Use threaded segment comments
Learn how to use threaded segment comments in Smartcat to streamline collaboration and feedback in your translation workflow.
Threaded segment comments on Smartcat is a feature that allows you to have more organized and structured discussions within your translation projects.
Whether you're a project manager looking to enhance Language Quality Assurance (LQA) or streamline query management, threaded comments have got you covered.
In this brief article, we'll walk you through how to make the most of this feature.
How threaded segment comments work
Understand threaded comments better with these six features.
1. Existing comments
Regular segment comments become independent threads, each consisting of one comment.
LQA comments with fragments form their own dedicated threads.
2. Creating threads
You can create top-level comments to initiate discussions.
3. Engaging in threads
Reply to top-level comments to start a focused thread or participate in existing discussions.
4. Managing statuses
Each top-level comment (thread) has a status: no status, open, in progress, or resolved.
Managers and assigned linguists have control over changing the status.
5. Flexibility and visibility
Managers can delete any top-level comment and change its state as needed. Linguists can delete their own comments if they're unthreaded.
You can toggle threads to be visible in all languages or just the original language pair.
6. Notifications that keep you in the loop
Stay connected with email notifications when you or your team members receive replies in comment threads.
Access comments quickly through direct links provided in notifications.
Get started with threaded segment comments
Follow these five steps to get up and running with threaded segment comments.
Step 1
Log in to Smartcat and open the translation project where you want to use threaded segment comments.
Step 2
Open the file/project in question.
Step 3
You can search for the segment in the Smartcat editor or simply add it as you go along.
Step 4
Click on the segment you want to discuss.
Step 5
To initiate a new discussion thread, click on the Add Comment button. Write your comment and select the desired status – no status, open, in progress, or resolved.
Reply to comments
To join an existing discussion, click the "Reply" button on a top-level comment. Your reply will start a new thread within that comment.
Manage comments
Managers can delete top-level comments and change their statuses. Linguists can delete their own unthreaded comments.
Visibility settings
Toggle thread visibility to control who can see them.
FAQ
If a project is multilingual, will translators be able talk one to each other?
When a comment is posted in a document, it will be visible in that document for all languages and for all participants so in effect, different language teams can communicate. So for example, in a project where translation is required into French and Spanish, questions asked by the French team would be seen in the Spanish files as well as the responses. Multilingual team might ignore questions coming from other language teams but the project manager could enforce some communication protocols to facilitate communication between teams. For example, using @ or # symbols.
My project has many languages. How can I pass instructions to all the teams?
When you make a comment in a document for one of the languages, that comment is replicated automatically to that same segment in the same document for all the other languages. This applies of course to comments to documents. So there is no need to repeat the instructions for all the languages!