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The Across Translator Edition v6.3 has been around for just about three years. Now, Across has released a new version—ATE v7—with some extensive changes. Back in the last quarter of 2018, I had the opportunity to test the ATE v7 and take a closer look.
I have picked six changes to demonstrate why, from my point of view, upgrading to the ATE v7 could be worthwhile for translators.
During my ATE training sessions, I often noticed that to many users, the difference between the System Settings and the Profile Settings is not always that clear. As of ATE v7, the Profile Settings have been renamed User Settings. I think that this is far less ambiguous and will cause far less confusion.
Furthermore, users sometimes struggled with the different configuration options in the System Settings and Profile Settings in ATE v6.3 and older versions. Often, settings had to be applied in both sections in order to achieve the desired effect. Now, this issue has been resolved.
The crossTank and crossTerm sections in the Profile Settings have been completely removed in the User Settings. Some of these settings have been moved to the System Settings so that settings need to be configured in one place only.
Users have long desired to be able to open several tasks at once. This has now been implemented in ATE v7. This will make it much easier to process many small files in one go. In this way, it will also be much easier to ensure consistency across multiple files. Another advantage is that this will save time, as it will no longer be necessary to open and close all the tasks one by one. Rather, it will be possible to open several tasks at once provided that
All tasks that can be opened together with the selected task are marked with a "+" sign. They can be selected using the shortcut Ctrl+mouse button and then be opened.
In the past, many fellow translators have remarked that entering a comment for a paragraph is too complicated. Now, this has been greatly simplified. A separate window for comments has been implemented in the bottom right corner in crossDesk.
The change history of the current paragraph is shown in the same place. If necessary, any previous state of the current paragraph can be restored.
One or more new comments can now be added easily by simply clicking into the comments field with the mouse.
The Quality Management feature is probably where the most extensive and promising changes have been made. This area has been fully redesigned. In the Quality Management mode, all errors in the current paragraph are displayed. Some of the errors may be corrected automatically, i.e. by clicking a button or pressing a key.
All functions of the Quality Management mode (next/previous error, correct, ignore error) can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts. The distinction between Skip Error and Ignore Error has also been removed. In the past, this distinction often caused confusion, particularly with regard to the mandatory criteria. After skipping an error that did not need to be corrected, the error would still be displayed as such. Now, the only option is Ignore Error.
Different Quality Management Settings Templates can be created in the System Settings. These templates allow you to define which quality criteria have to be checked and which criteria are mandatory.
If you do not feel comfortable with the new Quality Management feature, you can define in the Project Settings Template that you want to continue working with the quality assurance feature of ATE v6.3.
This option has been implemented for a transition period and will disappear some time in the future. Therefore, my advice is not to wait too long to get accustomed to the new Quality Management feature of ATE v7.
The machine translation (MT) integration has also been completely revised. The revision is so extensive that the settings have not been migrated from ATE v6.3 to ATE v7. The following MT systems are preset in Across and may be configured using their respective settings:
An increasing number of translators work with large, high-resolution displays. The layout of all modules in Across has now been optimized for a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
About the Author
Andreas Rodemann is a graduated translator with Chinese and English as working languages. He has been working as freelance translator with Across since 2009. Besides this, Andreas Rodemann has been moderator for many years and since 2014 owner of the “Übersetzer- und Dolmetscher-Lounge” (Translators and Interpreters Lounge) at XING where he is assisting fellow translators and interpreters with words and deeds far beyond Across topics.
Website: AR-Übersetzungen
If you are still working with the Across Personal Edition (APE) v6.0 or older and would like to update: Support for APE v6.0 was discontinued back in 2017, and support for even older versions was discontinued long before.
So my official recommendation is not to update from your APE v6.0 or older directly to ATE v7. Versions older than ATE v6.0 should be uninstalled before installing the new version. Prior to updating from ATE 6.0 to ATE v7, you should install ATE v6.3. If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact the Across Support.
Be sure to back up your data before upgrading. To be on the safe side, I would recommend exporting your crossTank and crossTerm entries as well. Though I did not experience any loss of data during my beta testing, it is always best to play it safe.