Under Community Review

Perform MT look-up on demand only (for the active segment)

At the moment, MT can be implemented in three ways: pretranslate a whole file; display in the Translation Results window; automatically apply in the active segment after look-up.

However, a fourth option is needed: perform MT look-up on demand for the active segment, but not by default. Why is this option needed? Because suggestions from MT that appear in the Translation Results window can be distracting when you're busy translating the active segment and may adversely affect your translation decisions. But MT lookups can still be useful on a segment-by-segment basis.

Please make it possible to perform MT look-up on demand for the active segment, and display the result in the Translation Results window. All with a single shortcut! 

[See related forum discussion here.]

Emma Goldsmith

  • I entirely endorse Emma Goldsmith's idea of adding this as a translator-controllable option. My position on MT is clear: full MT options should be in the hands of the input translator, upstream in the work flow. A seasoned translator should after all be credited with common sense and discernment in the choice of target-segment offerings. This obviates a lot of extra work downstream, with MT post-editors having to untangle the errors of a blind MT operation. Besides, the rotation rate of conventional MT post-editing personnel is notoriously high. A colleague warned me of the considerable human cost of MTPE. On the plus side, I used SDL (now RWS) NMT for an assignment, and found the output from that of workable quality in the initial, input translation step.