Motaword Founder Evren Ay Answers the Questions That MotaWord Proofreaders Asked

How do we spell check on MotaWord? What more can be done to unify the tone of voice in MotaWord projects? Can the "Review" page be printed? How can it be improved? These questions are answered in this video. You can follow through the provided script for quick answers or watch the video directly.

Here is the full script of the video:

What are we here to talk about today?

0:07.9

Well, we are here to gather a lot more content for you, but no, we are here to talk about the questions that our proofreaders asked in the last week's proofreader session. We basically started having these sessions where Oytun and I sit with our proofreaders and answer any of their questions.

And there are some questions where they ask us "our favorite colors" but there are other questions where it is relevant to other proofreaders so we are here to answer those. And you have a list of the questions so feel free to ask those and I'll just answer them.

How do you use spell check in MotaWord projects?

0:44.8 Proofreader Cassio asks this question.

Well, MotaWord is a translation system that uses the full power of your browser. That means that it also uses the spellchecker of your browser. Whatever browser you use, be it Chrome, Safari, Edge (used to be Microsoft Internet Explorer, now it is called Edge), MotaWord would basically use the spell check of your browser.

I would wholeheartedly recommend that you actually allow your spell check. Typos are a really serious mistake on our platform that we do not like seeing, and I know for a fact that our clients do not like seeing them either. What we are going to do is, in this article, for example, we'll put a link on how to install the spell check on every major browser so that anybody who has a question like that can just click on the link, follow the prompts, and ensure that their spell-check functions perfectly on their browser.

So spellcheck is available on MotaWord, it is through the browser, and you can actually install it on your browser and use it.

Should the tone of voice be visible at all times in the platform?

2:02.5 Isabel asks, or maybe suggests, "It would be a great idea to make the tone of the translation visible at all times in the translation platform since this important information is usually lost in big style guides or does not appear there at all. Whenever this is not clear (sometimes text and context don't help), proofreaders find both tones mixed and often spend more time than necessary amending something that could be prevented easily." What are your thoughts on that?

Consistency and the style of translation are really important, and they change based on the needs of the client. So one of our clients, Iron Mountain, is getting their HR or security documents translated through us and needs a different tone of voice than, let's say, a gaming company like Electronic Arts that may need a more informal type of translation done.

So, we rely on the style guides that we prepare with the client in order to respect that tone of voice, plus we rely on the glossaries.

Can the Review page be improved, or printed?

3:16.5 Laura asks, "Is there a way to improve the 'Review' page, or to print it? It is sometimes hard to view the source document and the translated one and check that everything is OK. The characters are too small."

This sounds like a UI issue. It is, it is. I remember answering this question during the meeting, and this is actually something that we answer on Intercom when some proofreaders tell us they cannot see the review page.

Let me first answer the first part of this question. There is absolutely no way to print the review page. We do not allow it for a very simple reason: it is our solemn promise to our clients that none of our translators, none of our contributors, or even our project managers have a full copy of the documents to share or do anything they want with. So printing is out of the question, copy/pasting is out of the question, those are things that we do not allow.

But as far as getting the review page seen, in certain projects, it is not totally necessary. For example, if the content we are translating is an Excel file, the review page would be really short and small, and quite unnecessary because our translation editor would show those strings. If the document is an Excel file, it is much preferable to use the Translation Management System of MotaWord, the Translation Editor, to review the whole project, because the Excel does not carry any stylistic information and would basically do a poorer job of showing you the content. We also try to restrict the review page to a single screen, so it would be much smaller anyway. Using the Translation Editor is a better idea in those cases.

For CSV files, XLIFF files, or any kind of programmatic language files, the review page is actually not very useful. But if you are having a problem reviewing a Microsoft Word document or a PowerPoint document, yes, then definitely, by all means, just go to Intercom and let us know. Sometimes there are errors and we'd love to get those fixed, but usually those are the type of errors we encounter less and less as our systems get more robust.

Wrapping up

Well, I guess that was all 3 questions. We look forward to having the meeting this week coming up with more questions and answering all of them. You can just leave a comment down at this blog, or you could actually just ask us your questions anytime you want, either by joining the meetings that we hold for proofreaders or by going over to MotaWord and asking your questions directly to one of our colleagues on our Intercom app. Thanks a lot. Bye.

Evren Ay - MotaWord Team

Reviewed by Evren Ay at MotaWord. This piece is a transcript from a MotaWord proofreader Q&A session, sharing platform tips on spell check, style guides, and the Review page directly from the team.