omegat-users

Comparing segment lengths

[Francisco A. da C. <ciscocosta@...>]

Has anyone written a script for comparing source/translation segment 
length, or think that it would be possible?

It seems like it would be a useful feature for people working with 
subtitles (who can't overshoot the source string by more than a few 
characters) and other translators who need to keep their work within a 
certain limit (e.g., a magazine editor who says the translation needs to 
be x% shorter than the original).

Alternatively, working from English to Brazilian Portuguese, I often 
check the number of characters in a paragraph when I think I might have 
accidentally skipped a sentence; if the source is bigger than the 
translation, I'd better double-check my work. It would be easier if 
there was a systematic way to check every segment for these characteristics.

IMO, it would be even better if it could be done using searches and 
regex, but I don't believe it would be possible that way.

-- 
Cisco
ciscocosta@...
http://www.ciscocosta.com/
www.twitter.com/ciscocosta

RE: [OmT] Comparing segment lengths

[Yves S. <yves@...>]

Hi Cisco,

> Has anyone written a script for comparing source/translation
> segment length, or think that it would be possible?

One possible way to check the length of the OmegaT segments is to use CheckMate.
You can do that without much efforts.

See this article on how to integrate that tool with OmegaT:
http://www.opentag.com/okapi/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Use_CheckMate_with_OmegaT

In CheckMate, click at the "configuration" button. There are many checks, but you can disable all of them except the one you want. The length check is in the "Length" tab. You can check for a maximum length for all segments, or check if the translation is larger than a given percentage of the source.

Obviously, with the nice scripting interface OmegaT has now you can also do fancy check with a script.

Hope this helps,
-yves

Re: [OmT] Comparing segment lengths

[Francisco A. da C. <ciscocosta@...>]

Thanks, Yves. It should help a lot, yes.

-- 
Cisco
ciscocosta@...
http://www.ciscocosta.com/
www.twitter.com/ciscocosta

Re: [OmT] Comparing segment lengths

[Jean-Christophe H. <jean.christophe.helary@...>]

On Dec 5, 2011, at 8:23 AM, Francisco Araujo da Costa wrote:

> It would be easier if there was a systematic way to check every segment for these characteristics.

OmegaT does that for you. Check the figures at the bottom right of the main window. The rightmost item is the number of source characters vs the number of target characters.

> IMO, it would be even better if it could be done using searches and 
> regex, but I don't believe it would be possible that way.

Yves suggested that you use Rainbow or the scripting interface that OmegaT 2.5 offers. You can also export the strings to a text file (Options > Editing behavior) and use scripts to compare the length of the source and target segments (only possible if target exists, ie after the translation is over).


Jean-Christophe Helary
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