Working with translation memory

Translation memory (TM) is designed to provide maximum content re-use and facilitate collaboration between globally distributed localization resources. Find below the procedures for the following tasks:

• Leveraging translation memory

• Using TM Lookup window

• Updating translation memory

Leveraging translation memory

To leverage translation memory:

1. Follow the steps to open a file from section Opening a file.
   The file appears in the Translation window. The first translatable segment will be open, and your cursor will be in the target segment by default.
   
   
    

2. Select Translation Memory > Current Segment Leverage or click or press Alt+-.
   The TM will be leveraged and the target segment appears.
   
   
    

Using Replaceables

You can leverage the TM to replace numbers, URLs, punctuation and email addresses in the translation. If Use Replaceables for higher TM matches was selected in Preferences, the leveraged segment will overwrite the translation. For more information, go to Selecting Translation Memory Settings.

In the example below, the numbers differ in the source and target segments.

1. Select Translation Memory > Current Segment Leverage or click or press Alt+-.
   The TM overwrites the number in the target segment.
   

Translation memory default color representation

Find below the list of default color representations for source and target segments in the Translation window:

Go to Defining color codes for more information.

Using TM Lookup window

The TM Lookup window is used to view TM leverage results and context searching. Find below the procedure for the following tasks:

• Viewing TM leverage results

• Using TM lookup

Viewing TM leverage results

The TM Lookup window displays the leverage results for the current source segment, if Perform TM Lookup Automatically is selected in Preferences. The results display the segment ID, Source and Target segments, leverage score, TM Name, User Name, and Date/Time of update to TM.
 

TM Lookup default color representation

Find below the list of default color representations for source and target segments and translation score in the TM Lookup window:

Go to Defining color codes for more information.

Using TM lookup

TM lookup is a process that searches for specific source segment text in the translation memory. The results display source and target segments.

To perform TM lookup:

1. Enter a word or phrase in the TM Lookup text box. For example,

   • Our Process: searches segments with either word available in lower, upper and sentence case.

   • "Our Process": searches only those segments that include both words in the same order and case.

   • Our+Process: searches segments which include both the words available in lower, upper and sentence case.

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2. Select the Case sensitive check box to match case.

3. Click Find In Source or Find In Target.
   Note: If you want matches that only have all the words in your phrase, use + signs between each word instead of spaces. If you use spaces in the search string, then results will show segments that have any of the words in them.
   
   OR

1. Select a word or phrase in the source segment.

2. Press Ctrl+Shift+T or .
   The TM Lookup results appear. The results display the segment ID, Source, and Target segments, TM Name, Username and Date/Time of update to TM.
   
   
   
   Note: The words or phrases that match the searched context are highlighted.

If no TM is selected, the following dialog box appears:

Click TM List to select a TM from the list of TMs.

To continue without selecting a TM, click OK or close the dialog box.

Updating translation memory

To update translation memory with new content, ensure the TM has the Read only checkbox clear and update options are selected. Go to Creating or opening a translation memory and Selecting translation memory settings for more information.

When you navigate source segments by pressing Alt+Down or Alt+Up or clicking or , segments are saved automatically to the TM.

Note: If you have changed the target segment, and you navigate using other methods (for example, clicking other segments to navigate directly to them), a warning message appears asking if you want to save the target segment.