A variable is a word or phrase that the translation memory (TM) recognizes in the source text. The TM copies the variable to the target text. Because variables are identical between source and target text, they are useful for special terms such as product names.
If a source segment contains a variable, there are two scenarios:
The TM has a translation unit (TU) that matches the source (though the variable might differ).
There is no matching TU for the source text.
The TM has a match except that the variables in the text and the TU might differ,
The TM copies the target language text from the TU to the target of the translatable item, and substitutes the variable from the presented text in place of the variable from the TU.
The match is 100%, minus any penalty for variable substitution as specified in the Project settings under Penalties, Text substitution.
If there is no match, the TM does not translate the segment, but it does recognize the presence of the variable in the source, and adds an annotation to the working text file. When you open the text, the editor displays the variable text as a recognized token.
Topic: Published: 27-Jun-2012