This month last year, I renamed TransAssist to Felix, and took over all aspects of the software. Since then, I’ve made quite a few improvements to Felix, and launched several free programs for Felix users.
Looking back at the original roadmap that I published, I’m happy that I was able to implement all of my roadmap in the course of a year.
Looking forward, I want to lay out my roadmap for the next six months or so. The main features that I want to work on for Felix are improved search/replace, improved memory/glossary management, and a plugin system. I also plan to release an XLIFF editor (as well as filters to convert several file types into XLIFF files), and an extension for Open Office Impress.
Improved search and replace
The next big feature I’m planning for Felix is improved search and replace. Search and replace will be performed in a separate window, and there will be powerful new tools for searching in your memories/glossaries, and global-replace operations.
Improved TM/glossary management
This feature will make it a lot easier to manage Felix memories and glossaries, including advanced import and export operations (such as exporting a Felix TM in TMX format without any formatting information), statistical analysis, and more.
Plugin system
This feature will allow Felix users to pick and choose additional features that are handy, but not needed by all translators. This will let translators pick the special functionality they need, without the complication and bloat of having every possible feature included.
Some examples of planned plugins:
- Word count from the Excel and PowerPoint add-ins
- Analysis from the Microsoft® Office and other interfaces
- Spell-checking on translation memories
- Quality checks for translation memories
- Automatic conversion of language-specific units (such as tsubo and kanji numerals for Japanese)
- Tie-in to Web-based TM services
XLIFF editor
XLIFF is a universal document format for translators that is growing in popularity. I plan to release a free XLIFF editor that will work with Felix, as well as filters to create XLIFF files from various file formats, and convert the translated XLIFF file back into the original format.
Impress extension
There is already an extension available for Open Office Writer; next, I plan to create an extension to use Felix from Open Office Impress. As with the Writer extension, this will be released under the liberal MIT open-source license.