How to carry out alignment in

Wordfast
Presented by Groupe 4

TRA611: COMPUTER ASSISTED TRANSLATION

Academic year 2019-2020

Introduction
 Alignment is a process by which the
source document segments are
matched with the target document
segments correctly
 Examples of software used in CAT are
TRADOS, SYSTRAN and WORDFAST.
Introduction
 The latter is the focus of this write up
where a particular attention will be
given to the alignment process in
wordfast using Wordfast Aligner
 In order to be effective, we will
emphasise on the historical
background of wordfast, the different
steps of alignment in wordfast and a
practical example.
 I-HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS AND OBJECTIVES OF WORDFAST
 History
 Yves Champollion in 1999
 More expensive
 Why? to develop a power-
to-the people TM package
at an affordable price
 Characteristics
 user-friendliness,
customer support, and
value
 powerful features to
handle projects of any
size and complexity for
a fraction of the cost of
competing tools
I- HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS AND
OBJECTIVES OF WORDFAST
 Different version of Wordfast
 Wordfast Professional (WFP) 
 Wordfast Classic (WFC) 
 Wordfast Classic (WFS)
 II- STEPS FOR ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST
 In Wordfast Aligner a project file (.glp)
must be created for each source and
target pair. A .glp includes the source and
target documents that need alignment
 Once aligned, the documents can be
exported to create a Wordfast
compatible TM.
 Wordfast Aligner supports TXML,
DOC, PPT and XLS file formats. 
 II- STEPS FOR ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST
 1.Open Wordfast Aligner and click File > New Project or
or Ctrl+N
 The New Project dialog box appears.
 Complete the following entries:
Option Description
Project Name Enter a unique project name.
Project Location Enter the path or click to select a location
for the project.
Source Path Enter the path or click to select the
location of the source files.
Note: The source files can be in TXML, DOC,
PPT and XLS file formats.
Source Language Select the source language of the source
documents from the drop down list.
Target Path Enter the path or click to select the
location of the target files.
Note: The target files can be in TXML, DOC,
PPT and XLS file formats.
Target Language Select the target language of the target documents
from the drop down list.
3.Click Next.
The File Alignment page dialog box appears.
 II- STEPS FOR ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST
 Review the aligned source and target files and update
the JDiagram links, if required.
Note: You can select the link and press
the Delete button to delete them or drag the cursor to
create new links.
 Click Finish.
A new project file (.glp) is created and the first
document (.gld) in the project appears in the Project
Aligner window as shown in the screenshot below.
II- STEPS FOR ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST
 Review the aligned source and target segments and
update the JDiagram links, if required.
Note: You can select the link and press
the Delete button to delete them or drag the cursor
to create new manual links.
 Click on the Project Explorer button to review all
the documents.
Note: In the Project Explorer you can right click on a
document name to complete the following actions:
delete, mark as complete or pending. An example
screeshot is show below:
8. After reviewing all documents click Tools > Export TM or
, to create a Wordfast Pro compatible TM.
The Export TM dialog box appears
 II- STEPS FOR ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST

 Select the Export Type from the drop

down list. The options are:
 All documents: includes open, pending and completed
documents
 Current document: includes currently open document
only
 Completed documents: includes documents that are
marked as complete
 Enter the TM Name and TM Location.
 II- STEPS FOR ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST
 Note: These options are automatically populated
based on the project file name.
 Enter the TM User.
Note: The TM User is a penalty string that is
added to the TM. This will help the user identify
aligned source and target content.
 Click Finish.
A Wordfast TM is created at the specified location.
III- CONCRETE EXAMPLE OF ALIGNMENT IN
WORDFAST
 CONCLUSION

 From the above work, one can say Wordfast is an

important software used in the learning and the practice of
translation. We have been able to learn that, in order to
carry out alignment in Wordfast, there is a need to go
through the steps that have highlighted in the paragraphs
above. It is good however to note another software like
Trados where alignment can also be carried out.
REFERENCES
 http://www.wordfast.com/about_news_28April_2009.html
 http://translation_blog.trustedtranslations.com/wordfast_2010_04_23.html
 http://wordfast.com/FP2/working_Aligner/using_wordfast_Aligner.html
  
Thank you for your kind
attention!!!