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This chapter describes how to send original files/content plus any translated files/content to the Beebox and get translations aligned. We assume that you are already familiar with the Beebox and will skip more general explanations.

Align all files added to a project

This is the easiest way of aligning your files. Basically you copy all source files plus all translated files to the project. Then the Beebox will align all your content.

The aligned content can then be exported to XLIFF or sent to a TMS for further editing or approval.

The steps are:

• Create a project and go to Settings 
• Tick the Align

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• by default options
• Copy your source files to the project "in" directory
• Copy your translated files to the project "out" directory, inside the language folders:
  • For example the French translation to \out\fr\marketing\myfile.docx
• You can work in multiple target languages at the same time

Review the content.

Selectively align files using "instructions files"

Let us suppose that we have an English source file named “marketing\myfile.docx”. We further have existing French and Spanish translations of this file.

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• Always copy the source file at the end. This is important in automated setups where the Beebox polls the “in” directory for new/changed source files. We want to have the Beebox poll the source file only after we have properly copied the translations and the instructions.
• Note that the translations are saved to the “out” directory and inside the language specific sub-directory. Make sure your Beebox project is configured for these exact languages.
• Note that the translated files are given the exact same relative path (name) as the source file. This is essential or otherwise the Beebox will not find your files.
• The instructions tell the Beebox that it shall extract and use the translations from the French and Spanish files. You must indicate the “locales” node with the list of languages (at least one).

There is a nice video tutorial:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/scQQ8Wxhk4g?list=PLB66C5wGhslyYA0tL1-7hBJToXFCGzvjG" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Align files using the API

Instead of copying files to the “in” and “out” directories of a Beebox project, you can of course do this with the API.

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1. Send the French translation in the body of API method:
   (PUT) /api/files/file?token=&locale=fr&folder=&filename=marketing\myfile.docx
2. Send the Spanish translation in the body of API method:
   (PUT) /api/files/file?token=&locale=es&folder=&filename=marketing\myfile.docx
3. Send the instructions file in the body of API method:
   (PUT) /api/files/file?token=&locale=en&folder=&filename=marketing\myfile.docx.beebox
   
   This file contains Json and is UTF-8 encoded:
   { "align": { "locales": ["fr", "es"]  }  }
4. Send the English original content in the body of API method:
   (PUT) /api/files/file?token=&locale=en&folder=&filename=marketing\myfile.docx

API documentation.

Example of a post-editing workflow

This is a frequent use-case for which other tools do not propose a solution and which the Beebox handles in a breeze.

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• Initial translation:
  • Send source file to Beebox and wait until translated file is created.
  • Deliver file to customer.
     
• Post editing:
  • Customer edits the translated file and sends it back to you
     
• Second translation:
  • You save the file to the “out” directory and update the source file’s date
  • The Beebox will incorporate all the changes both in the source file (if any) and the translated file (edits, comments).
  • The Beebox will create the translated file with any further updates done by the translation team.
  • Deliver file to customer.
     
• Post editing, again:
  • If the customer does further editing, start over again…

When to use alignment

Make sure to enable alignment in an instructions file only when necessary. Alignment consumes processor resources and may slow down the Beebox:

If you do track changes in source content and translated content (for example a change date): You may be able to tell if the translated content was actually changed since the last time the source file went to the Beebox. If the source content changed but not the translation(s), there is no need to send the translations again. The Beebox has all translations from the last time and will correctly pre-translate your source file – without alignment but its translation memory.