Ranking Translation Memories

If you use multiple translation memories (TMs), you can assign them rankings to specify which database should take priority in translation suggestions. You can set these priority rankings when creating a new project or by using the Manage Translation Memory dialog (Resources > Choose TM).

The results from the highest-ranked database take priority when you translate or pretranslate an entire project with a TM. If there are multiple identical source segments, Lingo will use the segment from the highest-ranked TM. Suggestions from the highest-ranked TM will appear first on the TM Suggestions tab in the Translation Editor.

Be aware that rankings take priority over fuzzy match percentages. If you set a minimum match percentage and ranked your TMs, a segment in the highest-ranked TM will take priority over a segment in the lower-ranked TM, even if the higher-ranked segment has a lower fuzzy match percentage.

How to Rank a Translation Memory Database

  1. Make sure you have created at least one TM database. See Creating a Translation Memory Database.

  2. Select Resources > Choose TM.

    The Manage Translation Memory dialog opens.

  3. Next to each TM in the grid that you want to associate with the project, click Use.

  4. From the Rank drop-down, select a numeric ranking for each enabled TM, where 1 is the preferred TM. You do not have to select a value; unranked TMs will take lowest priority.

    Note You can only rank enabled TMs. The Rank drop-down is disabled if a TM is not selected for the project.

    Note You cannot assign the same rank to more than one TM.

  5. Click OK.

Example You can rank each enabled TM.

The results from the highest-ranked TM are given priority on the TM Suggestions tab.

Example You have two TMs: a local TM and a server TM. They contain several similar target segments. When selecting your TMs, you give the server TM a rank of 1 and the local TM a rank of 2. You also have the fuzzy match percentage set to 50%. You decide to pretranslate your project.

Later, you are looking through your project and see a match that isn't completely accurate. The TM Suggestions tab shows you that it the match is from the server TM, and it has a fuzzy match percentage of 50%. The TM Suggestions tab also shows a 101% match from the local TM, which has a lower ranking.

The match from the server TM was applied because it had a ranking of 1, and priority over the server TM. If you want the segment with the higher match percentage to always take priority, you can disable fuzzy matches (so only 100% or 101% matches will be applied), or you can disable rankings. You can also manually select a match from the TM Suggestions tab.

If you disable fuzzy matches, and there is a 100% or 101% match in both TMs, the higher ranked TM will still take priority.