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A script to draw brackets on the screen to help with segmenting long sentences

James Plastow

A key part of the translation process is going through long sentences and figuring out the sections that make up the sentence that will need to be in the translation, but often in a different order.

This script allows you to add ( and ) marks on top of the screen to see these different parts of the sentence more clearly.

Just click Ctrl Shift Left button for ( and Ctrl Shift Right button for )

Note that these brackets are just placed on top of the screen so they will not move when you scroll or be saved in the file at all.

You can clear them by hitting Escape and they will also be cleared when you hit Ctrl Enter to confirm the segment

CoordMode, mouse, screen

^+Lbutton::
MouseGetPos, x, y
x2:=x-50
y2:=y-60
Gui, New
Gui, +LastFound +AlwaysOnTop +Owner -DPIScale -Caption
Gui, font, s26 cDA4F49
Gui, add, text,, (
WinSet, TransColor, f0f0f0
Gui, Show, X%x2% Y%y2%
return

^+Rbutton::
MouseGetPos, x, y
x2:=x-50
y2:=y-60
Gui, New
Gui, +LastFound +AlwaysOnTop +Owner -DPIScale -Caption
Gui, font, s26 cDA4F49
Gui, add, text,, )
WinSet, TransColor, f0f0f0
Gui, Show, X%x2% Y%y2%
return

~^Enter::
~Esc::
reload
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  • 0

     

    I find this post really interesting, so thank you for posting it.  Not being a translator myself I'm wondering if this is a process that translators go through in their head consciously thinking about segmentation in this way?  Could you provide a short video explaining how you use this in practice?

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Hi Paul,

    OK, here is an example video (I borrowed a sentence from RWS's website, hope you don't mind)

    I noticed by the way that the variables x2 and y2, which are used to offset the position of the ( and ) to get them to line up with the cursor, will need to be adjusted slightly depending on the screen magnification you use in Windows. 
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  • 0 in reply to James Plastow

     

    Thank you for that.  I did find this really interesting, and not just from the point of view of drawing over the source like that with AHK.  It never occurred to me at all that this is how a translator may work by breaking up the source in this way and then rearranging it.  Seems quite mathematical and I always assumed this was something that was done by reading the entire source first, then phrasing it as it makes sense directly in the order it would be written in the target.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

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  • 0

    Very interesting. I might have a play with this in my work as a patent translator, where I often have to deal with very long segments/sentences. I usually deal with this by segmenting/splitting segments on certain punctuation marks (mainly ";") and standard phrases ("characterized in that", "wherein", etc.), but this might help as well.
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