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Can you expand a bit more on SmartCAT integration with Amara?

 Hi. I have used SmartCAT a bit. I am intrigued to know how to make it work with Amara?


Thank you for this question, David Al


CC subtitles are text transcripts with time codes added to sync the logical fragments into subtitles. So you could, for instance


  • download original subtitles as TXT files (i.e. without the time codes) from Amara, 
  • translate them with SmartCAT, 
  • save the translation as a UTF-8 encoded TXT file,
  • upload the translated TXT file to the Amara page
  • open the resulting subtitles in the editor
  • open the Time menu (clock face icon top of the translation column) and choose "copy timing" to get your translated subtitles synced like the original ones.

After that, of course, you'll probably need to fine-tune <our translation's syncing.


Best wishes for 2020


Claude

Thank you for the reply. Definitely sounds like a good plan! With regards to my other question tweaking out already existing translation. I might post here as well as it concerns a CAT tool. I could export both source and target as plain text (no time codes). To take advantage of already made translation, I need to create a TM. A free program can be used to align segments. Upload source, target, an TM to CAT tool. Translate and upload final plain text translation to Amara. Import time codes either from source, or target to the translation, which ever is better synced with the video file. Sync subs to ensure all is good. If translating from scratch it's pretty straightforward If tweaking already made subs, and source and target have lines. TM creation might not be that bad If source and target have very different time codes (ex synced to different digital versions/cuts) and different number of subtitle lines, than creating a TM will be labourious. And imported time codes may have less or more entries than the new subtitle file. But I guess can be fixed by syncing.

It’s great to see that you have a plan for tweaking already existing translations using a CAT tool.

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