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How to estimate the amount of tracked changes
Iniziatore argomento: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Paesi Bassi
Local time: 23:04
Membro (2006)
Da Inglese a Afrikaans
+ ...
Mar 28, 2011

G'day everyone

I'm interested in your ideas for strategies or methods to estimate the amount of tracked changes in a file. In my case, the client has given me a version 2 of a source file and he wants me to update version 1 of the translation (and version 2 of the source file is basically version 1 with tracked changes).

I have discovered that I can print the review pane to a PDF file, which I can then copy and paste in MS Word and do some clever find/replace to count ... See more
G'day everyone

I'm interested in your ideas for strategies or methods to estimate the amount of tracked changes in a file. In my case, the client has given me a version 2 of a source file and he wants me to update version 1 of the translation (and version 2 of the source file is basically version 1 with tracked changes).

I have discovered that I can print the review pane to a PDF file, which I can then copy and paste in MS Word and do some clever find/replace to count it. Essentially, one goes Ctrl+P and then in the print dialog one selects "list of changes" and then prints it to your favourite PDF printer.

Using that printed report I have been able to count the number of insertions, the number of deletions, the number of inserted words and the number of deleted words.

This is already very helpful, but what would really be helpful is if I could count the number of sentences (i.e. segments) that have changes in them (because when updating a translation based on tracked changes, one has to read the whole sentence even though you only need to type or delete the few words that change). I think the way to do that would be to find a CAT tool that shows which segments have tracked changes in them. This would allow me to count the number of sentences with changes in them (and also the total number of words of the sentences with changes in them). Does anyone know of a [free?] CAT tool that does that?

I would like to be able to tell the client in advance how long the edits are likely to take (it will also help with advance billing).

Thanks
Samuel ▲ Collapse
 
Tony M
Tony M
Francia
Local time: 23:04
Membro
Da Francese a Inglese
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Snap! Mar 28, 2011

I've encountered exactly this same problem myself in the past, though hadn't got quite so far solving it!

Personally, for this kind of work, I prefer to charge on the basis of an hourly rate, since IMHO very few of these automatic systems give an accurate picture of the actual time involved in this fiddly task.

I tried using 'compare documents', but found it gave an inaccurate picture, since sometimes quite a small change resulted in what looks like a vast amount of del... See more
I've encountered exactly this same problem myself in the past, though hadn't got quite so far solving it!

Personally, for this kind of work, I prefer to charge on the basis of an hourly rate, since IMHO very few of these automatic systems give an accurate picture of the actual time involved in this fiddly task.

I tried using 'compare documents', but found it gave an inaccurate picture, since sometimes quite a small change resulted in what looks like a vast amount of deletion/insertion.

Any mileage in using the v1 TM to analyse the v2 document? Surely that would throw up the 100% identical segments, and all the fuzzies should represent the changes?

Alternatively, would it be feasible to try aligning the v1 and v2 docs, which should at least highlight the changed segments for you; particularly if there is some way of implementing highlighting etc. to make it more visible.

[Modifié le 2011-03-28 21:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Paesi Bassi
Local time: 23:04
Membro (2006)
Da Inglese a Afrikaans
+ ...
AVVIO ARGOMENTO
TM1 vs doc2 Mar 28, 2011

Tony M wrote:
Any mileage in using the v1 TM to analyse the v2 document? Surely that would throw up the 100% identical segments, and all the fuzzies should represent the changes?


Good call. I did an extraction of version 1 and then aligned itself against itself to create a TM for version 1, and then I analysed version 2 against that TM. This would give a useful picture of the amount of work involved (if the sentences aren't too long on average).

Alternatively, would it be feasible to try aligning the v1 and v2 docs...


No, this would take too long and it would be difficult to "count" it.
 


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How to estimate the amount of tracked changes






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