ChangeTracker Quick Start Guide
1. Launch the application.
2. Drag the unedited files to the left panel (with the blue text) and the edited ones to the right panel
(with the red text).
To add destination folders, use the directory tree and the
and
buttons on the left:
3. After adding the files, you'll see something similar to the figure below. Now you need to pair the files.
If the names of the edited and unedited files are the same (as it usually happens), just press the
"Autolink by Names" button. If the files have different names, they can be paired manually by
dragging:
Note: You can remove the unnecessary files using the "Remove Files" button. Use the "Remove
Links" button to unlink the incorrectly paired files.
4. Press Next and wait a little to get the comparison results:
Note: Using the "Segments display" menu you can display either all the segments, or just the
changed ones.
5. If you need to export the displayed segments to Excel, press the Make report button.
That is all there is to working with the application. For more details, please continue reading below.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Supported formats
The current version supports the following bilingual file formats (all trademarks are the property of their
respective owners):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Trados (TTX, SDLXLIFF);
MemoQ (XLIFF);
Idiom, Translation Workspace (XLZ);
Oscar (TMX);
Wordfast (TXML);
Microsoft Helium (HE);
Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX, RTF).
Definitions
Translated files: bilingual files that contain the source text and its translation BEFORE making any changes.
Edited files: bilingual files that contain the source text and its translation AFTER changes were made.
ChangeTracker allows you to see exactly what has been changed.
File pair: a bundle that consists of translated and edited files with the same source text. A link between the
files is visualized as a line.
Group: one or more files selected on the panel.
File pair: a bundle that consists of translated and edited files with the same source text. A link between the
files is visualized as a line.
Orphan: a segment that is present only in one file from a file pair.
Panel: an area that contains a list of bilingual files. ChangeTracker has two such panels: left panel shows a
list of the translated files and the right panel has a list of the edited files.
Panels are visually separated with a bar wherein the links between the files are shown.
User interface items
Described below are various UI items and more detailed instructions for working with them. In this version of
the manual the UI items are as follows.
Welcome screen
The first page of the wizard is the welcome screen:
When you run this application later on, you can choose to skip this page by checking the "Skip this welcome
screen on next launch" checkbox.
Pair linking screen
The method for linking bilingual files into file pairs
First, it is necessary to specify the location of the files for comparison. To do this, add the translated files to the left
panel and the edited files into the right panel. You can do this in two ways:

From Windows Explorer (or any other file manager, which supports drag and drop, e. g. Total
Commander) drag the translated files to the left panel and the edited files into the right panel.

In the Quick folder selection window, select the folder that contains the translated files and press
the Add files from folder to translations button. If there is more than one such folder, repeat this step for
each folder.
All bilingual files from the specified folder and its subfolders will be added to the selected panel. If you are a drag
and drop fan, you can disable the Quick folder selection panel by pressing the Hide Explorer panel (F5) button.
The next step you need to take is linking the files into file pairs. You can do this in two ways:

Select Autolink by names on the ribbon. Translated and edited files with the same names will be linked.

Hover the mouse over the cross near the file on the left panel, click it and draw the line to the cross near
the corresponding edited file in the right panel, while holding the mouse button. Crosses will be connected with
a line, which means that the files are now united in a file pair.
Files in the panels may be united in a group: this allows you to delete multiple files or split multiple file pairs in just
one click. When you have created the necessary file pairs, press the Next button to import segments from bilingual
files and start normalizing them.
Page menu
Autolink by names
Click this item in order to automatically link files with matching names.
Remove links
If this menu is active, there is at least one pair of linked files. This menu has two options:

Remove All — breaks all file pairs.

Remove Selected — breaks the connections of the files united in a group, if there is at least one linked
file in a group.
Remove files
This menu consists of two options:

Remove All — removes all the files in the panel.

Remove Selected — removes the file groups from the panel.
Pair tree view
Use this menu to configure the scrolling of the panels:

Synchronized scrolling — enables synchronized scrolling mode of both panels regardless of the
scrollbar position. In the majority of cases, it is the most convenient mode.

Free scrolling — allows you to scroll the panels independently. This mode is convenient when the list of
added files is longer than a screen, and the file you need to link is at the bottom of it.
Segments view screen
After
importing
the
files,
the
application
displays
a
table
with
changes:
By default, every row in the table means a segment that was modified in that or another way. Pieces of text that
were deleted during editing are marked in the Translation column in red, and those pieces of text that were added
during the editing are marked in the Correction column in blue. Unmodified tags are greyed out. The × mark in the
table shows that this segment contains no translation or that the translation was not changed — this depends upon
the column where this mark is displayed. A question mark (?) in the table indicates a so-called orphan segment.
Press the Make report button to create an XML report that can be viewed in Excel.
Page menu
New comparison
Select this item to open a blank file pair selection page.
Reload same files
Click this item to reread the already configured file pairs.
Segments Display
This menu item is used to switch between display modes:

Display all segments — displays all the segments imported from the file pairs.

Display only corrected segments — displays only the segments that were modified during editing. This
is the default display mode.
Workflow Tips
Target users
ChangeTracker will be useful to all participants of the translation process: translators, editors, project
managers and end customers. Each group of users will get their own benefits that are described in separate
use cases.
IMPORTANT! Benefits on every step of the TEP process result in overall quality boost. That’s why the more
parties in localization process use ChangeTracker, the bigger improvement is.
Get proof of full TEP cycle performed (customers, managers)
If you are requesting full translation, editing and proofreading (TEP) cycle, feel free to give ChangeTracker to
your translation services provider and demand change reports for each stage, which should be done by a
different linguist. This will help you to make sure that you receive what you are paying for, and that agreed
procedures are followed.
Managers at LSPs (especially those that intend to become ISO-certified) can use ChangeTracker to certify
that all procedures were followed. This is a real competitive advantage that can be now obtained for free!
Get higher QA results with ChangeTracker (translator, proofreader)
When doing proofreading or self-proofreading, experts often leave some errors like mistakes of grammar
agreement, excessive corrections etc. In order to fix them, a second round of self-proofreading is necessary.
But the reality is that many translators and some proofreaders skip the phase of second proofreading and
deliver texts with such leftovers.
This is where ChangeTracker is extremely useful. In just a few clicks you can create a neat report and look
through corrected segments only to validate your previous edits. This allows to reduce time for second round
of self-proofreading dramatically and helps to eliminate majority (if not all) leftover mistakes.
Improve QA process with ChangeTracker (proofreader, manager)
If you have ever filled LQA form, you may already know that it takes quite a lot copy-pasting to fill in every
cell of the report. With ChangeTracker it's much easier.
With neat reports, which can be exported to Excel, you can fill first 4 columns of the LQA form just by one
copy/paste operation — file name, source, target and corrected target are copied in 2 clicks, unlike the
traditional way. Moreover, with ChangeTracker LQA forms get easier to read — all changes are highlighted,
so translators can easily see, where the comma was missed or where they made a typo.
Improve UI consistency across UA projects (manager)
This is a cool hack for project managers and coordinators. Often it happens that first you localize user
interface and in a while the same customer returns with localization of help and manuals. The key concern in
such projects is to maintain consistent UI translation in Help. Here is how you can do it with ChangeTracker.
1. Export translation memory of UI project into TMX format. TM should contain only translations of UI
from the latest localization round.
2. Create a copy of this TMX (ChangeTracker does not allow comparing the file with itself).
3. Align original file and its copy manually.
4. Export all segments into Excel.
5. Delete columns #1 and #3 in ChangeTracker Excel report.
6. Make a glossary for your CAT-tool either from XLS directly or by saving it as CSV.
Now you have a termbase with all actual translations of UI, and you are ready to deliver excellent and
consistent translation of help.