Handling changes in a subtitling template in mid-workflow (Reset job + Load translations)

It's a familiar problem: after translation has begun, a new version of the media is delivered. Perhaps a recut, perhaps some major errors in the template were discovered. Updating the template is one thing, but what if five or twenty languages already have half-finished, or even complete, translations? Here is one way of handling this, aimed at minimising the need to retranslate text. 

It is assumed that translations are done using Plint Subtitler based on a template. This method will also work much better if a minimum of splitting and merging have been done in the individual target languages.  

1. Update the template first

Leave it to a single person to incorporate the timing changes, add new blocks where needed and move blocks around where necessary. The simplest way of doing this is to use the same job as the one where the original template was created, but you can create separate jobs for this – as long as they are in the same part and language node. 

2. Notify translators to "Reset and Reload"

The idea is to store away your current work where the system can easily find it and then load the new template. This is exactly what the "Reset job" button on the "Job details" tab in Plint Subtitler does. 

When the job is reset, the latest template version will be loaded. Perfect, except all the translations are gone. Now it's time to click "Load translations". 

This will open a dialogue with some options. Usually, you only need to select a "File to load", typically the top one. This is a snapshot automatically created when the job was reset. The snapshot is a complete backup containing both the reference text and the translations. Click "Confirm" to load these translations.

The system will now compare all text in the new template against the reference text in the snapshot. For all exact matches, the translation will be automatically inserted in the text field. Now, you only have to fill in the blanks, for example new blocks or blocks where the reference text has for some reason been changed. 

Notes

• By now, it should be obvious why splitting and merging the translations will causes issues in combination with this feature.
  • Tip: the "Limit editing" option for jobs will prevent all such changes.
• Make sure to use "Reset job" on the right job, i.e. a job with the "Load template" option active.
  • Otherwise, the old file will be removed but the new template will not be loaded.