OurWord

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Upgrading

OurWord has undergone several major reworkings of notes. In the original Toolbox format there were numerous different types of notes, and the initial OurWord implementation sported twelve types...and quickly found that it was just too complicated for our typical user. Now there are far fewer types, with the hope that the notes will finally be something that translators will actually use. In this section I describe each of these legacy note types; and where it is not readily obvious, how that type is supported in the current system.

This page assumes that you are familiar with the concepts as described in the other notes documentation pages.

General (\nt) - These are by far the most common Toolbox notes, used for about any purpose. These notes import directly into OurWord conversational notes.

To Do / Check (\ntck) - These were often written by the advisor as reminders of things to come back to and check later. In the current system the advisor could create a note and assign it to "Advisor."

Question for the UNS (\ntUns) - These were questions that the team felt could only be resolved by checking with a "uninitiated native speaker" or UNS; either in a community check or a consultant check situation. The current system does not have "UNS" as someone that can be assigned to; rather, the note should be assigned to the person who will be responsible chase down a UNS and ask. It might be helpful to insert text such as "UNS:" into the note contents.

Reason (\ntReas) - With this note a team member would provide justification for why things were done as they were. It could be a translator stating the reason for wording, or the advisor justifying an exegesis.

In the current system, the trick is purposeful use of the AssignedTo control. If the purpose in writing the note is just a note to self for documentation, then assign the note to Information. If the purpose is to explain to the advisor or consultant your thinking, then assign the note to that person. They can then review it and either close it out, or they can add their comment and assign it back to you.

Gloss (\ntDef) - This note was often used by translators to give a gloss for a word they he felt the advisor might not yet know. Ideally these would instead by placed in a dictionary, and in the future we hope that OurWord will integrate with WeSay to make this possible. In the meantime, the translator can create a note and assign it to the Advisor; and the advisor can then decide whether it merits entry into the dictionary.

Old Version (\ov) - This note type was used to show various wordings that had previously been tried; and in 'best practice' to state why the wording was rejected for the current wording. These notes typically do not require further comment by a team member; they are simply documentation for future referral if needed.

In the current system simply create a note and assign it to Closed. I would strongly urge that it is important to give the reason for the change. Otherwise, these notes can quickly become clutter (and keep in mind that the source control system provides the vanila information of what is changed anyway, and I hope to soon provide a user interface for accessing this information, thus you don't need to duplicate that.)

I further recommend that a single note be used for all Old Versions that a verse progresses through, again, to not have the clutter of multiple notes for this purpose. In this manner a single note can provide a history of how the verse progressed over time.

Back Trans explanation (\ntBT) - These notes were written by the advisor to the consultant, as additional information not present in the Back Translation, to help the him understand the translation in conducting the final check. In the current system, this is accomplished by either assigning the note to the consultant, or by making it an Information note.

Exegetical (\ntgk, \nthb, \ntcn) - These provided for exegetical notes in Greek, Hebrew, and other consultant-targed notes. In addition to providing useful information and justification for the consultant in understanding the exegesis, they also might potentially serve as the foundation for articles for a Study Bible.

For the consultant purpose, simply assign the note to Information. For future use in a Study Bible, you could preface the note text with a phrase such as "{Study Bible}."

Suggestion for the Front (\ntFT) - In a cluster situation where the front translation is being actively refined, the Daughter teams will frequently have feedback that they wish to give to the Front team. Similarly a consultant check may result in problems that should be fixed in the Front translation.

In the new system this is handled by creating a note within the Front translation. The person creating the note must have permission to do so. Typically these notes are created by the advisor, who does have such authority. Other team members can instead create a note within their own translation along the lines of "Should we suggest this to the Front team"; the advisor can then decide whether or not the concept deserves a note within the Front.

Once the Front team deals with the issue, they may want to use the Hint for Daughter note so let daughter teams know that they now have a change to deal with.

Hint for Daughter (\ntHint) - These notes were used for the Front Team to provide hints to all of the Daughter teams. In the current system, OurWord scans the Front translation for any notes that are assigned to "Hint for Daughter", and displays these.

If you are working on a translation that will be used as the Front for downstream daughters, then you can assign notes to "Hint for Daughter." This provides a means for providing additional information to translators about your translation, they they might not otherwise see. For example, if three daughters all had problems translating a given phrase, you could tell future translators about that issue, and give potential solutions.

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