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🦾 Machine Translation & MT Profiles

 

Machine Translation (MT) is a cost-effective way of translating content at a rapid speed. Traditionally, MT has been a mechanical, rule-based substitution of words in a source language to a target, but advances in deep learning and machine learning have yielded more advanced, high-quality translation performance.

Smartling supports a wide range of NMT providers and Large Language Models. 
Customizable MT Profiles allow you to configure your preferred MT provider. MT Profiles can then be used in a Machine Translation workflow, for MT suggestions in the CAT Tool or a range of account-wide MT integrations.

Please note that Smartling's Neural Machine Translation Hub is a paid product. For pricing information, please reach out to your Smartling Customer Success Manager.

Tip: Need to translate text or files instantly without any configuration? Try Smartling Translate - Smartling's new machine translation portal, powered by Smartling's NMT Hub.

MT Providers and Supported Languages

Smartling integrates with the following Machine Translation engines:

* Includes support for custom trained engines.

** In addition to the supported locales mentioned here, Prompsit can also be used to translate from or into the following English locales:

  • English (Canada): This locale uses the same translation output as English (United States).
  • English (Australia), English (Singapore), English (Mauritius), English (New Zealand) and English (South Africa): These locales use the same translation output as English (Great Britain).

To connect your Smartling account to an MT engine, you will first need to activate an account with one of the above providers. Please contact your Smartling Customer Success Manager for more details.

MT Profiles

MT Profiles are a collection of credentials and configurations for your MT engines used in Smartling. You can create an MT Profile to store a key, then assign that profile to different workflows. You can also use your MT Profile to provide MT suggestions in the CAT Tool, or for a range of account-wide MT integrations.

To view, manage or create MT Profiles, navigate to your Account Settings > Machine Translation Settings.


  • From the Profiles tab, you can view and edit existing MT Profiles, or create a new one.
  • From the Settings tab, you can select which MT Profile should be used for MT suggestions in the CAT Tool, or for one of Smartling's account-wide MT integrations.

Smartling Auto Select

Your new Smartling account comes with a pre-configured MT Profile called Smartling Auto Select. This is Smartling's-own MT Profile, which intelligently routes your content to the best suited NMT engine.

Tip: For information on the Smartling Auto Select MT Profile, read our documentation on Smartling Auto Select.

Creating an MT Profile

In addition to Smartling Auto Select, you can create custom MT Profiles to use an MT provider of your choice. For information on how to create, edit, delete and configure an MT Profile in Smartling, read our documentation on Configure MT Profiles in Machine Translation Settings.

Enabling MT Profiles in Workflows

For information on how to enable MT Profiles in Machine Translation workflows, read our documentation on Setting Up a Machine Translation Workflow and Configuring MT Profiles in Workflows.

Enabling MT Profiles in the CAT Tool

For information on how to enable MT Profiles in the CAT Tool, read our documentation on Machine Translation in the CAT Tool.

Machine Translation in the Translation Memory

For information on how Machine Translations are saved to your Translation Memory, read Machine Translation in the Translation Memory.

 

Locale-specific Machine Translation

Machine Translation generally facilitates the translation of one language into another, without taking into consideration locale-specific nuances. For example, most MT providers will generate the same translation output for French (France) and French (Canada). Regional or country-specific variations of the same target language are generally not taken into account.

Cross-locale Adaptation with Prompsit

If you are interested in adapting text from one locale to another with MT, e.g. English (United States) to English (United Kingdom), we would recommend setting up an adaptation workflow using Prompsit.

Locale-specific MT with Smartling Auto Select

Smartling Auto Select provides a locale-specific Machine Translation output for the following target languages, taking into account regional nuances:

  • French: French (France) vs. French (Canada)
  • Portuguese: Portuguese (Portugal) vs. Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Spanish: Spanish (Spain) vs. Spanish (Latin America)
  • English: English (United States) or English (Canada) vs. English (United Kingdom) or English (Australia), English (Singapore), English (Mauritius), English (New Zealand), English (South Africa)

This is achieved by using Prompsit to automatically adapt the Machine Translation output to the specific target locale, regardless of the MT provider which was selected for the initial translation.

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