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Performing SAP Translations OFFLINE

Performing SAP Translations OFFLINE

SAP introduced some features for offline translation with SAP NetWeaver 7.3.This provides an alternative workflow to the Standard “ONLINE” process with transaction SE63.

Whereas the use of the so called ONLINE workflow with SE63 clearly has advantages when performing an initial translation of e.g. custom developments, the OFFLINE process can be advantageous for maintenance, that is, the periodic translation of modifications and/or new development.

Other advantages of establishing an external translation workflow are

  1. Benefit from your online terminology and proposal pool when translating other SAP-related materials, for instance SAP user Training and documentation in other formats such as PPT or Word.
  2. Making use of CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) systems with very advanced translation Support when compared with the online process established by SAP.

Allowing resources without access to your SAP system to translate your content.

See also the SAP Help Portal Translating Texts Offline

With earlier releases, offline translation (with 3rd party tools, such as e.g. Dragoman) had the disadvantage that translation statistics within SAP could not be used. This was because those tools would use and maintain their own database for storing previous translations.

Now, you can even deploy a hybrid solution where you use ONLINE to translate the initial bulk with SE63 and when entering maintenance, you work with Externalization and e.g. TRADOS Studio.

Trados Studio Editor with SAP XLIFF

As you can see, the XLIFF file exported from SAP can be imported directly in a CAT tool such as Trados Studio. The attributes like max length are maintained and visible to the translator with a mouse-over (see Quick Tip in yellow).

When the translation exceeds the max length restriction, a warning is issued (see red warning Icon).

So what you need to benefit fully from previous translations within the SAP System is the exported Proposal Pool for the given language and the exported STERM db with all the SAP terms and your own terminology, if you maintain this within STERM (which is highly recommended).

In a later post we will share the Tips and Tricks how to use the Externalization Feature to export all previous translations from the Proposal Pool and convert the Proposal Pool content for use in a CAT tool.

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