SingleFeeder functions

Use Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker/InDesign as connected editors. Besides, SingleFeeder brings along an internal editor to preview documents created with one of the external editors.

The add-ins for Word, FrameMaker and InDesign give you direct access to the documents in the database.

In addition, you can control the import and export of documents from the database in the main application. This gives you the best of two worlds: full functionality of the editor you know best and a database to manage your documentation.

Use the SingleFeeder interfaces with Microsoft PowerPoint and XLIFF. This allows you to save and access these formats in the database as well, manage them centrally and handle the translations from the database.

Besides this, SingleFeeder offers the Satellite as an independent module. Use the Satellite to retrieve text from the database and paste it to virtually any editor.

Insert your content in many editors from the Satellite and process it from there. The SingleFeeder Satellite is compatible with a vast number of editors. Besides the supported standard editors Microsoft Word/PowerPoint and Adobe FrameMaker/InDesign, you may export your texts to the Windows Editor, WordPad, Notepad++ or e-mail software, for example.

The SingleFeeder Satellite is an independent software module with which you can transfer content from existing documents into new documents. The format type stored in each case (e.g. “Heading”) is also transferred. In the target document (Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker/InDesign), the formatting stored there for this format type is applied to the imported text.

The SingleFeeder Satellite is a module of the authoring system with which you give other employees of your company access to checked and approved texts and images in the database. This allows documents to be compiled quickly from reusable content   company-wide. Not only words or sentences, but also entire sections and images can be selected. Double-click a section to paste it to the current document. The Satellite is compatible with many different text editors and word processors. Texts can, for example, be transferred to e-mail programs, Microsoft PowerPoint and many other different formats, even to websites.

In SingleFeeder, you can create documents with any layout from your content. To do that, edit your content with Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker/InDesign.

Create document templates in your editor. These templates are directly accessible from the Satellite, if necessary, even across your entire company. If all authors use one template, all documents will be consistent. Depending on the template, you may even include specific content. Use the editor add-ins to create templates with content and save them to the database for public use. This makes it easy and efficient to create consistent documents.

SingleFeeder processes XML. All documents in the database are stored as the XML version of the respective editor. This means that formatting and text is saved independently allowing varying formatting for one single sentence.  This keeps you independent of your current or any future platform.

In many cases, this design allows to apply the various formats automatically to the translations.

Create tables of content with your editor. SingleFeeder does not restrict any of the options your editor provides.

The external editor allows you to use and edit links and cross references.

If your documents contain images, they will be automatically imported to the database. You can assign individual names and the respective language.

Store language versions of your images in SingleFeeder. Depending on the target language of your documents, SingleFeeder will insert the right image.

Load the content to your database simply by saving the document. All meta information is automatically created during the process. This also applies to content and formatting information. These are separated to be available independently. The import is independent from the writing process so that you can also easily import externally created documents.

SingleFeeder keeps your data in a central database. Find and edit individual sentences including the translations in the database. If you want to edit many sentences from different documents, paste them in a single document for editing or for export to Microsoft Excel. Every document containing any of the edited sentences will be automatically updated.

Use the SingleFeeder Satellite, an independent software module, to give everyone in your company access to approved texts, terms and images in the database.

Assign individual statuses to documents or sentences. For example, approve sentences for use that have been quality checked. Of course, you may apply a status to all sentences in one document at once.

Save current versions of your documents to the database for later reference.

Assign your documents and sentences individual statuses. You can define as many statuses as you require. And you can combine different statuses for each document and sentence. This gives you all the flexibility you need to adapt SingleFeeder to your individual processes, requirements and wordings in order to design individual workflows.

The status function allows you to monitor and control your projects manually. Assign plain text to individual statuses and filter the database view accordingly.

Use variants to cover alternating texts in a single document. In Word, for example, you control the variants simply by using the comment function.

Variants make sense to describe product series that only differ in detail. Cover all the different variants in one single document to facilitate editing and updating of your documentation. Manage variants for Word and FrameMaker documents.

With SingleFeeder, you can edit or recreate your documents even when you are not connected to the corporate network. When you have a network connection, load the texts into your editor to edit them offline. If the connection is established, you can import the created content back into the database.

Use the status function to release content that has successfully passed quality assurance. If you translate your documents with SingleFeeder, you can automatically output a final report after importing the translation file. This shows whether comments were left in the translation, original translations were changed, or whether translations may be too long.

Keep the perfect overview of your documentation. SingleFeeder will generate various reports automatically for you:

    Edited translations

    Translator's comments

    Exceeding lengths if space is restricted

    Changed source texts

    Error reports for translations

The usage list keeps you informed in every detail at all times. The usage list shows information on where documents, text modules, images and sentences are used.

    Documents: see all images in any document at a glance. See when the document was created and when it was last changed including changes made to translations.

    Text modules: see all images used in the text module, and all documents that contain the text module. See when the document was created and when it was last changed including changes made to translations.

    Text blocks: see all images used in any text block.

    Images: see which documents, text modules and text blocks contain any image. From there, check all the language versions of the image.

    Sentences: check for each sentence which documents, text modules or text blocks use it and which languages it has been translated to. Check when the translations were created and when they were changed last.

When saving, you can specify whether you want to save the content as a document, text block or text module. Depending on the format in which you save your content, you can display various meta information, for example, whether there are text modules in your document, which documents contain text modules or whether images are used in a text block. You can also display the status information for documents, text blocks and text modules at any time. Organise your documentation in the database according to freely definable categories. With standardised document names and a clear filing structure, you always keep track of your documentation.

Save your text blocks to the database for management. Build your documents quickly with text blocks. This function is accessible with the add-ins in the editors.

Save your text modules to the database to manage them centrally. Use text modules to quickly compile documents from existing content, and edit this content globally for all documents if needed. Other than text blocks, text modules will be automatically updated in all the documents that contain the text modules. This function is accessible with the add-ins in the editors.

Insert text modules directly from the database into your documents. You can do this in a single step using the editor's add-in. This way, quickly assemble documents from existing text modules.

The usage list of the SingleFeeder database displays all text modules for your document. This list lists all text modules in the document with their names. This list also provides the reverse view: it also lists all uses of a text module. To search for content in a text module, use the search function in the SingleFeeder main application. Enter a keyword in the search field and SingleFeeder lists all text modules that contain the keyword.

In the database overview, you will find a list of all text modules stored in the database   neatly sorted according to your file structure. Manage the names and categories of your text modules from here. Click on a text module to display it in the internal editor

In SingleFeeder, text modules are segmented by sentences. Your advantage is that you can create large text modules to ensure easy handling without reducing reusability. Sentence-based storage in the database ensures that modularisation cannot become too small, since you can access individual sentences at any time.

This requirement is covered in SingleFeeder via the text module function. Create individual text modules in the database and compile your documents from text modules.

You can create translations in SingleFeeder via Microsoft Excel files. When you export a document for translation, SingleFeeder creates an Excel file that contains all content that is not yet translated in the database. After translation, you can import the translated file to SingleFeeder. The translations and their source texts are now available in the database.

The SingleFeeder database is used as a translation memory. This eliminates the need for an additional external translation memory. Nevertheless, it is possible to prepare translations in external translation memory systems and import them into SingleFeeder. This means that you do not lose the benefits of fuzzy matches.

To create translations, SingleFeeder uses Microsoft Excel files. This gives you exceptional flexibility as translations can be created with any Excel-processing software. For example, the column with the texts to be translated can be imported into a translation memory and processed there.

Import your existing translation memory via Microsoft Excel into the SingleFeeder database.

SingleFeeder's integrated translation management is designed to avoid double translations. It is up to you to decide whether you only want to output content for translation that is not yet available in the database, or whether you want to include existing translations. Including the existing translations, will export the complete document. This enables the translator to quickly grasp the context and, if necessary, correct content that has already been translated. If there are repetitions in the document to be translated, these will only be exported to the translation file once. In this way, you avoid different versions of a translation.

Exporting translations to Microsoft Excel gives you exceptional flexibility. You can decide if you want the entire document or text module to be worked on by a single translator, or if you want to split the file for multiple translators. You can extract parts from the file to be translated and translate them with priority within one translation job.

Sentences that have already been exported once for translation are only exported a second time if you specify this explicitly.

The detailed statistics function shows you which languages the document or text module has already been translated to and which languages are still missing. This allows you to read out missing translations and send them to your translators. You can also edit multilingual projects in batch mode.

Create all language files you need for large projects in batch mode. This is possible for import and export of translation files and documents.

Store your terms in the database and ensure the correct and consistent translation of technical terms. Existing term lists can easily be imported into the database as pairs. You can assign terms to individual categories to cover different contexts.

Automatically insert your terminology into the file to be translated and make it available for translation to ensure the use of consistent terminology. This is particularly useful for projects with several translators or for long intervals between projects.

Export existing translations if necessary. This enables the translator to check the correctness of the texts in the database. When you reimport a translated file, specify whether existing translations in the database should be overwritten. You can also have translations edited at any time, for example, by employees of your foreign subsidiaries.

Edit the translation files and import the changes into the database. You automatically receive a correction report with the original text and the original and changed translations next to each other. This is the perfect basis for feedback to the translation. Ideally, the translation can import the changes into its external translation memory and automatically take them into account for future translations.

The detailed translation statistics overview of the database informs you at a glance about the expected translation volume at any time. Display the pending translations for entire projects as a percentage per language. For each individual document, you can even see how many segments, words and characters are still missing for each individual language. This eliminates the need to generate and evaluate test translation jobs. Instead, you can estimate the expected translation effort and calculate the costs on this basis.

With SingleFeeder, you retain full control over the entire editing process including translations.

You can edit existing translations at any time. Revise archived translation files and import them again. An automatic correction report displays the changes in detail.

If necessary, SingleFeeder checks the length of the imported translations. For example, if a short text is 10% longer than the original, a report will be generated. This allows you to control the layout of the translated documents, e.g. labels on images or headlines.

If necessary, limit the length of the permitted translations. Enter the permitted number of characters in SingleFeeder. This inserts a formula in the translation file to check for length overruns before importing the translation back into the database.

The number of languages you work with affects the licence price. SingleFeeder is available with an unlimited number of languages. Use our licence calculator to specify your individual licence.

Send documents directly from the database via e-mail without having to output them to the editor first. Simply select the desired file in the database view and specify the language to generate and send the file.

You want to reformulate parts of your documents that are unfortunately not modularised?

No problem with the function “Delete sentences”. With this function, you can delete sentences (or individual translations) centrally from all your documents.

See how efficient your documentation is

SingleFeeder will show you statistics with data such as:

    Size of your documentation in the source language (documents, pages, sentences)

    Proportion of translated content in the database

    Number of languages to translate into

    Your re-usage rate

    Your growth over the past 12 months (documents, pages, sentences)

Compare this data to other index figures in your company to make your documentation even more efficient.