Five top tips to get your files ready for Fully Automated Machine Translation (FAMT)

Once you decide to start a Fully Automated Machine Translation (FAMT) project in Verto, your file is going to be translated in no time. But before you hit the upload button, there are a few checks you can do on your source file to maximise the quality of the machine translation output.

So, what should you be looking out for? Here are my five top tips to make your file FAMT-ready:

1. Hide anything that you don’t want translated

Is there any text in the file that shouldn’t be translated? If so, hide these words if you can, to guarantee they stay untranslated across all languages. In MS Word, use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H, or in InDesign, use conditional text.

2. Remove unnecessary line breaks

Check for line breaks in the middle of phrases or sentences – whether that’s a hard or soft return. The translation software understands line breaks as marking the end of a unit or section. If a line break appears within a sentence, it could be treated as two standalone phrases and may change the intended meaning in the translation.

In the phrase below, the line break after ‘Technical’ means it would be translated as two separate, unrelated words:

Technical⋅¶

Bulletin¶

To avoid this, delete the unnecessary line break – as has been done here:

Technical⋅Bulletin¶

You’re now much more likely to return a translation that matches your source text.

3. Keep fonts consistent

Does your file use different font sizes or styles within the same sentence? That mix of fonts leads to formatting tags in the translation software – and those tags can affect the quality of the machine translation output. Stick to one font size and style per sentence if you can.

4. Check for non-editable text

Text inside graphics might not be editable – and so won’t be translated. If the text needs translating, extract it into text boxes on top of the graphic, or into a table below the graphic. Either way, the translation software will now be able to see and translate that text.

5. Take care with capital letters

The machine translation engine might see capitalised words and decide they’re proper names. That means they won’t be translated. Keep any words that don’t need to be capitalised – but do need to be translated – in lower case.

Want to know more about what FAMT and other translation terms mean? Check out our quick reference guide to translation terminology. Or, if you have any further questions about getting your files ready for FAMT, let me know and I’ll be pleased to help.