ApSIC Xbench has some advanced features that you will appreciate when you have special needs. They are described in the following sections.
You can use the Ctrl+P (PowerSearch) key combination to search with more complex criteria. With the PowerSearch function you can search for entries:
Examples:
| This expression… | …does the following |
|---|---|
| string1 string2 | It find s all entries that contain “string1” and “string2” |
| string1 or string2 | It finds all entries that contain “string1” or “string2” |
| string1 -string2 | It finds all entries that contain “string1” but do not contain “string2” |
| string1 -“string2 with embedded blanks” | It finds all entries that contain “string1” but do not contain “string2 with embedded blanks” |
In more complex expressions involving several strings with Boolean and/or relationships, you can use parenthesis to indicate precedence.
In PowerSearch mode, you need to use double quotes as delimiters if your expression contains embedded blanks or parenthesis. If your search string contains a double quote character embedded, you need to escape it using a sequence of two double quote characters.
If one of the words to search in PowerSearch mode is the word “or”, you need to enclose the word “or” in double quotes to avoid that it is parsed as the or operator.
PowerSearch can be used in any of the searching modes: Simple, Regular Expressions, and MS Word Wildcards.
ApSIC Xbench features 4 types of zoom:
As you already noticed, ApSIC Xbench shows a snapshot of the most relevant terms for each priority level on a single unified view. This allows you to analyze the sources of potential inconsistencies or even different meanings and make a more informed decision on which term to choose.
However, it is possible that you want to see more (or all) instances of a specific level to make a more thorough analysis of a specific term.
To do so, double-click the body of the window for the level that you want to zoom in to obtain a full list of entries for the searched term. The background will become green so that you can tell that you are in zoomed mode.
To exit the zoomed mode, double-click the body of the window again.
ApSIC Xbench also defines a system-wide key for searching in the target column instead of in the source column. The default key combination for this feature is Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.
This is equivalent to leaving the Source Term field blank and the Target Term field filled out.
For example, this is convenient when you want to use a new term in your language and want to make sure that such a term is not already used in another term that could create potential clashes in the future with key terminology for your project.
The Search Options pane (View->Show Search Options) allows you to narrow the scope for the search. The filtering options available are:
If you right-click on a search result and choose the See Context menu item, you will see all units that are found in the file physically before and after the current entry appear.
If search matches within the tags need to be excluded from the search results, you can choose the Ignore Tags check box in the Search Options pane.
The Tools->Edit Segment menu item, also attached to the Ctrl+E key combination, allows you to open the source file to which the entry currently selected belongs. This is very useful to quickly amend an issue detected in an ongoing translation.
For many formats, for example when the source file is an SDLX itd file, a Trados Tag Editor ttx file, a Trados Word file, a memoQ file, a Trados Studio file or an IBM Translation Manager folder, ApSIC Xbench goes directly to the segment that contains the text.
For Transifex, it opens a window where you can type your correction and send it to Transifex, and for Matecat, it opens a browser with the online editor, right at the segment that needs to be edited.
To use this feature with IBM Translation Manager, please ensure that IBM Translation Manager is up and running and that there is no document currently being edited.
Line positioning is a lso available for Tab-delimited files and Trados
exported memories, but your text editor parameters must be configured in
Tools->Settings->Text Editor. For example, to configure TextPad 4 for
line positioning, you must select there the Text Pad executable and
specify the following in Command-Line Parameters: $filename($line,$column).
Similarly, to configure Notepad++, you must select its executable and specify the
following in Command-Line Parameters: $filename -n$line. Other text
editors will require different values for this field. Please check your text
editor’s documentation for the suitable values.
ApSIC Xbench also allows performing segment positioning for the TMX
format, but the TMX editor must be configured in Tools->Settings->TMX Editor.
For example, to configure OKAPI Olifant for segment positioning, you
must select there the Olifant executable and specify the following in
Command-Line Parameters: $Filename row=$Segment col=trg edit=yes.
Other TMX editors might have different values for this field.
Please check your TMX editor’s documentation for the suitable values.
This makes ApSIC Xbench a very useful and efficient tool to make global changes in terminology for these formats. If you afterwards want to ensure that all changes were made correctly, you can reload the ApSIC Xbench project with Project->Reload or Project->Refresh Content.
Search templates are predefined searches that you can choose or run. To use a search template, click on Search Templates… on the Search Options pane and then choose the search from the list. In Template Source, you can choose to show the Sample Search Templates or the Project Checklist entries. Click Search to run directly the search currently selected or click Choose to bring up the search template definition to the Source Term and Target Term fields.
You can switch between a vertical layout and a horizontal layout for the Source Term and Target Term fields in the Search tab. In the horizontal layout, the Target Term field appears next to the Source Term field and takes less screen space for the pane, hence there is more space available for search results. In the vertical layout, the Target Term field appears below the Source Term field and fields are therefore much wider.
To switch between the vertical and the horizontal layout, simply pull up or pull down the bottom border of the Source/Target pane to shrink it or to expand it.