Segment Patterns

Segment patterns use segment variables also known as segment placeholders to indicate the position where a variable part of speech has to be inserted into a rigid segment skeleton.

In a certain way, segment patterns constitute a means to create exact translations of fuzzy matches ;).

First translate a segment, as usual:

If the source segment and its translation are candidates for segment patterns (if you expect that they'll return later on in your project(s)), select both the content of the Source segment pane and the Target segment pane.
Click the New Term or the New Fragment button (depending on whether you want to add a new pattern to your glossary or TM).
Insert consecutively numbered placeholders at the appropriate positions:

In the TM or glossary segment patterns are preceded by a question mark (CafeTran automatically adds them if you use the New Term or the New Fragment dialogue box).

Here is a small example glossary (that you can download below):

PLEASE NOTE: If you want to use your glossary / TM in both directions, please make sure that both source and target are preceded by a question mark.

PLEASE NOTE: In glossaries, a pipe character (|, at the first position of a term pair) is used to indicate a regular expression, whereas a question mark (?) indicates a segment pattern (which is a special form of a regular expression).

Here is an example of an auto-assembled translation, with a matching percentage of 100, thanks to the segment pattern:

And another example:

And yet another example:

Opmerking: groen > groene en rood > rode :(

Segment Patterns or Regular Expressions?

Many things that can be achieved by segment patterns, can also be achieved by regular expressions. However, segment patterns offer placeholders (variables) that allow you to further fine tune the auto-assembling order ({4} before {3} etc.). Also, the syntax of segment patterns is slightly simpler than that of regular expressions. A simple means to insert placeholders via a button in the relevant dialogue boxes, has been requested.