Long Text Editor

Long texts are objects that consist of continuous text with formatting. This section of the documentation applies to the translation of long texts in the standard, XML-based long text editor. When you call up long text objects for translation, they are converted to XML before you translate them. When you save an active version of your translation, the text is converted back to its original format. This process applies to the majority of long text object types, such as data element long texts (object type ID DE), message long texts (object type ID NA), and dialog texts (object type ID DT). However, some long texts such as OTR long text objects (object type ID LOTR) and SAPscript forms (object type ID FORM) are translated in their own, special editors.

Note

All formatting information and technical links are stored in protected XML tags. Your long text editor settings determine whether the tags are displayed in full, or compressed to a five-digit number in square brackets. For example, the tag </itf> could be displayed in full in the long text editor, or it could be compressed to <00003> instead.

If the source text includes XML tags, then you must include them in your translation too. If you enter text, but no XML tags, as your translation and choose Save Active, the long text editor is unable to convert the data and an error message is displayed.

After you have opened a long text object for translation, you are advised to choose  Edit  Copy Source Text . This copies the entire source text, including the XML tags, to the translation window where you can now overwrite the source language texts with your translation.

Unlike the short text editor, the long text editor does not have a proposal pool. Instead, the translation status of long text objects is determined by fingerprints. The system regards a long text object as new if no target text exists for the source text. The system regards a long text object as modified if the source text fingerprint and target text fingerprint do not match. The system regards a long text object as translated if the source text fingerprint and target text fingerprint match.

The long text editor consists of two sections. The source text is displayed in the upper section. You enter your translation in the lower section of the screen. You can determine how much of the screen is taken up by the source text, and how much by the target text, by maintaining your settings or by changing the ratio in the editor itself. For more information, see Maintaining Long Text Editor Settings and Functions in the Long Text Editor.

To access the long text editor and translate long texts, you can:

• Perform sequential processing in a worklist

• Double-click a specific object in a worklist. For more information on these two options, see Translating Objects via a Worklist.

• Access an object directly from the initial screen of transaction SE63.

  To do this, choose  Translation  ABAP Objects  Long Texts (Documentation)  and select the required object type in the dialog box that appears. In the screen that is now displayed, enter the technical name of the object in the Object Name field and check the source and target languages. Then choose Edit.

  If you know the object type ID, you can enter it directly in the command field and access the object this way instead. For more information, see Translating Objects Directly.