Following are some of the key features that make Lingo unique.
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Multilingual Projects
A multilingual project is a Lingo project that includes more than one target language. Lingo lets you add as many languages as you like to your projects, and you can add or remove them at any time. A great benefit to multilingual projects is that you can add all the languages you need to translate to a single project. This makes it easier for a translator to translate content in multiple languages, and it makes it easier for a content developer to send files for translation or review.
Unicode Support
Lingo is fully Unicode capable, making it possible to handle the entire world's Unicode language characters. This includes English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, multi-byte languages, and more.
Project Bundles
You can bundle your Lingo project, exporting it to a ZIP or LIPRJZIP (Lingo Project Bundle) file. This feature allows content developers to work with translators who must use a tool other than Lingo (e.g., Trados, memoQ) to perform the actual translation work. With this process, Lingo helps to prepare your files before you send them to the translator.
Project Updates
If changes were made to source files after you have started working in—or even completed—a Lingo project, you need to update the project so that the modified files can be translated.
Source Control
Lingo provides integrated support for version control applications. Built-in support is available for Microsoft Team Foundation Server, Perforce Helix Core, Git, and Apache Subversion. Additionally, because Lingo uses a wide open architecture and stores files as independent XML files (such as XLF), you can manually manage your files in an external source control system.
File List Filter for Translation Work
You can quickly open a list of all files in the project that need to be translated. For source files such as Flare projects—which contain many unique types of files—this helps take the guessing out of localization work. All files requiring translation are displayed in the File List window pane.
A filter feature in the File List window pane lets you list files by type (e.g., topics, snippets, images, template pages, movies) when you are using the grid view. The All Files filter option shows all of the translatable files in your project.
Translation/Live Preview Modes
For certain types of files (e.g., Microsoft Word documents; PowerPoint files; Flare topics, snippets, template pages) the Translation Editor lets you work in Translation (or grid) mode and open Live Preview mode as well. When you want to translate text, you use the Translation mode, which displays source text segments in a column on the left and target text segments in a column on the right. When you want to view your translations in their intended context (in complete paragraphs, with formatting, etc.), you can click a button in the local toolbar to switch to Live Preview mode, where you can continue to translate text in the left pane and while looking at a preview of your changes in the right pane.
Translation Memory
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Machine Translation
Alignment
You can leverage translation work previously completed outside of Lingo by using the alignment feature.
Example Your company has some legacy content that was created in English using MadCap Flare (or even another tool such as Microsoft Word). Subsequently, that content was translated into German using a tool other than Lingo. Now your company has purchased Lingo and wants to use it to translate future updates to that same documentation. The problem is that you do not want to lose all of that previous translation work. The solution is to launch the MadCap Align utility from Lingo and create an alignment project.
From MadCap Align, you use the Start Alignment Wizard to create the new alignment project. In the process of doing this, you select the English version of the original Flare project (or other type of project/file), as well as the German translation of that project or file. In addition, you make sure the option is selected in the wizard to automatically upload the translated segments to your translation memory. Therefore, when you translate content in future Lingo projects, that previously translated content can be used via the suggestions feature in Lingo.
Concordance
Lingo lets you use a concordance to perform advanced searches in one or more
Dictionaries
You can see which dictionaries are installed on your computer by opening the Options dialog and selecting the Spelling tab. You can also use the Options dialog to import more dictionaries that you have downloaded. In addition to all of the built-in dictionaries that are installed on your computer, and other dictionaries that you install, you can develop global and project dictionaries.
Segmentation Rules and Split/Join
When you are preparing your legacy translation content for Lingo, you may have segments in the Alignment Editor that you need to join together or split apart. You can do this in a couple of ways in Lingo—automatically by using segmentation rules or manually by using the split and join features. By using segmentation rules or split and join features, you can ensure that the segments in your translation memory are in the best shape possible when you open your legacy project in Lingo.
Termbases
A termbase is a concept-oriented database that makes translation work easier and quicker by letting you create, manage, and reuse multilingual terminology from a single storage area. This system automatically displays previously translated words from your termbase during the translation process, thus improving the reliability of translations.
Thesaurus
The Thesaurus window pane displays on the right side of the interface and lets you look up and use related words in an open file.
Quality Assurance Reports
You can run quality assurance (QA) reports to review your translated projects for discrepancies between the source and target segments. This is a way to check the quality of your translations before sending your project for review, returning a translation to a client, or exporting the final, translated project. These reports can be useful because they can help find errors that you might not have otherwise noticed, such as formatting inaccuracies, repeated segments, or termbase errors. By running a QA report, you can locate errors and correct them early in the translation process, preventing unnecessary rework later.
Reviews
You can send translated content to individuals for review. For example, you might use this feature if you are an author who has received files back from a translator and you want to send them to a third party (who does not have access to Lingo) to ensure the translations are correct. When you use this feature, you can export translations as a MadCap Contributor review package.
Before you send a Contributor review package to a reviewer, be sure the reviewer has the latest version of Contributor installed. Reviewers do not need to purchase a license to use Contributor review Lingo files; instead, they can use Contributor's free review mode to review Lingo files.
Statistics
You can compute statistics for your Lingo project, displaying information about the translation work. This is a way to compare the project files against the translation memory (TM) database in order to see how much translation work has been completed and how much still needs to be done. This report can be useful if you are a translator and need to provide estimates to a client, or if you are a content developer who is using Lingo to manage the translation process.
