Editor instructions

You can add instructions to your translation requests that will help our editors meet your quality expectations. Instructions are short descriptions about specific requirements that would usually not be taken into consideration during the edition/translation process, and help the community complete those requirements more easily.

Instructions are only be read by editors and are not taken into account during the machine translation step. To improve the efficiency of your instructions we suggest some do's and don't s.

Do's ✅

• Ensure the information is concise
• Make sure the information is relevant for all editors

Don't s ❌

• Communicate due dates or ask to rush the edition process
• Ask to be notified when the project is complete
• Add any operational or service requests
• Add language specific instructions unless you're using the appropriate field for that effect

There are different types of instructions that can be added to a translation request.

Pipeline Group instructions

These are your recurrent standard instructions directed at our community. These instructions are meant to give context about who you are, what your domain is, and inform of any specific request or preference you may have during the translation process. These instructions are usually set by your LangOps Specialist. If you have a new recurrent instruction, please reach out to your account team, and we will be more than happy to add your preference to your standard instructions.

Pipeline Group instructions are always present in translation requests.

File instructions

There might be files that require specific instructions. These instructions can be added when placing your order on Portal. You should only add instructions if they differ from the standard instructions. File instructions are added to a specific translation request along with Pipeline Group instructions. To add file instructions:

1 - Make sure the file selected in the left panel is the intended one. Expand the instructions section in the right panel.

2 - Type your file specific instructions.

3 - Instructions are saved automatically. You can continue with your project request once ready.

Language specific instructions

It may happen that you have recurrent standard instructions, but they differ from language to language, or you have specific instructions for a particular language. Unbabel supports that use case and these instructions are usually set by your LangOps Specialist, but you can add extra instructions for a language in a given project.

If you have a new recurrent instruction, please reach out to your account team, and we will be more than happy to add your preference to your standard instructions.

You can add different instructions across all languages. To add language instructions:

1 - Make sure the file selected in the left panel is the intended one. Expand the Language specific board for instructions and click on the Target languages field.

2 - Check all languages to which you wish to add instructions.

3 - Confirm the languages were added to the field and click Add.

4 - A new text box for all languages will appear. Type your desired instructions and proceed with the Project creation. No need to click save, as instructions save automatically and are preserved if you move between steps.

Instructions interactions and propagating instructions

It's possible to propagate instructions across all files in your project, so you don't have to repeat this process. If you check the "Add these instructions to all files in the project", the instructions you are adding will apply to all files listed in the left panel. You can confirm this by navigating to the files and see the instructions are present there as well.

Note: if you uncheck the box later, instructions will remain applied to other files and need to be removed if you so wish.

Language specific instructions take precedence over file instructions. If both are present, editors will only see the Pipeline group general instructions + language specific. However, if other languages don't have language instructions, we will display the file specific ones if there are any.

You can check on which instructions you provided for each order and translation job later by visiting the Project's details page.

File instructions are visible when clicking on a specific Order and selecting the Settings and Services tab:

Or you can see language instructions by clicking a Translation job within an order and check its details.

Services instructions

There is another type of instructions pertaining to a project, which are Services instructions. These are the only set of instructions that will not be shown to our community, but rather meant to give our internal team insights on any preferences or requirements you may have for a particular service.