Abbreviation

Definition

If the space available in the translation line for a source text is insufficient for you to enter the full translation, you must enter an abbreviation instead. We recommend that you create this translation as an abbreviation in the proposal pool, and assign it to the appropriate full text. If the full translation of this source text is not yet available in the proposal pool, you are advised to create it and then assign your abbreviation to it.

You can create abbreviations for system standards or domain standards, but not for exceptions. For more information, see Creating Abbreviations and Full Texts.

Use

When you create an abbreviation in the proposal pool for a source text whose translation line is too short for you to enter the full translation, the system stores the full text and its abbreviation together in a monolingual table.

This has the following advantages:

  • When you assign an abbreviation to a full text in the proposal pool, this abbreviation is automatically available in all other proposal pool entries that contain the same full text. You do not need to create this abbreviation again for other source texts that have the same translation. From a technical standpoint, the abbreviation exists just once, which reduces the amount of memory space you require in the proposal pool. This also improves the consistency of your translations.

  • Languages translating from a source language that is also a target language benefit from additional information in the short text editor. The short text editor enables translators to display the full texts to which abbreviations are assigned. For more information, see Displaying Full Texts for Abbreviations. This reduces the number of comments that you need to create in the short text editor. For more information, see Translating in the Short Text Editor.

An abbreviation must be the same translation as the full text to which it is assigned. See the table below for examples of full texts and their abbreviations:

German Source Text

English Full Text

English Abbreviation

Menge

Quantity

Qty

Belege

Documents

Docs

Stückliste

Bill of Material

BOM

Appl.

Applications

Appl.

An abbreviation that you assign to a system standard is the best proposal when the following criteria are fulfilled:

  • No domain standard exists for the domain of the object you are currently translating

  • There is not enough space in the translation line for the system standard.

  • The space available in the translation line is sufficient for the abbreviation that is assigned to the system standard.

An abbreviation that you assign to a domain standard is the best proposal when the following criteria are fulfilled:

  • There is not enough space in the translation line for the domain standard.

  • The space available in the translation line is sufficient for the abbreviation that is assigned to the domain standard.

Integration

If the abbreviation is the best proposal for the source text to be translated, the system displays it in blue beneath the appropriate translation line in the short text editor. You can copy the best proposal to your translation line by double-clicking it. When you save, the translation status of the short text line changes to translated.

When you create an abbreviation, the system prompts you to assign a quality status to it. Your translator profile determines the quality statuses that you can assign.

The Find Full Texts for Abbreviations function in the short text editor enables you to see whether a full text has been defined in the proposal pool for an abbreviation in the source text or target text. If full texts exist in the proposal pool for abbreviations used in the object you are currently translating, the system displays the icon next to the status bar, together with the number 1, 2, or 12. The number 1 means that a full text exists in the proposal pool for the text in the source text line. The number 2 means that a full text exists for the text in the target text line. 12 means that full texts exist in the proposal pool for the source and target text lines. For more information, see Displaying Full Texts for Abbreviations.

Example

Example 1

You are translating the German source text Belegmenge into English. You create the abbreviation Document Qty and assign it to the system standard Document Quantity. The next day, you translate the German source text Bel.menge which has the same system standard Document Quantity. You do not need to create Document Qty as an abbreviation again, because the abbreviation of Document Quantity that you created yesterday is already available.

Example 2

You translate from two source languages, German and English, into Spanish. This means that two proposal pools exist for target language Spanish: German to Spanish, and English to Spanish. On Monday, you translate the German source text Änderung but do not have enough space for the full Spanish translation, so you create Modific as an abbreviation of the system standard Modificación. On Thursday, while translating from English into Spanish, you create Modificación as a system standard for the English source text Change. The abbreviation Modific appears automatically in the English to Spanish proposal pool because it is always a valid abbreviation of the Spanish full text Modificación, irrespective of the language from which Spanish is translated.

Example 3

You translate from English to Japanese. Your English source texts are translations from German. You open an object for translation in the short text editor, and notice that some of the English source texts are abbreviations. You therefore use the Find Full Texts for Abbreviations function in the short text editor to find out if the object currently being translated contains abbreviations that are assigned to full texts in the English proposal pool. If the system finds full texts for abbreviations, it displays 1 in the appropriate status bar. You can click the number to display the English full text, which helps you understand the meaning of the abbreviation and therefore translate it accurately into Japanese.

More Information

For more information on proposal pool concepts, see Proposal Pool, Proposal Pool Concepts and the subordinate documents.

For more information on creating, changing, and deleting proposals, and on accessing the entries in the proposal pool, see Proposal Pool Maintenance and the subordinate documents, as well as Transaction SLPP.