Categories
Felix tools

Beta version of XLIFF Translator released

I’ve just released the first beta version of XLIFF Translator, a free tool to generate and translate files in the XLIFF format using Felix.

Go to the XLIFF Translator home page

Documentation

For this project, I’m experimenting with a new documentation system called Sphinx. The documentation it puts out is very pretty, and it’s easy to write as well.

See the XLIFF Translator documentation

Forum

I’ve created a forum on the Felix forum site for discussions, bug reports, and feature requests regarding XLIFF Translator.

XLIFF Translator Forum

Other Support

You’re also welcome to contact me directly with any questions or problems using XLIFF Translator.

This is an initial, beta release, so expect bugs. Your feedback will help me greatly to improve XLIFF Translator and get out a great 1.0 release.

Categories
Memory Serves release

Version 1.5 of Memory Serves released

I’ve just released version 1.5 of Memory Serves.

Download the latest version here.

Below is a list of the fixes and improvements in this version:

  • Runs as single instance: if you try to run Memory Serves and it is already running, it will open a web page to the Memory Serves site and exit. This prevents errors due to two instances of Memory Serves competing for the same port.
  • System tray icon. This lets you easily see if Memory Serves is running. You can also right click the icon to launch Memory Serves in your browser, or quit the server. Display of the system tray icon can be controlled in the preferences.
  • Rudimentary statistical information is displayed on the view memory/glossary page (% of records validated and reliability rating stats).
  • The memory footprint was reduced slightly.
  • Other minor tweaks to the view pages

About Memory Serves

Memory Serves is a free application that lets you share Felix translation memories (TMs) and glossaries over your local network or VPN.

Categories
align assist Felix

Align Assist version 1.1 released

I’ve just released version 1.1 of Align Assist.

Download the latest version here.

This is a bug-fix release. It fixes a bug whereby one of the Align Assist data files became corrupt.

About Align Assist

Align Assist is a free tool that aligns legacy translations to create Felix translation memories.

Categories
align assist Felix release

Version 1.0 of Align Assist released

I’ve just released version 1.0 of Align Assist.

Download the latest version here.

I’d like to give special thanks to Align Assist user Kokoro Hyman, who suggested most of the improvements in this version. Here are the main improvements from the last version:

  1. Open Felix memories and glossaries
  2. A save menu makes it easy to select the file type to save
  3. Alignment window status bar shows number of rows and columns
  4. Alignment window title bar shows file name, if any
  5. Bug fix: Save dialog button was “Open” instead of “Save”

Details about the improvements follow:

1. Open Felix memories and glossaries

In addition to intermediate results files, you can now open Felix memories and glossaries, and work with them in the Alignment window. In the main window, select File >> Open from the menu, and then set the file type to “Felix Memory Files” or “Felix Glossary Files”.

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2. A save menu makes it easy to select the file type to save

The Alignment window now has a Save menu, with the choices Felix Memory or Intermediate File. This makes it easy to select the right file type when saving your alignment results.

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3. Alignment window status bar shows number of rows and columns

The right panel of the status bar in the Alignment window shows the number of rows in the source and translation columns. This makes it easy to check, for example, that you have the same number of source and translation rows before saving your results as a Felix memory.

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4. Alignment window title bar shows file name, if any

If you open an Intermediate Results file or Felix memory/glossary file, the file name will be shown in the Alignment window’s title bar. If you save your results, that file name will appear.

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5. Bug fix: Save dialog button was “Open” instead of “Save”

When saving alignment results in the Alignment window, the button text of the Save dialog was mistakenly set to “Open” instead of “Save.”

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About Align Assist

Align Assist is a free application that aligns legacy source and translation files, in order to make Felix translation memories (TMs).

Categories
Felix release

Felix version 1.4.7 released


I’ve just released version 1.4.7 of Felix.

Download the latest version of Felix here

Below are the main changes and improvements in this version.

  1. Bug fix: Skip settings for full-width characters ignored in PowerPoint
  2. Remote memories/glossaries loaded on startup
  3. Preference files (.fprefs) include remote memories and glossaries
  4. The latest Trados text format for translation memories is supported
  5. Bug fix: Cannot change lock property
  6. Preference files (.fprefs) associated with Felix
  7. Bug fix: template files not copied over
  8. Languages picked up when importing MultiTerm glossaries
  9. After installation, Felix starts in the installer language

Details about each improvement/bug fix follow.

1. Bug fix: Skip settings for full-width characters ignored (PowerPoint)

In PowerPoint, the setting to skip segments if they did/didn’t contain double-byte characters was ignored.

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2. Remote memories/glossaries loaded on startup

Now if you select “Load previous memories/glossaries on startup” in the preferences, remote memories/glossaries will also be loaded. Felix will remember a total of 15 each of remote and local memories and glossaries (60 items total).

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3. Preference files (.fprefs) include remote memories and glossaries

When you save your preferences, the preferences file (.fprefs) now includes information about remote memories and glossaries that were loaded. The next time you load that preferences file, Felix will connect to the same remote memories and glossaries. See the manual for details about connecting to remote memories.

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4. The latest Trados text format for translation memories is supported

The latest Trados translaton-memory text format is supported. Note, however, that text formatting information (such as bold and italic) is currently ignored in the new format. Text formatting is still supported in the old Trados text format.

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5. Bug fix: Cannot change lock property

It wasn’t possible to change the “locked” property of memories or glossaries if the current user’s account name didn’t match the creator value of the TM. This caused problems in some situations, like when the creator was “Align Assist.”

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6. Preference files (.fprefs) associated with Felix

Felix preference files (.fprefs) are now associated with Felix. This means that if you double click on a preferences file, it will launch Felix, and Felix will be configured with all the settings and memories/glossaries in that file. You can also drag and drop an .fprefs file onto the Felix memory window, and Felix will load those preferences.

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7. Bug fix: template files not copied over

There was a bug whereby if you already had Felix installed, and then installed an update from a different account, some templates weren’t copied over to the user’s local folder.

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8. Languages picked up when importing MultiTerm glossaries

When you import a MultiTerm glossary, the source and translation languages are set as the source and translation languages of the Felix glossary.

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9. When starting Felix after installation, Felix starts in the installer language

Before, when you launched Felix for the first time after installing it, Felix would start with the Japanese UI if you were running on a Japanese OS, and the English UI otherwise. Now, if will start in whatever language you chose for the installer (currently Japanese and English only).

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Categories
Felix release

Felix version 1.4.6 released


I’ve just released version 1.4.6 of Felix.

Download the latest version here.

This release improves the stability of Felix in MS Word, and adds a number of new features and improvements. The main changes in Felix version 1.4.6 are as follows:

  1. Check for updates online
  2. Translation history works with Memory Serves
  3. Scroll to top of window after search
  4. Matches re-calculated after being edited in Concordance view
  5. Keyboard shortcut on/off setting saved between sessions
  6. Stability improvements to Word add-in
  7. Bug fix: Searching in fields
  8. Template for glossary matches
  9. Bug fix: Errors when getting translations as plain text
  10. Auto-add behavior for Word changed
  11. Source and target languages picked up from TMX memories
  12. More efficient memory usage
  13. Bug fix: Alt + C in Felix window

Details about each change are shown below.

1. Check for updates online

Felix now includes a feature to check for updates online. Felix is updated frequently, and this feature will help you make sure you have the latest version.

The update check works in two ways. First, you can check for updates manually by selecting Help >> Check Updates… from the Felix menu.

Second, Felix will check for updates automatically every two weeks by default. It will ask you before going online to check; if you don’t want Felix to check online, click No. Select the “Don’t ask me again” checkbox if you don’t want to see this dialog again. (If you select “Don’t ask me again” and click Yes, then Felix will automatically check online for updates every two weeks, without asking first.)

Check for updates dialog

If there isn’t a newer version available, Felix will let you know:

This version is latest

If there’s a newer version available, Felix will let you know, and ask if you want to go to the download page.

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2. Translation history works with Memory Serves

Correcting translations using the translation history feature now works with Memory Serves. You will need version 1.2.1 of Memory Serves or higher to use this feature; download the latest version here.

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3. Scroll to top of window after search

Each time you do a memory or glossary search, the window will scroll back to the top. This is useful if you’ve scrolled down a list of matches, and then perform a new search.

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4. Matches re-calculated after being edited in Concordance view

When you edit translation matches in the Search or Concordance view, and then navigate back to the translation match view (e.g. by pressing F6), the match is re-calculated to reflect any edits you’ve made.

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6. Keyboard shortcut on/off setting saved between sessions

You can press CTRL + ALT + F9 to toggle the Felix keyboard shortcuts on and off from Microsoft® Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Starting with version 1.4.6, this setting will be saved the next time you start each program. Additionally, a minus sign in square brackets (“[-]”) appears to the right of the Felix menu name when shortcuts are disabled, as a visual cue.

Menu when shortcuts are disabled (Word 2007)

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6. Stability improvements to Word add-in

In earlier versions of Felix, some users experienced instability with the Felix add-in for MS Word. Starting with version 1.4.6, the Word add-in degrades gracefully in the face of errors, instead of crashing.

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7. Bug fix: Searching in fields

When searching and replacing in Edit mode, the search dialog has the option to search/replace in source fields, translation fields, context fields, or all fields.

In previous versions of Felix, while this selection worked for the replace function, the search function always searched in all fields. This bug is fixed in version 1.4.6.

Search in fields choice

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8. Template for glossary matches

A template is now used for the glossary match view. With this, all information views in the Felix memory and glossary windows can now be customized. See the template section of the manual for details.

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9. Bug fix: Errors when getting translations as plain text

Entries with <, &, and > characters caused errors when getting translations as plain text. Now they’re handled properly.

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10. Auto-add behavior for Word changed

In previous versions of Felix, every time you retrieved a translation in Word using the “Set and Next” command, Felix would add that translation back into the memory. This was causing problems for people who wanted to use multiple translation memories, and keep their entries separate.

Now, the Word add-in only adds a translation back into Felix if the match is not 100% (i.e. you did “Set and Next” when the match was not perfect). It adds it back in this case, because Felix assumes you’re saying that the retrieved translation is correct for this source segment.

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11. Source and target languages picked up from TMX memories

When you import a memory in TMX format, Felix will now pick up the source and target languages, and set them as properties in your Felix memory.

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12. More efficient memory usage

Felix now uses memory more efficiently, by only loading the logging components when they’re being used. This can save up to 60 MB of RAM usage.

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13. Bug fix: Alt + C in Felix window

In previous versions, pressing Alt + C in Felix (the Concordance shortcut) with no text selected caused an error. Now, it simply displays a message that there is no text selected.

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Categories
align assist Felix

Align Assist version 0.9 released

I’ve just released version 0.9 of Align Assist. The two main features of this new release are a “Check for Updates” feature, and a link to the online manual from the application.

Download the latest version here.

Check for Updates

From the Help menu, select Check for Updates… If the latest version of Align Assist is newer than your version, it will prompt you to download the latest version.

Align Assist will also check online for updates automatically once a week, unless you tell it not to (it will ask before going online).

Show Online Help

From the Help menu, select Online Help. The online manual opens in your Web browser.

About Align Assist

Align Assist is a free application that aligns legacy source and translation files, in order to make Felix translation memories (TMs).

Categories
Felix Memory Serves

Memory serves version 1.2 released

I’ve just released version 1.2 of Memory Serves.

Download the latest version here.

In addition to some minor bug fixes (like a problem adding records with non-ascii characters in the context field), version 1.2 of Memory Serves includes a new program called Memory Importer:

Memory Importer window

Uploading large memories or glossaries to Memory Serves would sometimes cause a time out error; you can use this application to import your translation memory (.ftm/.xml) and glossary (*.fgloss/.xml) files into Memory Serves, without worrying about time outs.

To launch Memory Importer, go to the Start menu, then select All Programs >> Memory Serves >> Memory Importer.

Next, simply select a memory or glossary file, then click Import. You can also edit the meta information about the memory, such as the source language, creator, or client, or add notes about the memory.

Note that you have to run Memory Importer on the computer where Memory Serves is installed. It can’t import memories over the network (yet).

About Memory Serves

Memory Serves is a free application that shares Felix translation memories and glossaries over a local network, allowing multiple translators to share their TMs/glossaries in real time. Translations added to the memory by one translator are available to the other translators instantly.

This is great when several translators are working on the same project, when you have a company-wide standard glossary, or any time you need to share a memory/glossary that is still being added to.

Memory Serves creates a Web server on your local machine using the open-source cherrypy framework. This server is visible within your LAN or VLAN only; it’s not visible to the entire Internet. The IP address it uses is that of your own computer.

Categories
Other tools

TagAssist version 2.5 released

I’ve just released version 2.5 of TagAssist, a free utility for translating HTML and XML files.

Download the latest version here.

This is the first update to TagAssist in a while. Although most of the improvements are minor, this released forms a solid base for continued development, so expect updates on a more regular basis now.

Two new features of note in version 2.5 are automated checking for updates, and a log viewer.

Once a week, TagAssist will ask you to check online for updates. If you don’t want to be bothered, just check “Don’t ask again.” You can also check for updates manually, by selecting Help >> Check for Updates from the menu.

Check for updates menu selection

There’s also now a log viewer, so you can view the TagAsisst logs and send them to support if you have problems with the program. To access the log viewer, go to the Start menu, and select All Programs >> Assistant Suite >> TagAssist >> Show Logs.

Categories
Felix

Preview release of Felix version 1.4.6

I’m currently working on version 1.4.6 of Felix. In this version, I’m trying to track down and squash some hard-to-reproduce bugs. In order to help get more feedback on the new version, I’ve decided to offer it as a preview release.

You can download the preview release of version 1.4.6 here.

If you’ve experienced strange errors using Felix from MS Word, you might be interested in trying out these changes.

Note that since this is a preview and not a final release, it’s expected that there’ll be bugs. Although I’ve been using it for my own translation work without problems, please use it at your own risk.

One important new feature of version 1.4.6 is the “View Logs” utility. Go to the Start menu, then select All Programs >> Assistant Suite >> Felix >> Show Logs, to view all Felix logs and optionally send them to Felix support when reporting problems.