OmegaT has very few buttons and looks a bit stern, if not outright unfriendly, to people who are used to button-based interfaces. Most of the action takes place with the help of shortcuts associated to menu items.
Shortcuts are ubiquitous in this manual and you should be able very shortly to remember the few that are useful in the course of a standard translation day.
Menus are where you access most of OmegaT's functions. Most menu items have an associated keyboard shortcut.
Menu items that do not indicate a shortcut do not have one assigned by default. See the Customization appendix if you want to modify or add shortcuts.
Key shortcut description reminder:
| Linux/Windows | Key identifier | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Shift | S | shift or ⇧ |
| Ctrl or Control | C | command or ⌘ |
| Alt | A | alt / option or ⌥ |
| Ctrl | control or ⌃ |
This menu gives you access to project management commands.
On Windows and Linux: Control + Shift + N
On macOS: Shift + Command + N
In this manual: C + S + N
Creates and opens a new project. See the Create a new project section for details.
Creates a local copy of a remote OmegaT project. See the Use a team project how-to for details.
Opens a previously created project.
Gives access to the last ten edited projects. Clicking one will save the current project, close it and open the selected project.
Use the Clear Menu function to delete the list of recent projects.
Reloads the project to take external changes in source files and project settings into account.
New translation memories placed in the tm folder while translating are automatically taken into account as soon as the cursor moves from one segment to another. Similarly, the contents of the glossary folder are automatically recognized and do not require reloading the project.
When reloading a team project, OmegaT reloads the remote, rather than the local, properties.
Saves the project translation memory (project_save.tmx) and closes the project.
Saves the project translation memory (project_save.tmx) and synchronizes team projects.
OmegaT automatically saves translations every three minutes as well as
when you close the project or quit the program. See the
Project
data saving interval
preference for details.
Copies the selected files to the source folder and reloads the project to take the new files into account.
Opens a dialog where you can paste the URL of the MediaWiki page
you want to translate. The source data of the page will be copied into
the source folder, as a text file with the
.utf8 extension.
This function is specific to team projects. Only the team project manager should use this function . See the Use a team project how-to for details.
Uploads locally added or modified files from the source folder to the team project
repository.
This function is specific to team projects. Use this function only if the team project manager asked you to do so . See the Use a team project how-to for details.
Uploads locally created translated files from the target folder to the team project repository.
Creates the target files based on your translation. The created target files are located in the target folder.
You can prevent the creation of target files if tag issues are
found. See the
Block
the creation of translated files with tag issues
preference for details.
Every time you create translated files, OmegaT saves the project (see the Save C + S menu item above) and creates reference memories that include the translated segments of the current source file set.
Creates the target file corresponding to source file currently being translated. The resulting file is located in the target folder.
Every time you create the current translated file, OmegaT saves the project (see the Save C + S menu item above) and creates reference memories that include the translated segments of the current source file set.
Opens a project package in the MED format defined by the EU Directorate-General for Translation.
Converts the current project into a MED package.
Displays the Project Properties dialog to edit the project languages and folder locations.
Opens the Source Files window.
Gives access to the various project folders. See the Project Folder chapter for more details.
In addition, there are three menu entries that directly open the current source or target files, or the writable glossary. The files are opened in the default application set by the operating system. The options are grayed out if the files do not exist.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
Opens the folder in your default file manager.
The current source file is located in the source folder.
Opens the file in the associated application.
The current target file is located in the target folder.
Opens the file in the associated application if the file exists.
The writable glossary is located in the glossary folder.
Opens the file in the associated application if the file exists.
Saves the project and restarts OmegaT. You are asked to confirm that you really want to quit if you have not yet saved the project.
Saves the project and quits OmegaT. You are asked to confirm that you really want to quit if you have not yet saved the project.
In macOS, this menu item is found under the OmegaT menu.
This menu gives you access to segment edition commands.
On Windows and Linux: Control + Z
On macOS: Command + Z
In this manual: C + Z
Cancels modifications made to the segment while it is current. Modification history is lost upon leaving the segment.
Reapplies modifications that were cancelled while the segment is current. Modification history is lost upon leaving the segment.
Replaces the target segment with the currently selected fuzzy match (the first match by default) or with the text selected in the Fuzzy Matches pane.
Selected text has priority over the selected match.
See the Fuzzy Matches pane description for details..
Inserts the currently selected fuzzy match or the text selected in the Fuzzy Matches pane at the cursor position. If a part of the target segment has been selected, that part will be overwritten.
The selected text has priority over the selected match.
See the Fuzzy Matches pane description for details..
Replaces the entire target segment with the segment source.
Inserts the segment source at the cursor position. If a part of the target segment has been selected, that part will be overwritten.
Selects the source text.
The selection can be used directly in OmegaT for internal searches, replacements, entering glossary terms, external searches, and so on. Once copied to the OS clipboard, it can also be used in web searches and elsewhere.
Replaces the target segment with the translation provided by the selected machine translation service.
If the
Automatically
fetch translations
preference is disabled, use this action once to fetch the
translation, and a second time to insert it.
No action is taken if no machine translation service has been activated in the Options Machine Translation menu. See the Machine Translation preferences for details.
Inserts the remaining missing source tags at the cursor position.
Inserts the next missing tag at the cursor position.
Exports the current selection to a text file for processing. If no text has been selected, the current source segment is written to this file. To remain consistent with usual clipboard behaviour this file is not emptied when the user exits OmegaT. The exported contents are copied to the selection.txt file located in the configuration folder.
Allows the user to create an entry in the project writable glossary (the glossary.txt file).
There are two ways to use this function.
The first is to call the dialog and then manually fill in the various fields.
The second is to select items in one of the OmegaT panes and sequentially call the dialog after each selection to have OmegaT enter it automatically in the various fields:
Select a text string in any pane
Press C + S + G
The selection is entered in the Source term field.
Select a text string in any pane
Press C + S + G
The selection is entered in the Target term field.
[Optional] Select a text string in any pane
[Optional] Press C + S + G
The selection is entered in the Comment field.
Hit Enter or click on OK
Opens a new Text Search window.
If you select a text string (in any pane) before calling the function, the text will be pasted by default in the Search for: field.
The C + S + F combination reuses the most recent still open Search window instead of opening a new one.
Opens a new Text Replace window.
If you select a text string (in any pane) before calling the function, the text will be pasted by default in the Search for: field.
If the
Search
automatically
preference is disabled, this function allows you to search for the
selected word or for the whole segment terms in the dictionaries.
Changes the case of the selected text in the target segment to the selected option, or cycles through the options. If no text is selected, OmegaT selects the word starting with the character immediately to the right of the cursor.
lower case
all letters in lower case
UPPER CASE
ALL LETTERS IN UPPER CASE
Title Case
Almost all Letters in Lower Case
Sentence case
Only the first letter in upper case.
Cycle S + F3
On macOS, the F3 key enables the overwrite mode in the editor. See Overwriting for details.
Selects the previous, next or nth fuzzy match
displayed in the fuzzy match pane to replace or insert it to the
segment.
Select Previous Match A + ↑
Select Next Match A + ↓
Select Match #1 C + 1
Select Match #2 C + 2
Select Match #3 C + 3
Select Match #4 C + 4
Select Match #5 C + 5
Inserts the selected Unicode directional formatting character. See Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm for details.
Left-to-Right Mark (LRM U+200E)
Right-to-Left Mark (RLM U+200F)
Left-to-Right Embedding (LRE U+202A)
Right-to-Left Embedding (RLE U+202B)
Pop Directional Formatting (PDF U+202C)
Use View Display Bidi Control Characters to display the characters for easier manipulation. See Directional Formatting Characters for details.
If several alternative translations are available for the active segment, you can label the alternative selected as the default translation. The entry will be grayed if only one translation is available.
Segments that are one and the same segment may, depending on the context, require different translations. If the current translation does not apply, select this menu item and enter the alternative translation.
OmegaT differentiates between identical segments using either an internal identifier provided by the file type, or by referring to their preceding and following segments. In such cases, alternative translations relies on the identical segments having different preceding or following segments. If the identical segments also have identical preceding and following segments, you will not be able to translate them differently and make one of them an alternative translation in OmegaT.
You can work around this issue by introducing a small change to one of the preceding or following segments in the source file to distinguish between the various instances of the same preceding or following segment.
Deletes the current translation and sets the segment as untranslated.
Define the translation as empty. The target document contains nothing
for this segment, while the Editor marks it with the
<EMPTY> identifier.
Use this command to register a translation as identical to the
source, even if the
Allow
translation to be equal to source
preference is not enabled.
This menu gives you access to the segment and pane navigation commands.
On Windows and Linux: Control + U
On macOS: Command + U
In this manual: C + U
Moves to the next segment with no target language entry in the translation memory.
Moves to the next already translated segment, ignoring untranslated segments.
Also: Enter
Moves to the next segment, or to the first segment of the next file if the current segment is the last one in the file.
You can use
TAB
as an alternative shortcut by
enabling the
Use TAB
to Advance
preference.
This is useful with character entry systems that use Enter to validate input.
Also: C + Enter
Moves to the previous segment, or to the last segment of the previous file if the current segment is the first one in the file.
You can use
C
+
TAB
as an alternative shortcut by enabling the
Use TAB
to Advance
preference.
This is useful with character entry systems that use Enter to validate input.
Jumps to the segment whose call-out or number is entered.
Moves to the next segment with a note.
Moves to the previous segment with a note.
Moves to the next unique segment.
Moves to the segment that corresponds to the currently selected match in the Fuzzy matches pane.
Navigate between segments that were automatically populated by exact matches from the tm/auto and tm/enforce subfolders.
See the Reuse TMs how-to for details.
Next Segment from tm/auto/ C + A + ,
Moves to the next segment inserted from
tm/auto/.
Previous Segment from tm/auto/ S + C + A + ,
Moves to the previous segment inserted from
tm/auto/.
Next Segment from tm/enforce/ C + A + .
Moves to the next segment inserted from
tm/enforce/.
Previous Segment from tm/enforce/ S + C + A + .
Moves to the previous segment inserted from
tm/enforce/.
OmegaT remembers your segment navigation history.
This command allows you to move backward one segment at a time to segments you have previously visited.
OmegaT remembers your segment navigation history.
This command allows you to move forward one segment at a time to segments you have previously visited with the above Go To Back in History C + S + P command.
Enter the Notepad to write or modify a note associated to the current segment.
Enter the Editor to proceed with your translation.
This menu allows you to select the information you want to OmegaT to display.
All the colours indicated in the descriptions can be modified in the Colours preference.
If checked, translated segments are highlighted in yellow.
If checked, untranslated segments are highlighted in violet.
If checked, separations between paragraphs in the source document
are indicated visually. You can change the paragraph delimitation string
in the
Paragraph
delimitation format
preference.
If checked, all the source segments are shown and highlighted in green. If not checked, only the current source segments is shown.
If checked, repeated segments are highlighted in pale gray.
If checked, segments with notes are highlighted in cyan. This marking has priority over Highlight Translated Segments and Highlight Untranslated Segments.
If checked, non-breakable spaces are displayed with a gray background.
If checked, white spaces are displayed as a small dot.
This option displays Unicode directional formatting characters. See Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm for details.
Use Edit Insert Bidi Control Character to insert a selection of characters directly from the OmegaT interface. See Directional Formatting Characters for details.
If checked, segments that have been auto-populated are highlighted in various colours.
See the
Save
auto-populated status
preference for details.
Underlines source terms that have a match in the glossaries. Hovering on an underlined term displays the matching target term. Right-clicking on an underlined term displays the matching target term, which can be selected and inserted at the cursor position in the target text.
Underlines parts of the target where LanguageTool has found errors. See the LanguageTool preferences for details.
Check this option if OmegaT does not display certain glyphs properly (even if the fonts containing the relevant glyphs are installed on your machine).
On Windows this manual font fallback mechanism has been known to interfere with the standard font fallback, causing undesirable font substitutions. For that reason, it is OFF by default.
Displays the time and the author of the last change made to a segment.
The default value is Current segment and it can be set to All segments or to None.
You can modify the displayed information. See the
Customize
segment modification information
preferences for details.
Restores the OmegaT window layout to its default values.
Use this function when you run into problems while rearranging the window layout.
This menu gives you access to a number of tools, including QA validation, match reports, an aligner, and scripting.
On Windows and Linux: Control + Shift + V
On macOS: Shift + Command + V
In this manual: C + S + V
This quality assurance tool carries out all automatic checks in one go and displays the results in a window.
Four types of issues can be detected:
Tag Issues (always selected): detects missing or misplaced tags, including custom tags and flagged text. See the Tag Processing preferences for details.
The option is always selected.
Spelling Issues (optional): detects spelling mistakes. Only works if a spelling dictionary is installed. See the Spellchecker preferences for details.
Terminology Issues (optional): detects all the glossary items that are not properly translated. See the Glossaries preferences for details.
LanguageTool Issues (optional): detects grammatical or typographical issues. See the LanguageTool preferences for details.
The results are presented as a table in which:
Double-clicking a row activates the corresponding segment in the Editor pane.
Clicking a column header changes the sort order for that column.
Selecting or mousing over a row displays a context menu icon in the last column. Clicking that icon presents actions available to correct or ignore the error.
To force issue checking each time you leave a segment,
enable the
Check
issues when leaving a segment
preference.
To prevent the creation of translated files if tag issues are
found, enable the
Block
the creation of translated files with tag issues
preference.
As above, but only for the document currently displayed in the Editor pane.
Opens a new window and displays project statistics such as the overall project word count or segment totals, and totals for every file in the project.
The data is saved in the project_stats.txt file located in the omegat folder of the project.
Word count, segment total and other items can be influenced by the following factors:
File filter settings: some filters allow for extra parts to be considered for translation. See the file filter options for details.
Segmentation rules: different rules will generate a different number of segment. See the Segmentation appendix for details.
Tags: OmegaT tags are never counted in the statistics but in
some cases can split terms and create discrepancies in the way
OmegaT counts them. See the
Hide
tags
preference in the
Project
Properties
dialog for
details.
Custom tags and flagged text: as with OmegaT tags, they are
not counted by default in the statistics, but you can have OmegaT
count them as words. See the
Count
flagged text and custom tags in statistics
preference for details.
Displays the match statistics for the project, which consist of the number of repetitions, exact matches, fuzzy matches and no-matches for segments, words and characters.
The data is saved in the project_stats_match.txt file located in the omegat folder of the project.
Displays the individual match statistics, which consist of the number of repetitions, exact matches, fuzzy matches and no-matches for segments, words and characters, for each file in the project.
The data is saved in the project_stats_match_per_file.txt file located in the omegat folder of the project.
Select the two files to align (the source file and its translation) and click OK to open the Align Files window.
The supported file formats depend on your project setting. See the File Filters appendix for details.
The source and target files can have different formats (for
example, a .docx file can be aligned with a
.pdf file).
Opens the Scripting window, which allows you to set the location where scripts are stored, as well as write and run scripts, and assign them a shortcut.
The list below this item displays 12 potential slots for scripts. Clicking on an assigned slot launches the script assigned to that slot.
To assign a number to a script:
Open the Scripting window
Select the script you want from the list on the left.
At the bottom of the window, right-click on an unassigned number and select Add Script.
If you have defined external searches in the Global External Searches preferences, they are listed and accessible here.
This menu gives quick access to a few frequently used preferences.
Opens the Preferences dialog.
In macOS, this menu item is found under the OmegaT menu.
Allows you to activate or deactivate enabled and properly configured machine translation engines.
If several translation engines are selected, you can also use C + M to switch between them and insert the last one selected. See the Machine Translation preferences for details.
Allows you to activate or deactivate fuzzy matching for glossary matches.
See the Glossaries preferences for details.
Allows you to activate or deactivate fuzzy matching for dictionary matches.
See the Dictionaries preferences for details.
Select the various options to activate or deactivate them. See the Auto-Completion preferences for details.
Opens the Global File Filters preferences.
Use Project Properties... C + E to access the local file filter preferences.
Opens the Global Segmentation Rules preferences.
Use Project Properties... C + E to access the local segmentation rules preferences.
Opens the Editor preferences.
Opens the local folder where OmegaT configuration files are stored.
The location depends on the operating system and launch options. See the Configuration Folder appendix for details.
This menu gives you access to information that will help you make the best of OmegaT.
Opens this manual in the default browser.
Displays copyright, credits and license information.
Displays the list of new functionality, enhancements and bug fixes for each new release.
Displays the current log file. The title of the dialog reflects the file currently in use (which depends on the number of concurrently running OmegaT instances).
Checks to see if a newer version of OmegaT is available.