCorrect, the other Smart Quotes. Currently, Smart Quotes automatically converts straight quotes to typograhically correct "smart" quotes while typing. AutoCorrect on the other hand lets you define any text that you want to be replaced by something else while typing. If you define a replacement like "replace bc with because", you can type bc during translation , hit Space, and MemoQ will insert the word "because". These functions work very similarly to their counterparts in Microsoft Word. If you can give us some feedback on how we can make them work well for Japanese, we would appreciate it.
Also, there is the problem of global settings vs. project settings. For auto-translatables, segmentation rules and some other settings, you can define global settings after clicking Options in the Tools menu. When you supply global settings, you must specify the language or language pair they will apply to. These settings will then get inherited by all new projects containing the specific language or language pair. They don't, however get applied to your exisitng projects. Project settings can be defined by clicking the Settings button in the vertical menu of the Project manager. These apply to your current project.
This post is already very long, and I've only touched the basics. If you think of it, it is defintely impossible to provide specific instructions for all the langauges and language pairs. A good start is to get familiar with regular expressions, because without that knowledge, the user has not much hope of being able to create anything useful. But regular expressions are a long story... If you are determined to work with auto-translatables, please start learning regular expressions from the MemoQ help or the countless online resources, try creating your first basic rules, and come up with specific questions when you hit a problem that bocks you.
We welcome feedback about the Help, if it is a bit more specific. In my opinion, the Help goes out of its way to explain regular expression basics, and in fact I myself successfully learned creating segmentation rules and autotrans rules from the MemoQ Help. But then again, I did have some technical background. So, if you can tell where exactly the Help fails to help you, we might be able to help that.
Best regards,
Gergely ▲ Collapse
| | | | Rod Walters
Japan
Local time: 15:25
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Couple of points | Jun 15, 2009 |
Hi Gergely
Thanks for the response.
Gergely Vandor wrote:
If you can give us some feedback on how we can make them work well for Japanese, we would appreciate it.
In MemoQ, I only type in English, so I have no suggestions to offer for auto-complete in Japanese. I expect it would be similar to how Word handles it.
Gergely Vandor wrote:If you think of it, it is defintely impossible to provide specific instructions for all the langauges and language pairs. A good start is to get familiar with regular expressions, because without that knowledge, the user has not much hope of being able to create anything useful.
I have thought of it, and I don't see why it should be impossible in a general way. Obviously it would be undesirable to build the rules for every language into the software, but that's not what I'm suggesting. Presumably your resellers in each region have considerable competence both in languages and software, so perhaps they could be tasked with dealing with this?
Also, if you think about it, "without that knowledge, the user has not much hope of being able to create anything useful" is not something a software designer should ever find themselves saying. I bought the software to translate from Japanese to English efficiently, not to learn programming.
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