OmegaT - Quick Start

OmegaT is an easy to use Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool. This application is not complicated differently from Trados. The translation process is similar with other CAT tools such as SDL Trados.

  1. Set up a new project
  2. Translation
  3. Post-translation (Creating translated documents)

To start using OmegaT, first you need to create a project file.

Figure 1. Create New Project
Figure 1. Create New Project

The folder paths are set automatically after you designated the project directory. (If you wish, you can change them.) The Source Language (the language in which the documents are originally written) and the Target Language (the language into which the documents have to be translated) must be selected. Here, as a test, I selected "EN" (English) for the Source Language and "KO" (Korean) for the Target Language.

If you click "OK" at the bottom of the "Create New Project" window, the "Project Files" window appears, where you can add source files which need to be translated.

Figure 2. Project Files
Figure 2. Project Files

Please click "Import Source Files" to add the source file(s).

Here, I added the following html file as a sample file:

Figure 3. Test html (Source)
Figure 3. Test html (Source)

Now, OmegaT Editor appears. The translation can be done in this Editor. Before proceeding with the translation, you can add an external TM and a glossary.

  • The TM should be placed under "/tm" folder, and the glossary under "/glossary."

I added a TMX file (in UTF-8 encoding) under the /tm folder and a tab-delimited glossary (TXT format) under /glossary folder.

Glossary
Figure 4. Glossary

Now, it's ready to start the translation.

Figure 5. OmegaT Editor with the glossary and TM
Figure 5. OmegaT Editor with the glossary and TM

After translating the first line, press [Ctrl+U] to go to next untranslated segment. Instead of pressing shortcuts, you can click menu items under "Edit" or "Go To" menu.

Figure 6. Go To menu
Figure 6. Go To menu

It's convenient if you use shortcuts such as [Ctrl+U] (for "Next Untranslated Segment) and [Ctrl+P] (for Previous Segment.) If you are familiar with Trados shortcuts, you can customize key combinations as you wish using AutoHotkey. (Please refer to "Customizing keyboard shortcuts using Autohotkey.")

Figure 7. Edit menu
Figure 7. Edit menu

After finishing translation, you can created the translated document by clicking "Project > Created Translated Documents." If you generate the translated document by selecting "Created Translated Documents," project-specific TMs (Level 1 & Level 2) are created or updated.

You can find the translated documents under the folder "/target."

Figure 8. Translated file (Korean)
Figure 8. Translated file (Korean)

The above figure shows the translated Korean html file as a sample.

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