OmegaT feature wishlist / status query Thread poster: Michael Mestre
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(A similar post was sent to the OmegaT yahoo group, but I would also like to get input from ProZ users on this)
OmegaT is a wonderful tool that is becoming more usable with every new version.
First, I would like to congratulate all the developers for the newest release (2.6.3), which is great.
I would like to inquire about the status of some features that I would love to see implemented in OmegaT and, for those that are not under active development yet, know how d... See more (A similar post was sent to the OmegaT yahoo group, but I would also like to get input from ProZ users on this)
OmegaT is a wonderful tool that is becoming more usable with every new version.
First, I would like to congratulate all the developers for the newest release (2.6.3), which is great.
I would like to inquire about the status of some features that I would love to see implemented in OmegaT and, for those that are not under active development yet, know how difficult they would be to create:
- Custom keyboard shortcuts (including for scripts) with a GUI/dialog in the main application for this.
- Proofreading functions, such as being able to mark segments as proofread (with a convenient keyboard shortcut).
- Better management of different translations for non-unique segments (it's better than nothing, but not as good as in Trados).
- Seeing a segment without the tags inside OmegaT (not through an external script).
- Pasting from the TM without the tags (as if the TMX level 1 had been re-imported as a regular TM).
- Some kind of formatting preview (like with Trados) for common file formats such as ODT, DOCX..
- "whole words only" option in the search.
- Native support for .TS files from QT Linguist.
In relation to this topic, is there a money-raising platform somewhere on the Internet to crowdfund the development of popular OmegaT features ?
What do the other users of OmegaT think of this wishlist ? Any other ideas ? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Didier Briel 
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
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| Use regular expressions | Mar 30, 2013 |
Michael Mestre wrote:
"whole words only" option in the search.
From the documentation:
Table 16.11. Regex - Examples of regular expressions in translations
\bis\b search for “is”, not “this” or “isn't” etc.
Didier
| | | | Michael Mestre
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | regular expressions | Mar 30, 2013 |
Ah great, thank you !
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:12
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Michael Mestre wrote:
Custom keyboard shortcuts (including for scripts) with a GUI/dialog in the main application for this.
Two things would be nice:
1. A function inside OmegaT that would open the user settings folder. I know this folder's location is mentioned in the user manual, but it still requires quite a bit of navigation to find it, and on some machines it is a hidden folder which can only be accessed directly if using a shortcut. This will make it easier for users to modify certain things, such as keyboard shortcuts, or to use the text export features.
2. I think that a file named "MainMenuShortcuts.properties" should be present in the user settings folder anyway, with all the possible keyboard shortcuts in it, but possibly commented out by default. I know that the process of changing shortcuts is described in the user manual, but it still requires quite a bit of effort to do it, and having such a file ready would make it much simpler.
Better management of different translations for non-unique segments (it's better than nothing, but not as good as in Trados).
Yes, it still amazes me that the function of marking an alternate translation has no keyboard shortcut -- you have to navigate a long menu every time you want to use it.
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Susan Welsh
United States
Local time: 12:12
Russian to English
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| developers and money | Mar 31, 2013 |
There is a place at SourceForge (where you download OmegaT) for requests for improvement (RFEs). Your wishlist gives one the impression that you think there are lots of developers sitting around in need of suggestions for how to improve the software. So far as I know, there are only two, and of course they are volunteers. Very hard-working volunteers, but volunteers nonetheless. I'm sure they would like to have more developers helping out!
As to money, there is a link on the SourceF... See more There is a place at SourceForge (where you download OmegaT) for requests for improvement (RFEs). Your wishlist gives one the impression that you think there are lots of developers sitting around in need of suggestions for how to improve the software. So far as I know, there are only two, and of course they are volunteers. Very hard-working volunteers, but volunteers nonetheless. I'm sure they would like to have more developers helping out!
As to money, there is a link on the SourceForge page (http://sourceforge.net/project/project_donations.php?group_id=68187), the Yahoo group homepage, and on every announcement of a new version, asking for contributions. People can also discuss with the list owner making a contribution to pay for a specific improvement. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Mestre
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Re: developers and money | Mar 31, 2013 |
Hello Susan,
I admit that I didn't know how many regular developers there were, but I certainly didn't think that they were "sittling idly waiting for new ideas to come up"
However, I know for sure that there are many (hundreds ? thousands ?) of professional translators who use OmegaT for some or even most of their projects (such as myself), and who would be happy to donate.
And I guess (although I ... See more Hello Susan,
I admit that I didn't know how many regular developers there were, but I certainly didn't think that they were "sittling idly waiting for new ideas to come up"
However, I know for sure that there are many (hundreds ? thousands ?) of professional translators who use OmegaT for some or even most of their projects (such as myself), and who would be happy to donate.
And I guess (although I can't be sure about this) that even more people would be extremely happy to donate for a specific feature that they are missing.
I think that this is a common practice for open-source projects, and that when significant sums are collected (which is clearly possible in our case) new developers can be hired to work on specific features or plugins with a given budget.
What do you think ? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | | Michael Mestre
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Formatting preview | Mar 31, 2013 |
Hi John,
This is better than nothing, but doesn't make a big difference compared to having Libreoffice open and reload the target file manually.
I was talking about something slightly different, not a full preview but rather a minimal preview that would alter the appearance of the source segment in the OmegaT window based on commonly-used tags (italics, bold, etc...).
This is not only cosmetic, but also enables the user to spot quickly the tags that are visually r... See more Hi John,
This is better than nothing, but doesn't make a big difference compared to having Libreoffice open and reload the target file manually.
I was talking about something slightly different, not a full preview but rather a minimal preview that would alter the appearance of the source segment in the OmegaT window based on commonly-used tags (italics, bold, etc...).
This is not only cosmetic, but also enables the user to spot quickly the tags that are visually relevant - because all of them aren't (at least in an ODT or DOCX document). ▲ Collapse
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Didier Briel
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
| Various points | Mar 31, 2013 |
Samuel Murray wrote: Michael Mestre wrote:
Custom keyboard shortcuts (including for scripts) with a GUI/dialog in the main application for this. Two things would be nice: 1. A function inside OmegaT that would open the user settings folder. I know this folder's location is mentioned in the user manual, but it still requires quite a bit of navigation to find it, and on some machines it is a hidden folder which can only be accessed directly if using a shortcut. This will make it easier for users to modify certain things, such as keyboard shortcuts, or to use the text export features.
That would not be very difficult to do with a script, using the recent posted ones as a template.
2. I think that a file named "MainMenuShortcuts.properties" should be present in the user settings folder anyway, with all the possible keyboard shortcuts in it, but possibly commented out by default. I know that the process of changing shortcuts is described in the user manual, but it still requires quite a bit of effort to do it, and having such a file ready would make it much simpler.
Although a user interface to edit shortcuts would be better, this would be a reasonable improvement. You could create an RFE for that.
Better management of different translations for non-unique segments (it's better than nothing, but not as good as in Trados). Yes, it still amazes me that the function of marking an alternate translation has no keyboard shortcut -- you have to navigate a long menu every time you want to use it.
Right-click > Create Alternative Translation is not a long menu, in my opinion.
And you can assign a keyboard shortcut to Create Alternative Translation.
Didier
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:12
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Shortcut for Alternate Translation | Mar 31, 2013 |
Didier Briel wrote:
And you can assign a keyboard shortcut to Create Alternative Translation.
I actually tried that, but the current user manual doesn't say what that shortcut's name would be. Could you tell us, please?
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:12
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Formatting preview versus | Mar 31, 2013 |
Michael Mestre wrote:
I was talking about something slightly different, not a full preview but rather a minimal preview that would alter the appearance of the source segment in the OmegaT window based on commonly-used tags ... also enables the user to spot quickly the tags that are visually relevant.
I translate mostly tagged formats (though few of them in OmegaT), and my experience is that after a while one becomes accustomed to working with the tags without knowing exactly what format they refer to. The thing that makes working with tagged text bearable is not knowing what the tags mean but being able to manipulate the tags with minimal effort. One thing that I miss in OmegaT, therefore, is the ability to copy tags and move tags around using only one keyboard shortcut per movement, and also tag protection and skipping over tags while typing or moving the cursor. With such features, even twice as many tags in the segment makes little difference.
Another thing that might have been helpful (perhaps also for you) instead of a preview function is being able to see what the tag actually is. However, as far as I understand, the tags in OmegaT are not reduced shortly before being displayed, which means that adding a functionality that simply expands them to their full original meaning isn't something trivial. In some other CAT tools with tags, the user can hover his mouse of the tag to see what the tag's original tag is.
| | | | Didier Briel
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
| Most of it was implemented in the latest development repository | Apr 1, 2013 |
Samuel Murray wrote: Michael Mestre wrote:
I was talking about something slightly different, not a full preview but rather a minimal preview that would alter the appearance of the source segment in the OmegaT window based on commonly-used tags ... also enables the user to spot quickly the tags that are visually relevant. I translate mostly tagged formats (though few of them in OmegaT), and my experience is that after a while one becomes accustomed to working with the tags without knowing exactly what format they refer to. The thing that makes working with tagged text bearable is not knowing what the tags mean but being able to manipulate the tags with minimal effort. One thing that I miss in OmegaT, therefore, is the ability to copy tags and move tags around using only one keyboard shortcut per movement, and also tag protection and skipping over tags while typing or moving the cursor. With such features, even twice as many tags in the segment makes little difference.
The above was implemented.
Another thing that might have been helpful (perhaps also for you) instead of a preview function is being able to see what the tag actually is. However, as far as I understand, the tags in OmegaT are not reduced shortly before being displayed, which means that adding a functionality that simply expands them to their full original meaning isn't something trivial. In some other CAT tools with tags, the user can hover his mouse of the tag to see what the tag's original tag is.
That's what we have done.
Didier
[Edited at 2013-04-01 09:58 GMT]
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Michael Mestre
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
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TOPIC STARTER | Interesting tag features | Apr 1, 2013 |
Hello Didier,
Could you please tell us more about these features that you say were implemented ?
Were they implemented in a pre-dev version in a SVN/git repository that hasn't been applied to the Beta ("latest") version yet, or are they hidden somewhere in the current end-user version ?
How can we use these nice features ?
| | | | Didier Briel
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
| Didier Briel
France
Local time: 18:12
English to French
+ ...
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