Each Smartling Glossary entry should have a translation for every language in the Glossary. As Glossaries grow, some terms end up without translations, which weakens the Glossary over time. You can translate Glossary terms directly from the Glossary to keep it complete.

In short: select the terms in the Glossary, click Actions > Request Translation, choose a source language, Project, and target languages, and authorize the job. To avoid overwriting existing translations, select Only send terms for languages which do not have any existing translations yet in the Request Translation dialog.

Translating your Glossary is simple, but some preparation helps you get the best results.

Preparation

The Smartling Glossary is multi-directional, so it does not have a source language. Translating in Smartling, however, requires a source language and one or more target languages.

Create a files project specifically for translating Glossary terms. This Project should contain the same languages as your Glossary or Glossaries. To confirm the languages match, export the Glossaries you will translate terms from, then add any missing languages to the Project.

Use a separate Project for Glossary term translation. Your translation vendor may require different invoicing arrangements for this type of translation.

If you have several Glossaries with variations of the same locale, you can enable cross-locale leverage to make translations for one locale available for another. Alternatively, create a Project for each Glossary.

If you purchase translation services through Smartling, contact your Customer Success Manager to make arrangements for translating your Glossary.

Cross-check Glossary languages with Project languages

Account Owners and Project Managers can export a Glossary to see which languages it contains:

1. Go to Account Settings.
2. Under Linguistic Packages, click Glossaries.
3. Click the ellipsis (...) menu beside the Glossary you want to export, then click Export.
4. Choose an Excel or CSV file, and make sure to select all languages.
   • The export lists all languages in the Glossary. Use this list to create a files project with all of the Glossary languages.
   • If you already have a Project for Glossary term translation, add any missing languages to that Project.

Identify terms missing translation

1. From the Glossary List, click the name of the Glossary that needs term translation.
2. To show all languages, click View Configuration.
3. Choose your preferred Focus Language.
4. Under Additional Language Columns, select all other languages.
   • The Glossary now displays all terms for all languages, so you can see which terms already have translations and which are missing them.
5. To sanity-check existing translations, use the Term has Translations filter to find terms with a translation in a specific language. Then request translation for that target language as needed.
6. If most of your terms are missing translations, select all terms in the list and request translation for all target languages.
7. If only some of your terms are missing translations, you have two options:
   • Use the Missing Translations filter to find terms missing a translation in a specific language, then request translation for that target language.
   • For Glossaries with many languages, select the terms and use the Only send terms for languages which do not have any existing translations yet option in the Request Translation dialog. This sends only the missing translations, so you do not need to filter language by language.

Some terms cannot be translated. See Terms excluded from translation for details.

By default, translating a Glossary term overwrites any existing translation for that language. Do not select terms you have already translated unless you want to change the translation. To keep existing translations, select Only send terms for languages which do not have any existing translations yet when you request translation.

Terms excluded from translation

DNT (Do Not Translate) terms and terms that are "disabled in the CAT Tool" cannot be translated. If you request translation of these terms, they cannot be authorized for translation. To request translation for them, first make sure these settings are not selected (disabled). This applies whether or not you select the option to send only missing translations.

Request translation for Glossary terms

1. Identify the terms that are missing translations, then select the terms you want to translate.
2. Click Actions > Request Translation.
3. In the Request Translation dialog, select a source language to translate from, a Project to translate in, and target languages to translate the terms into.
   • The source language determines which Projects are listed, so your Project must have one of the Glossary languages as its source language.
   • The Project determines which target languages are listed, so your Project must contain the same languages as the Glossary.
4. (Optional) To translate only the languages that are missing a translation, select Only send terms for languages which do not have any existing translations yet. Existing translations are not overwritten. For example, if a term already has a French translation but no German translation, only the German translation is requested. This option is not selected by default.
   • DNT terms are still excluded from translation, whether or not you select this option.

5. Click Continue.

   

6. On step two, select the workflow for the translation job.
   • To choose a different workflow for each language, click show workflow details.

7. Click Authorize Job to start the translation process.

   

When terms are in translation

After you authorize the job, Smartling packages your selected Glossary terms into a job. You can find the job in the Project Jobs Dashboard, and the terms show as "In Progress" in the Glossary.

The job name is "Glossary" followed by the authorization date and the Glossary job number, for example "Glossary YYYY-MM-DD (1)" for the first job and "Glossary YYYY-MM-DD (2)" for the second.

Each Glossary term is created as an individual string and added to the workflow you selected when you requested translation. The term's Definition, Part of Speech, Language Notes, and Term Variations attributes are captured as string instructions.

To find Glossary strings in translation, filter your Strings View for the URI /Glossary. You can also open a prefiltered Strings View from the Glossary by clicking the string icon.

You cannot edit a term's Language Notes or Term Variations attributes while the term is in translation.

After a Glossary translation job is created, do not add languages to it. If you add a language to an in-progress Glossary job, the translations for that language are not pushed back to the Glossary. Instead, create a new job for the terms in the additional languages.

When terms are translated

When a Glossary term (string) is Published, Smartling automatically delivers the translation to the Glossary it was requested from. The translation appears as a term for that language.

If you later send an already translated term for translation again, the new translation overwrites the existing one. To avoid this, select Only send terms for languages which do not have any existing translations yet in the Request Translation dialog.