Does this software translate automatically? What is a translation memory (TM)? Is a translation memory (TM) similar to a dictionary? What is pre-translation? What is the benefit of pre-translation? What are the benefits for translators? What are the benefits for report designers? How does Crystal Translator pre-translate? Can context mismatch between reports occur? Which text is extracted? What happens if a text object contain a data field? What happens if the translated text need more space? Why do we need to localize dates, numbers, currencies and fonts? Can I export the translatable text to Ms-Excel? Can I translate/process several reports at once? What is the purpose of importing previously translated reports? Which languages are covered? Which languages does the spell checker support? What does the layout mirroring function? Does Crystal Translator save the translation in the original .rpt file? Does Crystal Translator need to be installed/licensed on the server running the reports? What is the compatibility with Crystal Reports? Other advantages of the Enterprise edition Can I create several TMs? What is TMX? How can I convert a translated report version 9 into 8.5? What is property grouping? What are the minimum requirements? Is the software networkable? Do I need to uninstall before upgrading? What are the limitations of the Trial edition? How can I buy Crystal Translator? How does the pay per use option work? Why do you provide free support? More....

Does this software translate automatically?
No, it pre-translates automatically. This is not a machine translation system (MT) but a translation memory (TM). The output of machine translation system are usually just about good enough for understanding. On the other side, translation memory, as built in Crystal Translator, are used for publishing quality. Because reports may be published and distributed, perfect translation is needed. 

What is a translation memory (TM)?
In its simplest implementation, a translation memory is a database containing source and translated segments. The translation is first inputted by a human and then re-use automatically. Crystal Translator uses a custom TM which not only includes source segments and translated segments but also report name, field name, property type... This allows the software to remove any context mismatch.

Is a translation memory (TM) similar to a dictionary?
A dictionary contains translation of words while a TM contains translation of segments. The advantage of a TM compared to a dictionary is that it retains the context. While a word can have several translations, a segment or sentence usually have only one.

What is pre-translation?
Pre-translation is the process of analysing the source texts and retrieving from the translation memory database any translations for segments that match the source texts.

What is the benefit of pre-translation?
Each time you have a new version of your source report, you can pre-translate it and re-use the translation you inputted for the previous version. Therefore, you only have to translate what has changed, saving you time and money.

What are the benefits for translators?

• Firstly, it is easier to localized reports with Crystal Translator as it extracts the translatable texts and properties. There is no need to buy or learn the comprehensive Crystal Reports development tool. Also, it removes the risk to forget translating some hidden texts such as formula or report summary.

• Secondly, you can preview the report as you translate it, giving you full context in a WYSIWYG way.

• Thirdly, you can spell-check your translation to ensure there is no typing mistake.

• Fourthly, thanks to the built in translation memory database, you only have to translate what has changed since the previous version. With an average update, 90% of the text is identical to previous version thus saving you a lot of time and money when translating updated reports.

• Fifthly, you can obtain an immediate word-count allowing you to estimate the translation cost beforehand. 

What are the benefits for report designers?

• You can obtain an immediate word-count of all your source reports at once, allowing you to estimate the translation cost beforehand.

• If you do not have the linguistic skills on site, you can export all the translatable text of a report into a Ms-Excel sheet that can then be sent to an external translator. You can then import the translated Ms-Excel sheet to generate a translated report.

• Thank to the built-in translation memory database, you can re-create all the target reports in a few seconds after updating the source report formula, SQL, grouping, sorting... This means that you only have to maintain the source reports, Crystal Translator will maintain the target reports for you. For instance if you have 100 reports in 4 languages, before you had to maintain 400 reports, now with Crystal Translator you can concentrate on the 100 original reports.

• You can re-use the translations at each new version of your source reports and between reports, reducing your translation cost considerably by an average of 90% and in a fraction of the time it took you before.

• You can import reports you previously translated and start re-using these translations in the new version of your source reports, allowing you to retrieve previous investment.

• With the Enterprise edition, you can change the page size, margins, fonts, date and time formats, number and currency formats of all your reports at once

How does Crystal Translator pre-translate?
By default, it first checks that a translation exists specifically for the report by checking the report filename, field name, property type and source text. If no translation is found then it checks if a translation exists for the field name, property type and source text, in case the source report has been renamed. If no translation was found, finally it checks if a property type and source text match from any reports. This process ensures the same translation each time a report is pre-translated but also allows to re-use translation between reports. This pre-translation process can be customized by changing the pre-translation options.

Can context mismatch between reports occur?
Yes, in case you have 2 reports with the same source text but the translation should be different. When translating the second report, Crystal Translator will retrieve the translation of the first report and marks its status with an asterisk (*) to indicate that this is a new translation. You can easily review these translations using the modified (*) filter. After editing, you can then save the second report and the database will now contain two translations for the same source text but with an indication to which report the translation belong to. Therefore, the next time you pre-translate these reports, Crystal Translator will select the translation specific to the report being pre-translated. You can also turn off translation re-use between reports in the pre-translation options.

Which text is extracted?

Crystal Translator extracts translatable text from:

• Text object, data fields in text objects are supported.

• Text in graphs: title, sub-tile, groups title, series title, data title, axis title, footnote

• Text in report parameters descriptions and default values

• Formula returning text value. Translated formula are validated automatically after input.

• Text in report summary: title, subject, comment, keywords

• Text in alerts

• Sub-Report tab and on-demand caption

• Formula returning non text value such as selection formula can also be extracted if needed

What happens if a text object contain a data field?
The translator will see a tag such as {1} in the translatable text. He/she will be able to move this tag in his/her translation. If there are many fields in the text object, then the translator will see many tags {1}, {2} for instance and can position each tag independently.

What happens if the translated text need more space?
The preview will be automatically refreshed as you translate. If the translated text may appear truncated, you will be automatically notified and you can check immediately in the preview if the text is truncated or overlap another object. In such case you can resize and re-position the text object by activating the "size" and "position" property filter.

Why do we need to localize dates, numbers, currencies and fonts?
Depending on the target country, dates and numbers need to be displayed using different format. For instance in the US, you would use MM/DD/YYYY, while in the UK you would use DD/MM/YYYY. The report designer can also select to use the system local settings of the user but this would not allow for instance a French user to generate an US report with an US date format to send to his/her US client. The same apply to currency. In addition, to display the target text properly, the report may require a specific font that contains the relevant characters, therefore the font may also need to be localized. Crystal Translator allows you to localize all these.

Can I export the translatable text to Ms-Excel?
Yes, you can with the Professional or Enterprise edition. You could for instance send the Ms-Excel sheet to an external translator and then re-import the translated Ms-Excel sheet into Crystal Translator. However, note that you may have to re-format the target report after the import as the translator cannot preview, thus resize the objects in the report using Ms-Excel. We recommend that the translator uses the Freelancer edition, if possible, to avoid such short-coming and obtain more context for a better translation.

Can I translate/process several reports at once?
Yes, batch processing functionalities is included in the Enterprise edition. You can export the translatable texts of several selected reports or a whole folder with subfolders into an Ms-Excel file in one operation. You can also generate hundred of translated reports in one operation.

What is the purpose of importing previously translated reports?
If you have translated some reports before acquiring Crystal Translator, you can import these reports to populate the TM database from your previous translations. Now, you can re-use these translations with the new version of your source reports, allowing you to retrieve past investment.

Which languages are covered?

Crystal Translator supports Unicode, therefore you can input any character from any language. To be displayed properly, some languages may require a special font.  This tool allows you to replace automatically all the fonts of a report at once for a specific target language. Please note that to be able to input characters from a different language, you may need to change your keyboard layout in the control panel as explained in the Online Help. Right to left languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, are also now  supported with an automatic layout mirroring facility. Click here for a full list.

Which languages does the spell checker support?
Crystal Translator uses ISpell international as spell checker. The default installation provides English US, English UK, French, Spanish, German and Hebrew dictionaries. You can download freely additional dictionary packages from our site. We currently distribute over 30 languages: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English UK, English US, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tatar, Ukrainian

What does the layout mirroring function?

This function flips the report horizontally to support right to left  languages:

• changing the position of every visual component of the report
• changing the alignment of text, but not of data field number
• switching the indentation of text
• flipping the right and left borders of boxes
• changing position of graph legends
• flipping the left and right report margins

Does Crystal Translator save the translation in the original .rpt file?
No, it creates a different .rpt file for each target language, adding a suffix to the filename. This is because localizing a report is much more than just translating the text. You may need to resize and re-position labels, localize date formats, change fonts... for each target. This would quickly become  unmanageable in one report. Crystal Translator does not edit your source report in any way.

Does Crystal Translator need to be installed/licensed on the server running the reports?

No, you only need to install Crystal Translator on the translator workstation or the developer workstation (for export/import).  Crystal Translator produces translated .rpt files which will be run by your report server in the same way as your source reports. There is no runtime license needed.

What is the compatibility with Crystal Reports?

Crystal Translator is compatible with Crystal Reports 7, 8, 8.5, 9,  10, 11 as well as the embedded version of Crystal Reports embedded in Visual Studio .Net 2002-2003 and 2005. It creates target reports in the same format than the original source reports. There are three applications: one for supporting version 7, 8 and 8.5, one for version 9, 10 and VS.Net 2002-2003-2005, and another one for version 11, 2008,2011, 2013 and 2016.

Other advantages of the Enterprise edition

With the Enterprise edition, you can export the translatable texts of hundred of reports in one operation, import the translation and then rebuild all your translated reports in one go. You can finally concentrate on your source reports and let Crystal Translator manages your translated reports.
You could also use the Enterprise edition to change the page size, margins, fonts, date and time formats, number and currency formats of all your translated reports at once but also of all your source reports if needed.

Can I create several TMs?

Yes you can. With the Freelance edition, you should create one TM for each target language. We also recommend that you create a different TM for each product your are localizing.

What is TMX?
TMX is an export/import standard between translation memories (TM). It is based on XML and allow various TM such as Deja Vu, Trados, SDLX and Crystal Translator to exchange data. More information can be found at www.lisa.org/tmx

How can I convert a translated report version 9 into 8.5?

If your source report was version 8.5 and you translated it manually with Crystal Reports 9 or with Crystal Translator for CR 9 then you would obviously now have a translated report version 9. Follow these steps to convert it to version 8.5:

  A) If you did the translation with Crystal Translator for CR 9:

• Launch Crystal Translator for CR 8.5

• Open the Translation Memory (TM) , you used to do the translation

• Open your source report 8.5

• The software will recreate the translated report

• Save the translated report. This copy will be version 8.5

  B) if you did the translation using Crystal Reports 9

• Launch Crystal Translator for CR 9
  

• Create a new Translation Memory (TM)
  

• Select your target language in the TM
  

• Open your source report version 8.5
  

• In the File menu, select "import translated report"
  

• Select your translated report version 9 and follow the wizard
  

• The TM will now be populated with your translations
  

• Close Crystal Translator for CR 9.
  

• Follow the steps of phase A)

What are the minimum requirements?

  hardware:

• 300Mhz Pentium or AMD processor

• 64Mb of memory

• 150Mb of disk space available

• 800x600 monitor

• Mouse

  Software:

• Microsoft Windows workstation 2000 to Windows 10. It does not run under Windows Server for licensing reason

• MDAC and Jet 4.0 (can be downloaded from our website)

• Microsoft Excel for XLS Import/Export (Professional or Enterprise edition only)

• Internet Explorer for registration

What is property grouping?
An object such as a Text box as many properties such as the text itself but also its position, size, font... The grid editor automatically group all the properties of an object under a node that can be expanded or collapsed facilitating navigation. Selecting an object directly from the preview window also select this object in the grid editor.

Is the software networkable?
Yes, you can have several computers running Crystal Translator linked to the same TM database, except when using the Trial edition.

Do I need to uninstall before upgrading?
No, just download the new version and install it over the previous version. The new version will give you another 30 days evaluation period if you haven't registered yet. Please note that uninstalling and reinstalling the same version will not extend the evaluation period.

What are the limitations of the Trial edition?
The trial edition is limited to 30 days and 10 saves. You are free to use the translated reports freely, the software does NOT add watermarks to your translated reports. Import/Export functions are also limited:

• the XLS export function exports 2 out of 5 properties

• the XLS import and TMX export is not available

• cannot import translated reports created by this software

Refer to the "Feature comparison" page for a list of the functionalities available in the trial edition.

How can I buy Crystal Translator?
You can order it online through our secure online payment site. After entering your details, you can select from various payment methods such as secure online credit card, wire transfer, phone, fax and mail.

How does the pay per use option work?
When purchasing this software, you have the choice of the unlimited option or the pay per use option. The pay per use option gives you a pack of 10 or 20 "uses" of the software which you can renew as many time as you want or decide to opt for the unlimited option. one "use" is defined as one of the following:

• pre-translating a report into a target language

• importing an Ms-Excel file

• importing a translated report

• exporting to a TMX file

• importing a TMX file

• analysing the workload of a batch of reports

It gives you all the functionality of the professional edition but with a very low starting cost, ideal for users who have to maintain only a few foreign reports but still want to benefit from the time saving this product offers.

Why do you provide free support?
Firstly, our customers can be sure that we will always be there to help them. Secondly, if there is a bug in the software we want to be informed about it as soon as possible. This help us improve the software. Thirdly, we do not have to prepare and maintain time consuming list of support contracts!
We usually answer any support request sent at support@softlang.com in 24 hours with the exception of weekends and UK bank holiday. Obviously the support is limited to our software, we cannot be hold responsible for issues in Microsoft or Business Object products.

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Note: if you have a question, please download the manual for operational information or contact us at info@softlang.com