Did you know that you can re-import and pretranslate files in Transit NXT without the original files? It is one of many unique features in Transit and it allows you to maximize the leverage of your translation memory. This tool tip will show you how to go about it and what to watch out for. When might it make sense to re-import? Imagine you have received a Transit Project Package File (PPF) from a Multilingual Language Vendor client of yours. The project is a Quick Start Guide for a Soandso mobile phone. In the past, you have already translated material for Soandso mobile phones, only for other MLVs. Therefore, you would like to leverage the new Guide against your own translation memory and not limit yourself to the client's reference material. The client has not sent you the original files though, so how can you re-import?

To do so, you have to first add your reference material to the project you have received. In the Reference Material tab of the Project Settings dialogue, select Add projects | folder | files and add your personal Soandso reference material.

Remember that you can also change the priority of the reference files, folders or projects by dragging the corresponding element up or down in the reference material list.

Now, save your project under a different name.

Once you have done that, you can proceed to re-import.  To re-import without original files you just have to select the appropriate options in the Import project dialogue and then Start import.

It is important NOT to alter the source language files of your language pairs, because segmentation and other import options selected by your client should stay the same. By default, Transit recreates only target language files. If you want to keep the translated segments in the target language files unaltered (which is what you normally would want to do), you should select the Repeat for unaltered segments option under Pretranslation options as shown in the above figure. Also select the Update import statistics option to update the statistics of your project. You should keep in mind the following:

• Use only the renamed project for re-import. After re-import, it is advisable to switch back to the original project to carry out the translation work and final delivery.
• Make a copy of the files you have received before you re-import and re-pretranslate.
• Check the result of your re-pretranslation, comparing the updated import statistics with the ones you received with your client's PPF.
• You also might want to check with your client if what you are doing is OK because the client might not necessarily want other material to be used for pretranslation.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you find this post helpful in your daily work with Transit NXT.  Please leave your comments and don't hesitate to ask if something is not clear. A special thanks to Karen Ellis for her proof-reading work.