As written above, OmegaT tags are LTR strings. When translating between RTL and LTR langauges, to correctly read the tags from the source and to enter them properly in the target may require the translator to toggle between LTR and RTL modes numerous times.
If the document allows, the translator is strongly encouraged to remove style information from the original document so that as few tags as possible appear in the OmegaT interface. Follow the indications given in Hints for tags management. Frequently validate tags (see Tag validation) and produce translated documents (see below and Menu) at regular intervals to make it easier to catch any problems that arise. It should be possible to translate a plain text version of the text and to later add the necessary style in the relevant application.
When the translated document is created, its display direction will be the same as the original document. If the original document was LTR, the display direction of the target document must be changed manually to RTL in its viewing application. Each output format has specific ways to deal with RTL display, check the relevant application manuals for details.
To avoid changing the target files display parameters each time the files are opened, it is sometimes possible to change the source file display parameters so that such parameters are inherited by the target files. Such modifications are possible in OpenOffice.org files for example.
With OmegaT you can translate files in a number of file formats. There are basically two types of file formats, the plain text and the formatted text formats.
Plain text files contain text only, so their translation is as simple as typing the translation. There are several methods to specify the file's encoding so that its contents is not garbled when opened in OmegaT. Such files do not contain any formatting information beyond the "white space" used to align text, indicate paragraphs or insert page breaks. They are not able to contain / retain information regarding the color, font etc of the text. Currently, OmegaT supports the following plain text formats:
ASCII text (.txt, etc.)
Encoded text
Java resource bundles (.properties)
PO files (.po)
INI (key=value) files (.ini)
Other plain text file types can be handled by OmegaT by associating their file extension to a supported file
type (for example, .pod
files could be associated to the ASCII
text filter) and by pre-processing them with specific segmentation rules.
Formatted text files contain text as well as information such as font type, size, color etc. They are commonly created in word processors or home page editors. Such file formats are conceived so that they retain formatting information. Such formatting information can be as simple as this is bold or as complex as table data with different font size, color, position etc. In most translation jobs it is considered important to have the translated document look similar to the original. OmegaT allows you to do this by marking the characters/words that have a special formatting with easy to manipulate tags. Simplifying the original text formatting greatly contributes to reducing the number of tags. Unifying used fonts, font sizes, colors etc should be considered if possible, to simplify the translation and reduce the number of possible tag errors. Each file type is handled differently in OmegaT. Specific behavior can be setup in the file filters. Currently, OmegaT support the following formatted text formats:
OpenOffice.org
OpenDocument
Microsoft Open XML
(X)HTML
HTML Help Compiler
DocBook
Okapi monolingual XLIFF
CopyFlow Gold for QuarkXPress
Subtitle files (SRT)
ResX
Android resource
LaTeX
Typo3 LocManager
Help & Manual
Windows Resources (RC)
Mozilla DTD files
Other formatted text file types can be handled by OmegaT by associating their file extension to a supported file type and by pre-processing them with specific segmentation rules.
Other plain text or formatted text file formats may also be processed in OmegaT.
External tools can be used to convert files to supported formats. Please remember, that the translated files will need to be converted back to the original format. This way, a number of plain text formats (including LaTex etc) can be translated in OmegaT through conversion to the PO format. Similarly, a number of formatted text formats (including Microsoft Office files) can be translated in OmegaT through conversion to the Open Document format.
The quality of the translated file will depend on the quality of the round-trip conversion. Make sure you have tested all your options before proceeding with such conversions. Available free conversion tools include:
OpenOffice.org |
OmegaT does not offer direct support for Microsoft Office formats Word, Excel and Power Point. However, OpenOffice.org (and variants) can be used to convert such formats to OpenDocument, that OmegaT natively supports. |
Okapi Framework |
The Text Extraction Utility from the Okapi Framework has an option
for creating an OmegaT project folder tree. It is also possible to
create an OmegaT specific XLIFF file. The Java implementation of Okapi Framework
is available at Okapi.opentag.com. |
Translate Toolkit |
The Translate Toolkit, a python tool set, provides users with a number of converters to and from Portable Object, including Mozilla .properties and dtd files, CSV files, Qt .ts files, XLIFF files. It includes a number of tools to manipulate such files before or after their translation in OmegaT. |
Po4a |
po4a is a Debian perl tool. It can convert files formats such as LaTeX, TeX, POD etc to and from Portable Object. |
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