Auto-Propagation
Auto-Propagation is a feature of Lilt Translate that saves linguists time by automatically using a segment's target text to fill and replace the target text of other segments with matching source content. If you set or change the translation of a specific phrase in a document, Auto-Propagation will set or change other instances of that phrase throughout the rest of the document.
Auto-Propagation functions by:
- affecting only the current document
- changing segments with matching context (overwriting any existing content)
- confirming the changed segments after propagation changes are made
Auto-Propagation functionality
Auto-Propagation is always applied to unconfirmed segments, whether or not the segment target text has content. When a segment is confirmed, Auto-Propagation copies the confirmed target text to all unconfirmed matching segments in the document and marks those segments as confirmed.
You can enable or disable Auto-Propagation to confirmed segments through the Settings tab by selecting/deselecting the following options:
- Forward Auto-Propagation: When enabled, in addition to Auto-Propagation being applied to unconfirmed segments, Auto-Propagation will also be applied to confirmed matching segments after the updated segment. This will overwrite any target text in the matching segments.
- Backward Auto-Propagation: When enabled, in addition to Auto-Propagation being applied to unconfirmed segments, Auto-Propagation will also be applied to confirmed matching segments before the updated segment. This will overwrite any target text in the matching segments.
Use cases for Forward and Backward Auto-Propagation:
- By default, Forward and Backward Auto-Propagation are both enabled. This is a useful way to make sure translations are consistent across a document, because if you make a change to a segment, all segments with matching source text will update their target text to match.
- If you want to ensure you do not overwrite content in confirmed segments, turn off both Forward and Backward Auto-Propagation.
- Enabling only Forward Auto-Propagation is a good way to speed up translation (by automatically populating segments you haven't reached yet), while making sure to not overwrite content in matching segments you have already processed.
- It is not common to only enable Backward Auto-Propagation.
Note that in Review mode, with Forward or Backward Auto-Propagation enabled, changes to accepted segments will overwrite segments that are not part of the review sample.
Auto-Propagation vs TM Leveraging
Auto-Propagation differs from TM Leveraging in the following ways:
| TM Leveraging | Auto-Propagation | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | All documents sharing a Data Source | Current document open in Lilt Translate |
| Populates empty, unconfirmed segments | Yes | Yes |
| Populates filled, unconfirmed segments | No | Yes |
| Confirms the segment after populating | No/Yes1 | Yes |
| Overwrites target text | No | Yes |
| Overwrites confirmed segments | No | No/Yes2 |
| Displays match annotation after populating | Yes | No |
1 If Auto-confirm exact matches & repetitions is enabled in the Project Settings, segments populated by TM Leveraging will be marked as confirmed; otherwise, they will be left unconfirmed.
2 If Forward Auto-Propagation or Backward Auto-Propagation are enabled, in addition to Auto-Propagation being applied to unconfirmed segments, Auto-Propagation will also be applied to confirmed matching segments.