System Requirements

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• Java Runtime Environment (1.6+)

OR

• OpenJDK 6 JRE
• OpenOffice.org (2.4+)
  • This is only needed for aligning Microsoft Office formats (.doc, .xls, etc.)

Opening Aligner

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The JNLP file used to open Aligner can be downloaded on the TM Vault page.

After saving the JNLP file, double-click it to download and open Aligner.

Creating a New Project

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When Aligner first opens, choose "New Project".

 

You will be brought to the following screen:

1. Click "Add" on the source side to add source documents. Click "Add" on the target side to add target documents.
   • "Up" and "Down" will move the selected document up or down in the list. Each source document should be directly across from the translated version of that document.
   • "Delete" removes the selected document from the list of documents to import.
2. Once you have all of the source documents lined up with their translations, choose the type of segmentation that you want (sentence segmentation is recommended)
3. Choose the source and target languages.
4. Click "OK".

A new project will be created, and the first source and target documents will be loaded for alignment.

Aligning segments

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Simple Aligning

To align a source and target sentence, click the blue box to the right of the source, and then click the corresponding box to the left of the target.

To link the next group of segments, click the "Link Next Range" button. The next group of segments will be given unconfirmed links. These show up as white links, while confirmed links are blue.

To confirm the links, go to the bottom of the group of unconfirmed links, and double-click the last white, unconfirmed link. This will confirm that link and all of the links above it.

Merging Segments

Sometimes, a segment in one language may correspond to 2 or more sentences in the other language. In this case, you will need to merge the sentences together. Sentences can be merged by clicking the Merge icon that will appear when your mouse pointer is over either of the segments.

Splitting Segments

Sometimes it may be more appropriate to split two sentences apart in one of the languages, and there is an experimental feature that lets you do that. To split a segment into two, left click the box, then press the ESCAPE key. This will bring focus to the box so that you can move to the point where the text needs to be split. When the cursor is positioned where you want the split to occur, press the ENTER key to split. Any text after the carat will be moved in to a new textbox below. When you have finished, press ESCAPE again to remove focus from the text box and to continue aligning.

• Note that this is an experimental feature, and may not always work as expected.

Saving a translation memory

When your documents are aligned, you can save them as an XLIFF  file.

To save an XLIFF:

1. Click File > Save Aligned XLIFF
2. Choose a folder to save your XLIFF into
3. Type in a file name (e.g., AlignedDocs.xlf)

4. Click Save

Adding a translation memory to Lingotek

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After you have saved your XLIFF file to your computer, you can add it to one of your TM Vaults in Lingotek.

To save an XLIFF to Lingotek:

1. Log into Lingotek Collaborative Translation Platform
2. Click the Project Resources > TM Vaults
3. Click Import
4. Browse to the XLIFF file that you saved
5. Choose the TM Vault where you want your XLIFF stored
6. Click Import