Translation Table

Translation Table is the simple macro aimed to help translators in their work. It is not a CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tool, for such, please take a look to Anaphraseus extension or OmegaT project. My macro just creates a two column table, where in the first column you get the source text segmented by sentence, each sentence in a cell, and in the second column you can put your translated sentences, each one in opposite cells to the source sentences.

The some of advantages of such approach are:

1. You do not need to switch always between the documents (source and target)


2. You always have the source and target contexts before your eyes, which improves the quality of your work
   
   


3. After you finished translation, you can give the document for correction. The correction can be performed by standard OpenOffice tools. The corrector doesn't need to switch between the source and target to proof the document--this saves time. After you accept or reject correction, you can remove the source column and get the target document by one click.
   
   

How it works?

1. You open the source document. The translation table will be created from a selected text or if you don't have selected text it will make the table starting from the cursor. Press the button "Create Translation Table"


2. After this you you will be prompted to save your document under the other name in order to keep the original untouched.


3. After saving the document you will be prompted to choose the target language from a list.


4. You will be asked to anchor the images in the document to page in order to preserve them. Click No if you don't have images.


5. Then you will get the table with two columns, in the first one there will be the source text segmented by sentence, and the second column will have empty cells, where you can put your translation.


6. The optional step here can include proofreading of the document by somebody else.


7. After you've finished the translation of the whole document you press the button "Finish Translation" and your source text gets removed and you receive clean translated documents.

How to install?

1. Get It


2. Add this extension using the menu Tools -> Extension Manager and click "Add" button.


3. Accept the license (GPL)


4. Restart OpenOffice.org suite, including Quick Start in your system trey.


5. You will get the small toolbar with two buttons Start and Finish Translation. Additionally you can find those buttons under menu Tools -> Add-ons

Known Issues

1. Sentence segmentation rules for now are only English ones. If those doesn't feet to your language, please, send me your rules through Contact form and I will see, if i will have the time and knowledge to implement it.


2. The paragraph alignment is not kept when you want to clean your document. This is OOo issue, you can vote for it here.


3. Some others you may find... Please, email them.

Enjoy!