Quality assurance (QA) is a feature built into the editor. It detects errors in translation by comparing source and target segments, checking the term base, spelling, content of the tags, etc. It helps translators detect formal errors and improve overall translation quality and consistency.
Important
Issues with tags are a common cause of export errors, especially for file types such as spreadsheets (MS Excel based) and .XML. Always ensure tags and formatting are correct before exporting files.
If set by a project manager, QA checks may be mandatory for jobs and projects. If mandatory, QA warnings must be mitigated before the jobs can be set to Completed. QA checks are also run on locked segments unless excluded by the project manager.
QA checks can be applied instantly, or manually and are displayed in the QA pane:
-
Instant QA
Run on a segment when confirmed. If issues are identified, the segment is not saved to a translation memory until the Linguist resolves them.
Instant QA can be enforced by project managers in Access and Security settings.
-
Manual QA
Checks all segments in the job. To be run by the Linguist before the job is set to Completed.
There is no reporting available for QA results.
To setup default QA settings, follow these steps:
-
From the Settings page, scroll down to the Quality assurance.
section and click onThe
page opens. -
Select required settings and click Save.
Settings are saved and will be applied to all new projects.
The quality assurance settings interface can also be accessed at the project level by editing a project or by editing a project template.
By default, all QA warnings can be set to ignore by Linguists/Vendors. For some QA checks, the project managers can disable the option in the QA settings so Linguists and Vendors will not be able to ignore these warnings when setting a job to Complete.
Whenever a QA check is launched for a job, the outcome is saved with the translation job with different values:
-
QA Warnings: Not launched
The QA has not been launched for this job.
-
QA Warnings: Incomplete
The QA has been launched for only part of a job (e.g. the user did not click the Show more link at the bottom of the QA warnings list) or the QA launched for the entire job was later edited.
-
QA Warnings: 2 (1 ignored)
The QA has been launched and it includes a total of 2 warnings of which 1 was marked as ignored.
Hover over the
value of a job on a project page to see QA Status.Forcing providers to run a QA check
Providers (Linguists and Vendors) can be prevented from setting a job to Completed unless a QA check is run and warning mitigated. Project managers can also select which QA checks are applied and which can be set to ignore by Linguists.
To select which QA checks can be ignored, follow these steps:
-
From a project page, click Edit.
The editing page opens.
-
Click Quality assurance.
The
table opens. -
Select
. -
Deselect ignore.
for any QA checks the Linguist/Vendor should not set to -
Click Save.
Settings are applied for that project.
Ignore in all workflow steps
QA warnings can be ignored across all workflow steps of a job. Once a QA warning is ignored in the first workflow step, it will not be reported again as unresolved in subsequent workflow steps.
To ignore QA warnings across workflow steps, follow these steps:
The QA checks cover errors that range from spelling errors to tag issues and inconsistent terminology. Some checks can be selected to be highlighted in the translation table.
QA check |
Function |
Instant QA |
Highlighted |
---|---|---|---|
Linguistic |
Selects all linguistic checks. |
||
Empty target |
The target contains no characters or tags. |
Yes |
|
Extra numbers in target |
There are no extra numbers in the target. |
Yes |
Yes |
Inconsistent translations |
|
Yes (with batch confirmations) |
|
Leading and trailing spaces |
There is a leading or trailing space in the target but not in the source. |
Yes |
Yes |
Maximum target segment length in % of source |
The target segment length is greater than the given parameter (default 130%). This setting is independent of the option below, i. e. it may show warnings even if the target segment complies with the limits set in Maximum target segment length in characters or the source file. |
Yes |
|
Maximum target segment length in characters |
The target segment length is greater than the given parameter (default 100). If the source file contains max. target segment length information (which is imported via the job settings and applied by enabling the Max. target length as set during job creation option), that will override this check. |
Yes |
|
Missing numbers |
The number in the source is not present in the target. For example, the source has the phrase "1 and 2", but the target reads "1 and 3". |
Yes |
Yes |
Multiple spaces |
There are multiple spaces in the target but not in the source. |
Yes |
Yes |
Repeated words |
Two or more adjacent words in the target are identical. |
Yes |
Yes |
Spelling |
The target contains misspelled words. |
Yes |
|
Target text identical with source one |
|
Yes |
|
Trailing punctuation |
Trailing punctuation is different in the source and target. For example, the source ends with "." but the target does not or vice-versa. |
Yes |
Yes |
Unedited NT/MT fuzzy match |
A fuzzy NT/MT match has been confirmed without being edited. |
No |
|
Unedited TM fuzzy match |
A fuzzy TM match has been confirmed without being edited. |
No |
|
Terminology |
Selects all terminology checks |
||
Forbidden terms |
Based on a target term (while a source term is not required). |
Yes |
Yes |
Missing terms |
Only terms within the source will be checked. |
Yes |
Yes |
Not allowed |
The target contains strings that are not allowed. Characters, or alternatively, utf-8 codes, can be entered as strings that are not allowed. Numerous strings can be entered if separated by commas. Strings are case-sensitive. |
Yes |
Yes |
Selects all formatting and tags checks. |
|||
Empty tag content |
The target tag content is empty, while the source tag content is not. For example, the source reads |
Yes |
|
Inconsistent tag content |
The tag content between the source and its corresponding target tag differ. For example, the source shows |
Yes |
|
Nested tags |
Paired tags in the target are misplaced. For example, there is {1>{2>abc<2}{3>abc<3}{4><4}<1} in the source and {1>{2>abc<2}{3>abc{4><3}<4}<1} in the target. This option is disabled by default, but it is important to enable it for projects with spreadsheet files. |
Yes |
|
No text between the tags |
There is a paired tag with no text between the tags in the target but not in the source. For example, there is {1>abc<1} in the source and {1><1} in the target. |
Yes |
|
Tags & formatting |
Tags/formatting are missing or invalid, or there are missing or redundant line breaks. Example: the source contains "{1} {2}" but the target reads "{1}". |
Yes |
|
Tags-joined segments |
The number of {j} tags is different in the source and target. For example, the source is "xxx{j}yyy" but the target is "xxx yyy". |
Yes |
|
XLIFF tags |
Paired tags (such as bpt and ept) are in the incorrect order in the completed target file. For example, the source contains "bpt bpt ept ept" and the target contains "bpt ept ept bpt". |
Yes |
|
Workflow |
Selects all workflow checks. |
||
Newer version in a preceding workflow step available |
Checks whether newer versions of segments exist in preceding Workflow steps. For example, a translator has modified a segment in the Translation Workflow step after it was revised in the Revision Workflow step. |
Yes |
|
Not confirmed segments |
Checks to make sure each segment is confirmed. |
No |
|
Unresolved comment |
Ensures that no segment contains an unresolved comment in a conversation. |
No |
|
Custom checks |
|
Yes |
No results were returned from the QA web service. An error occurred while servicing the request.
Indicates that there was most likely a temporary server issue and QA was unavailable for a few minutes. Wait a couple of minutes and try running QA again. If the issue persists, check the status page for an incident or contact the support team.