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Translation Editor

Work in progress. A CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) editor for line-by-line translation of Pali Canon texts — convenient input, quick templates, and two ways to work with the text.

The "Save" button is disabled in this demo

The tool embedded here is the real thing, not a copy, so saving — both downloading locally and sending to the server — is deliberately turned off in this demo, so nobody can accidentally (or on purpose) overwrite a real translation file with this draft. Clicking "Save" here just shows a warning. To actually save, open the tool at its direct link: /assets/lbl-en.html — that one isn't a demo, saving works for real there.

Toolbar

  • ◀ ▶ — previous/next text.
  • Sutta number — type an id (e.g. sn56.11, an3.70), with auto-detection of whether a translation already exists.
  • Source language — pick the source file's language.
  • DT.org / DG — open the current text on DigitalPaliReader.online / on Dhamma.Gift.
  • Refresh — reload the translation from source.
  • Find/Replace — a search-and-replace window (escape (, ), [, ] as \(, \), \[, \]).
  • Format — auto-format line breaks.
  • Clear — clear the input field.
  • Open file / Load from server — open a previously saved draft.
  • Save — export the translation as JSON.
  • Diff Checker — an external tool for comparing text versions.

Two input modes

Table mode

A two-column table (Text | Translation) — each row is edited separately.

  • Click a cell — edit it.
  • The 🔗 icon — jump to this row in quick-entry mode.
  • ↑ / ← — move to the cell above.
  • ↓ / → — move to the cell below.
  • Enter — add an empty row, or wrap text onto a new row.
  • Ctrl+Enter — move text to the start of the next row.
  • Backspace at the start of a row — merge with the previous row.
  • Delete at the end of a row — merge with the next row.

Quick-entry mode

One large text field — the whole translation at once, synced live with the table.

  • Ctrl+Q — select a range of rows and merge them into one.
  • Ctrl+F / Ctrl+H — search/replace (same escaping as the toolbar's find/replace, for ()/[]).

Quick templates

Buttons for phrases that come up over and over in the canon — insert text at the cursor with one click: 4nt / 4nt short (the Four Noble Truths formula, full and short), n8p / n8p short (the Noble Eightfold Path), Thus said… (a sutta's closing formula), plus an em-dash, curly quotes, and an inverted question mark for punctuation.

Settings

Your translator name (used in the filename when saving) and a toggle to replace +edited+o in the filename with o — for final versions.