Aligning Files

When you create an alignment project, the original and translated files are matched and aligned by name. Although it might not be a common occurrence, there are a variety of reasons that a file from the original project might not be aligned with the same file in the translated project. The important thing is that you identify any misalignment and then correct it. You can do this by using the File Map window pane in MadCap Align.

The File Map window pane groups files found in both projects by file type. For each type, you can match the files together when necessary. There are a few operations for aligning files; you can shift the selected cells up and down, or swap two selected cells. After the files are aligned, you can manually upload them to your translation memory database.

examples

example

After creating an alignment project, let's say you open the File Map window pane and notice that all of the topic file rows are aligned with identical names, except for two—"Welcome.htm" and "Introduction.htm."

To fix this you can select one of the misaligned cells (say, the "Introduction.htm" file in the first column) and click the appropriate swap button.

The files become aligned, like this:

You can then upload the aligned files to the translation memory database.

You also might encounter situations where one file should actually align with two or more files.

example

Let's say that during the original translation, the topic "A1.htm" was translated into Spanish and the resulting topic file name was also "A1.htm." Later, however, an author split the topic in the original version into two separate files—A1.htm and A2.htm. In the File Map window pane of an alignment project, the results might look like this (notice that about half of the segments are in the source A1.htm file and the other half are in the source A2.htm file):

You can align and upload the files in order to store all of the translated data in translation memory. To do this, you would begin by aligning the first topic with the translated file. In the image above, this is already done (A1.htm is aligned with A1.htm on the right). Then you would double-click the row with the aligned files (A1.htm and A1.htm). In the Alignment Tool, you would make sure the aligned segments are translated properly and use one of the buttons in the local toolbar to upload the file or selected segments to translation memory.

After this, you would close the Alignment Tool. Then, in the File Map window pane, you would align the A2.htm source file with the A1.htm target file. For example, with the A1.htm source cell selected, you can click . This will swap that cell with the A2.htm cell, like this:

Once this is done, you would double-click the row with the aligned files (i.e., A2.htm and A1.htm). In the Alignment Tool, you would make sure the aligned segments are translated properly and use one of the buttons in the local toolbar to upload the file or selected segments to translation memory.

how to align files

Select Tools>MadCap Align.
In MadCap Align open the aligned project. Unless you specify otherwise, these types of projects are stored in the Documents\My Aligned Projects folder on your computer. (Lingo creates the My Aligned Projects folder when you install the program).

Note: In some operating systems, the folder is called "My Documents" instead of "Documents."
The File Map window pane should already be open. If it is not, do one of the following, depending on the part of the interface you are using.
- Ribbon Select View>File Map.
  Switching between ribbons and the tool strip… You can use the Options dialog to switch between ribbons and the classic tool strip layout. See Switching Between Ribbons and the Tool Strip.
  More about ribbon options… Keep in mind that the smaller the application window becomes, the more the options in a ribbon shrink. Therefore, you might only see a small icon instead of text, or you might see only a section name displayed with a down arrow to access the options in it. You can hover over small icons to see tooltips that describe them. You can also enlarge the application window or click one of the section drop-downs in the ribbon to locate a hidden feature.
- Menu Select View>File Map.
- Standard Toolbar Click .
  To open the Standard toolbar from the menu view, you can select View>Toolbars>Standard.
- Keyboard Shortcut Press CTRL+SHIFT+R.
(Optional) In the File Map window pane, you can use the Filter field in the local toolbar to choose the types of files to see in the window pane.
Select the appropriate cell(s) on either the source language side or the target language side. You can hold down your SHIFT or CTRL key to click and select multiple cells.

Note: The File Map window pane is populated only if you have files that require alignment. If the window pane is empty, there is no need for you to do anything.

In the local toolbar, click one of the buttons to perform an alignment action (so that the source files on the left are aligned with the proper target files on the right).

	If you have selected two cells (one above and one below) and click this button, the positions of those two cells will be swapped.
	Click this button if you want to swap the selected cell(s) with those below it.
	Click this button if you want to swap the selected cell(s) with those above it.

Click to save your work.

WHAT'S NEXT?

After you align files, you may need to double-click a particular file and align segments within it. See Aligning Segments.

You will also want to upload the aligned files to your translation memory database. To do this, you can double-click any of the aligned files in the File Map window pane. Then, in the Alignment Tool, you can select specific segments and click

in the local toolbar, or you can click

to upload all of the segments in the file.

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