Working with memoQ 

During the last months we have realized that some of the linguists have some doubts about the right way of inputting tags in memoQ so we have decided to create this document with some guidelines on how to properly deal with them in memoQ projects. In this document, we’ll also cover the importance of the QA and how to use it optimally to keep an eye on possible issues included in the text, including detection of tags, and how to avoid having to spend lots of time ignoring false positives by using the ignore all feature.

Working with tags in memoQ.  Why is this relevant?

- Documents without the right tag placement or with either extra tags or missing tags cannot be exported out of memoQ by project managers, generating an error during the process and requiring further changes before they can be delivered.

- Tags can be moved around in the target cell to a certain degree depending on the text but there are certain requirements that need to be fulfilled (opening tags always have to be placed before closing tags, numbered tags have to be in order...).

 

 

How to properly display tags in memoQ

Tags can be shown in the memoQ editor either as short, medium or long. You can locate this setting on the Edit tab in a dropdown menu named Inline tags.

When this option is set to either short or medium (Fig. 1 & 2) it is possible that you may not be able to see the full code included in tags. This can be a problem since shortened tags may appear to be the same even if they are not.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

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To ensure that the full tags can be seen, allowing us to detect inconsistencies, we need to always choose long tags, which will allow us to see the full code or text inside the tag and will help us differentiate them (Fig. 3).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig.3

 

In some cases, the tags will look really similar to each other but having the long inline tags displayed will allow us to differentiate cases where the tags might look the same but incorporate numbers as seen in Fig. 4, where opening and closing tags are shown consecutively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 4

 

 

 

 

How to work efficiently with tags in memoQ

While many translators are used to copying the source to target by using a shortcut (in memoQ CTRL+Shift+S) to avoid having to deal with the tags one by one and then take care of the translatable text, there is a much more effective way of dealing with tags in memoQ.

When translating, by pressing the CTRL key once in the segments editor a small list (Fig. 5) will appear under the cursor displaying the ”elements” in the source segment that corresponds to the current target segment.

Fig. 5

(Elements will be used to refer to tags, terms found in the term bases, numbers, and the such.)

These elements will appear in the list in the same order in which they appear in the source segment, always highlighting the first suggestion, as shown in Fig. 5 too.

By using this feature, the translators can quickly write and then press CTRL once and hit Enter to include these elements in the same order in which they are supposed to appear. The function also keeps groups of consecutive tags together, and once the element has been placed, it disappears from the list, showing the next suggestion (Fig. 6) so using this during the translation makes it easier to avoid mistakes.

Alternatively, if you prefer to insert tags using your mouse, you can activate Tag Insertion mode using the shortcut F6 and simply click in the tags in the target cell, using your left button on your mouse. Also, you can see the Insert Tags options by clicking on the Edit tab on the ribbon.

Fig. 6

 

 

QA : Quality assurance Quality assurance has been implemented into memoQ in the form of a tool available for both translators and project managers that includes lists of possible errors and warnings and marks the segments that don’t adhere to the rules specified in that list.

The small yellow lightning mark appears under the TM match percentage and indicates that there’s a warning in that segment. (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

By clicking twice on this small mark, a small box will open showing the code of the warning, its description, and a box which can be checked to ignore it, if the warning is deemed irrelevant or a false positive (Fig. 8)

Fig. 8

 

 

While this can be used to check the warnings, one by one, it can be very time consuming, especially with certain language combinations. For this reason, it is advised to wait until the project is finished and then click on Quality Assurance, in the Review tab. (Fig.9)

Fig. 9

Select the documents that you want to run the QA on and click okay to run it. Once the documents have been analysed, the QA editor view will open. (Fig.10)

Fig. 10

The QA editor view consists of a list on the lower side of the screen with all the warnings detected in the selection with their segment number, the code of the warning and its description and a segment editor on the top.

Warnings appear on segments with different issues:

 

 

- Double spaces - Numbers not matching in source and target - Translations being inconsistent in different segments with same source (or where

the same translation has been used for several different source segments). - Terms not matching the termbase - Capital letters not used consistently

And many others...

The segments can be edited here in the same way as in the normal view for the translation.

You can also order them by code, row, and description by clicking on the top of the specific column.

Here are some of the basic controls for this view:

- Segments can be amended by pressing CTRL+ENTER after introducing the changes.

- Warnings can be ignored by checking the ignore box or by pressing CTRL+SPACE.

- Segments can be navigated by using CTRL and up or down in the keyboard. - Some of the corrections, like issues with double spaces, can be corrected

automatically and do not require manual correction, they can be fixed by pressing CTRL+ ALT + SPACE.

For some reason, memoQ doesn’t have a shortcut assigned for a very, very relevant function for the translators: Ignore all.

Modifying shortcuts and using the Ignore all option 

As already mentioned, this QA is not perfect, and especially with some complex languages like Finnish, the sheer number of false positives you can get when running a QA, makes it impossible for a translator to deal with them in a timely manner.

To deal with this scenario, memoQ provides us with the Ignore all function.

The first step to use it is assigning it to a shortcut:

Click in Options (Fig. 11).

 

 

Fig. 11

Select keyboard shortcuts (Fig. 12)

Fig. 12

You can also modify the shortcut profiles from the Resource Console but since we want these changes to apply for all projects, we will do it from here.

 

 

The default settings in memoQ can’t be changed, so you’ll have to click on Clone and rename the new profile and then before selecting it click on Edit.

In the new window, select Resolve Error and Warnings to unfold the shortcuts (Fig. 13)

Fig. 13

Click on the small pencil icon and then on the blank space that will appear. Then press the combination you would like to use for the shortcut: Ignore All of This Kind. In the example (Fig. 13) CTRL + the full stop (period) is used but any combination would do. Once it’s registered, click on the green cross to save it and then click on OK (Fig. 14).

 

 

Make sure that the profile we have modified is the one selected currently and click OK again in the Options Window.

Fig. 14

 

 

Now let’s go back to the QA window. By selecting one of the warnings and using the shortcut we have assigned to the Ignore all of this kind function, we see the following window (Fig. 15). In it, we can choose to ignore the warnings that are referred to as the exact segment (exact same description) the specific term, (exact same long description) or just the same code or general description. This last option allows us to filter for anything that fits that general description. In this case, any issues with missing terms in the translation would be marked as Ignore All of This Kind, and will subsequently not show up for you to check.

Fig. 16

Ordering the segments by description by clicking on it and then ignoring those that are deemed irrelevant is a great way of using the QA in a quick way.

As a final note, and very importantly, please be aware that there are certain warnings and error messages, like for example those associated with XML files due to the misplacement of tags, which should never be ignored, and have to be fixed before delivery. Failing to rectify these types of errors prevents us from exporting the final version of the target file (Fig. 17).

 

 

Splitting and joining segment  

As many of you know, splitting and joining segments is a usefull feature in many CAT tools that 

allows the translators to change the segmentation created by the tool to join or separate 

segments when they believe that the unit should contain more than one segment or when they 

want to divide the current segment in two units.