Abbreviation
Definition
An abbreviation is a translation stored in the proposal pool. You can create abbreviations for system standards or application standards.
It is often impossible to use the full translation for a specific source text because there is not enough space in the translation line. In such cases, you need to enter an abbreviated translation in the translation line. You should define this translation as an abbreviation in the proposal pool. 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. For more information, see Creating Abbreviations and Full Translations.
Full translations and their abbreviations are stored in a monolingual table, which has many advantages for translation. See the Use section for information on how you can benefit from the monolingual nature of abbreviations.
An abbreviation must always be the same translation as the full translation to which it is assigned. See the table below for examples of typical full translations and their abbreviations.
German Source Text |
English Full Translation |
English Abbreviation |
Menge |
Quantity |
Qty |
Belege |
Documents |
Docs |
Stueckliste |
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 application standard exists for the application of the object you are currently translating.
· There is not enough space in the translation line for the system standard.
· There is enough space in the translation line for the abbreviation assigned to the system standard.
An abbreviation that you assign to an application standard is the best proposal when the following criteria are fulfilled:
· An application standard exists for the application of the object you are currently translating.
· There is not enough space in the translation line for the application standard.
· There is enough space in the translation line for the abbreviation assigned to the application standard.
The system standard for Bestellmenge is Purchase Order Quantity (23 characters long). An abbreviation PO Quantity (11 characters long) is assigned to the system standard.
You need to translate this source text in an object belonging to domain MM (Materials Management). There is no application standard in the proposal pool for the domain MM. The translation line is only 20 characters long for the translation of Bestellmenge.
In this case, the best proposal is PO Quantity, which is the abbreviation of the system standard.
Use
When the system offers an abbreviation as the best proposal in the short text editor, you can simply double-click it to insert it in your translation line. When you save, this short text line has the status translated.
The monolingual nature of abbreviations has the following advantages:
· When you assign an abbreviation to a full translation in the proposal pool, this abbreviation is automatically available in all other proposal pool entries that contain the same full translation.
¡ This reduces the time you spend creating abbreviations for the same translation in the proposal pool, when developers use inconsistent source texts.
¡ By assigning an abbreviation to a full translation, you no longer need to create the same abbreviation multiple times 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 has the added advantage of improving system performance.
You are translating the source text Belegmenge. You create the abbreviation Document Qty and assign it to the system standard Document Quantity.
The next day, you translate the 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 you created yesterday is already available.
· If your target language translates from more than one source language, abbreviations are automatically available in all proposal pools for your target language. This improves consistency and performance, and saves time.
Spanish translates from German and English source texts. This means that two proposal pools exist for target language Spanish (German ® Spanish, and English ® Spanish.)
If you assign an abbreviation to a full translation when you translate from German to Spanish, this abbreviation is automatically available in both proposal pools.
This means that translators who translate from English to Spanish can also reuse this abbreviation in all cases where the same full Spanish translation exists.
· Languages translating from source languages that are also target languages benefit from clearer information in the short text editor. Translators can display the full translation for an abbreviation at the touch of a button in the short text editor. For more information, see Display Full Text for Abbreviation.
This drastically reduces the need for comments in the short text editor, which saves time and improves performance.
Japanese translates from source language English. English translates from source language German.
If Japanese
translators have to translate English source texts that are abbreviations,
they can choose the Find Full Texts for Abbreviations icon in the short
text editor to find out if any of the texts they need to translate in the
short text editor have been defined as abbreviations in the German
® English proposal pool. If abbreviations are
found, the 
icon appears next to the status bar with the
number 1, 2, or 12. The number 1 indicates that a full text exists for the
source text. The number 2 indicates that a full text exists for the text in
the translation line. The Japanese translator can click the number next to the
icon to display the full text.
This means that English translators do not need to spend time creating comments in the short text editor whenever they have to use an abbreviated translation.
See also:
Creating Proposals in the Proposal Pool
Creating Abbreviations and Full Translations