Chapter 10. Editing behavior
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# Chapter 10. Editing behavior

The dialog in Options → Editing Behavior... enables the user to select, how the current segment in the editing field is to be initialized and handled:

Figure 10.1. Editing behavior options

You translate your files by moving from segment to segment, editing each current segment in turn. When moving between segments, you may wish to populate the editing field with an existing translation in the fuzzy match pane or with the source text. In Options → Editing Behavior... OmegaT offers you the following alternatives:

The source text

  You can have the source text inserted automatically into the editing field. This is useful for texts containing many trade marks or other proper nouns you which must be left unchanged.

Leave the segment empty

  OmegaT leaves the editing field blank. This option allows you to enter the translation without the need to remove the source text, thus saving you two keystrokes (Ctrl+A and Del). Empty translations are now allowed. They are displayed as <EMPTY> in the Editor. To create one, right-click in a segment, and select "Set empty translation". The entry Remove translation in the same pop up menu also allows to delete the existing translation of the current segment. You achieve the same by clearing the target segment and pressing Enter.

Insert the best fuzzy match

  OmegaT inserts the translation of the string most similar to the current source, if it is above the similarity threshold that you have selected in this dialog. The prefix (per default empty) can be used to tag translations, done via fuzzy matches. If you add a prefix (for instance [fuzzy]), you can trace those translations later to see they are correct.

The check boxes in the lower half of the dialog window serve the following purpose:

Attempt to convert numbers when inserting a fuzzy match

  If this option is checked, when a fuzzy match is inserted, either manually or automatically, OmegaT attempts to convert the numbers in the fuzzy matches according to the source contents. There are a number of restrictions:

  - The source segment and the fuzzy matches must contain the same list of numbers

  - The numbers must be exactly the same between the source and the target matches.

  - Only integers and simple floats (using the period as a decimal character, e.g. 5.4, but not 5,4 or 54E-01) are considered.

Allow the translation to be equal to source

  Documents for translation may contain trade marks, names or other proper nouns that will be the same in translated documents. There are two strategies for segments that contain only such invariable text.

  You can decide not to translate such segments at all. OmegaT will then report these segments as not translated. This is the default. The alternative is to enter a translation that is identical to the source text. OmegaT is able to recognize that you have done this. To make this possible, go to Options → Editing Behavior... and check the box Allow translation to be equal to source.

Export the segment to text files

  The text export function exports data from within the current OmegaT project to plain text files. The data are exported when the segment is opened. The files appear in the /script subfolder in the OmegaT user files folder, and include:

  - The content of the segment source text (`source.txt`).

  - The content of the segment target text (`target.txt`).

  - The text highlighted by the user, when Ctrl+Shift+C is pressed or Edit > Export Selection is selected (`selection.txt`).

  The content of the files is overwritten either when a new segment is opened (source.txt and target.txt) or when a new selection is exported (selection.txt). The files are unformatted plain text files. The whole process can be steered and controlled via Tck/Tcl-based scripting. See Using the OmegaT text export function for specifics, examples and suggestions.

Go To Next Untranslated Segment stops where there is at least one alternative translation

  If we want to avoid any mis-translations in case of segments with several possible target contents, checking this check box will cause Go To Next Untranslated Segment to stop on the next such segment, irrespective of whether it has already been translated or not.

Allow tag editing

  Uncheck this option to prevent any damage on the tags (i.e., partial deletion) during editing. Removing an entire tag remains possible in that case, by using Ctrl+Backspace/Delete or by selecting it completely (Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right) then deleting it (Delete or Ctrl+X).

Validate tags when leaving a segment

  Check this option to be warned about differences between source and target segments tags each time you leave a segment.

Save auto-populated status

  Check this option to record in the `project_save.tmx` file the information that a segment has been auto-populated, so it can be displayed with a specific color in the Editor (if the "Mark Auto-Populated Segments" option, in the View menu, is checked).

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