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Translation Memory

Ensure your translations are consistent by using the GL Strings Translation Memory

Table of Contents

  1. What is the GL Strings Translation Memory
  2. Translation Memory considerations
  3. How to create and access the Translation Memory
  4. How to add translations to the Translation Memory
  5. How to apply the Translation Memory to a Project
  6. How to achieve translation consistency across multiple Projects
  7. How to use the same Translation Memory across multiple Teams

What is the GL Strings Translation Memory?

The GL Strings Translation Memory (TM) is a database used to store a specific way of translating content for a given language managed by you. It is used to dictate which translations should be used in certain places, to avoid translating the same values twice, and to enforce translation consistency across multiple Projects within a Team.

While you can work directly inside the Translation Memory and translate your content in the editor interface of the Memory, it is more common to sync the existing translations of your Projects to the Memory.

On the GL Strings dashboard, the Translation Memory behaves almost like a regular GL Strings Project, but its content is shared across all Projects of a Team.

Translation Memory considerations

  • The GL Strings Translation Memory is intended for teams working with their own linguists or reviewers. It is up to your team to maintain the GL Strings TM. If you are working with TransPerfect Translations, they will create and manage a separate translation memory for TPT linguists to reference.
  • In order to use the GL Strings TM across Projects, both the source and target languages must be an exact match. For example, French (fr) translations can only be applied to projects with fr. The translations cannot be applied to projects with frCA.
  • The GL Strings TM is very specific. In order to apply the Translation Memory to an entry, the source must be an exact match. It doesn't support fuzzy matching aside from letter casing and leading/trailing whitespaces.
  • The GL Strings TM only allows for one translation per value. It isn't possible to include synonyms or different translations for the same source value.
  • In the free tier, the GL Strings TM is limited to 100 entries.

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How to create and access the Translation Memory

You can create a Translation Memory in your Team and access it in two ways:

  1. In the header of the Project page:

  1. In the Team overview page:

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How to add translations to the Translation Memory

Translations should be added to the GL Strings TM once they are finalized. You will likely need to periodically update the TM with new translations and the latest changes to existing translations to ensure the Translation Memory stays up to date.

💡 Tip: Make sure to eliminate duplicates and inconsistencies within the translations of your Project before you add them to the GL Strings TM to ensure the best possible translation quality. This is outlined below - How to achieve translation consistency across multiple Projects.

  1. Use the filter, ordering, and search functionality to limit the selection on a certain set of translations or simply select the translations you want to add to the TM by marking the checkbox next to each entry.

  2. From the Actions dropdown menu, select Add to Memory.

  1. Choose from the pop-up if you want to add the selected translations only in the current language(s) or the translations for all languages.

Additionally, you will have to choose how the translation that you want to add to the TM should be behave in comparison to those translations which potentially already exist for the the same source value.

  • Publish and Overwrite (default): This will overwrite the existing translation in the TM with the ones that are currently selected. This will make the currently selected translations the new default when applying the TM to matching source values.
  • Publish new & add Draft for existing: This will make the translation that you are currently adding to the TM the new default value. This option will also transfer the previous translation found in the TM into the Draft field so you can compare the differing translations.
  • Add only as Draft: This will keep any existing translations for this value in the TM (even if none currently exist) and add the new, currently selected translations to the TM as Drafts only. These newly added Draft translations will not be available to apply until they are published within the TM.

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How to apply the Translation Memory to a Project

  1. Use the filter, ordering, and search functionality to limit the selection to a certain set of entries or simply select the entries you want to translate by marking the checkbox next to each entry.

  2. From the Actions dropdown menu, select Translate from Memory.

  1. In the Translation Memory pop-up, choose from the following:
    • Choose if translations should be applied as Draft or Target values.
    • Select the corresponding checkbox to ignore case (differences in letter casing upper versus lower) and/or ignore leading and trailing whitespaces when matching the source values in the Project to those found in the Translation Memory.

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How to achieve translation consistency across multiple Projects

This process is meant for translation quality assurance also referred to as localization quality assurance (LQA). You may need the help of your translators to choose which translations should be added to the Translation Memory, and subsequently, to be used as your preferred translation for a given value.

From a setup perspective, one Team on GL Strings needs access to all the Projects and you need the Translation Memory to be enabled for that Team.

To ensure translation consistency, we recommend reviewing for any variances in translations for a specific source value.

Step 1 - Check for translation inconsistencies within a Project

  1. Open the editor for a language and apply the Inconsistencies filter (this will display all entries with the same source value, but different translations if any exist). If no inconsistencies are found, proceed to Step 2 below.
  2. If the translations for these entries differ, you must pick the translations that suits the use case and add it to the TM. There are a few options to update inconsistent translations within a Project:
    • Copy the translation into the other instances of the same source.
    • Add the preferred translation to the TM and then apply the TM to the other instances within the Project.
    • Link the duplicate sources together and select the key with the preferred translation as the master key.

Step 2 - Update the Translation Memory

Once there are no more entries found with the Inconsistencies filter, add the translations of this Project to the Translation Memory.

  1. Apply the Translated filter.
  2. Mark all entries using the top-most checkbox, click Actions then select Add to Memory.
  3. Choose Publish and Overwrite in the pop-up.

Step 3 - Check for translation inconsistencies between Projects

  1. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 with another Project within your Team, but when you Add to Memory this time select the option to Publish new & add Draft for existing. This will ensure you do not overwrite the translations from the first Project with the translations you added from this Project.

  2. Open the Translation Memory select the specific language and apply the Inconsistencies filter. This will show you all entries where the Draft and Target/published values are different.

  3. Choose which of the two possible options you want to keep for both Projects and either clear the Draft value or Publish the Draft value to keep the Draft as new default translation.

  4. Repeat Step 1 through Step 3 for all the Projects under a Team and for all languages.

Step 4 - Ensure translation consistency across Projects

  1. Navigate back to a Project and apply the filter for Translated.
  2. Click Actions then select Translate from Memory.
  3. Repeat Step 4 for each Project to ensure consistent translations across all Projects.

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How to use the same Translation Memory across multiple Teams

While you can’t synchronize a Translation Memory with another Team directly, the import and export functions the same as with regular GL Strings Projects. Simply export a file with the translations from one Team's TM and import the file to the other Team's TM.

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