Slate™ Desktop Starter

Slate™ Desktop is for freelancers and teams working with one language pair. It makes custom translation models to and from either language. It’s easy to work with machine translation that delivers quality your way! Share your custom models with teams members and colleagues who use Slate™ Connect.

Slate™ Desktop is an application suite that adds a machine translation service provider to your personal computer. The provider runs in the background for computer-assisted translation tools that also run on your PC like memoQ, Trados Studio and others.

Slate™ Desktop installs all the tools you need. They’re all there. Everything you need to organize your translation memories, clean them, build translation models, connect to computer-assisted translation tool and much more. You configure your project to use Slate™ Desktop and it runs in the background. You almost forget it’s there.

The Suite Paradigm

Like application suites you know, Slate™ Desktop is a collection of applications and utilities. Each individual application performs a specific function. Together as a suite, they increase your productivity and help you maintain your competitive edge in a quickly changing technology-driven market.

You design and build translation models with Slate™ Desktop‘s dashboard application. Another application runs the model in the background as a service to create translations and send them to the computer-assisted translation tool for you to edit. The Features tab lists more tools and functions.

These two stages are similar to computer-aided design and manufacturing. A designer uses an application like AutoCAD to create digital models of widgets. Another application runs the models on computer-driven machines that create widgets.

The Breakthroughs

As a translator or agency, you may be thinking, “But I don’t know how to design and build translation models. This is Slate™ Desktop‘s breakthrough.

Slate™ Desktop is the world’s first translation software to run machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies on the MS Windows desktop as native productivity applications. Although it’s a first, you feel at home because it uses familiar graphical user-interface metaphors like point-n-click, dashboard, inventory lists and progress bars.

Productivity comes naturally in this comfort zone because you don’t need to learn yet another translation application. You simply reuse skills you already have in an environment you already know. The advanced technologies quietly complement and augment your skills.

Look-alike Features

Did you ever try to use the advanced features in your computer-assisted translation tool, like sub-segment assembly? You invest weeks creating complicated dictionaries and configurations. Then you realize the benefits, if any, are proprietary to one tool, and you start from scratch to enable a similar feature on another tool.

You build a Slate™ Desktop model once and then reuse it again and again. You share it between your computer-assisted translation tools. You can even open Trados Studio and memoQ at the same time and use Slate™ Desktop services from two applications at the same time.

License Terms

The Slate™ Desktop license includes installation and activation on one PC. You build translation models, typically overnight, and use them the next day in computer-assisted translation tools on the same PC.

The license supports models to and from each language in one language pair. For example, you can make English to French and French to English models.

Each model is a set of files that you own, much like you own MS Word and AutoCAD files. Slate™ Desktop includes utilities to backup and restore model packages.

Slate™ Connect has everything you need to use Slate™ Desktop translation models with a computer-assisted translation tool on another PC such as a notebook while you travel.

Translation Teams

Slate™ Connect opens a unique business case to share Slate™ Desktop translation models with your colleagues and team members. See Slate™ Connect for details.

These features and functions come with Slate™ Desktop.

Two Languages

Support for two languages from among the 34 languages we support to translate between the two languages in either direction.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Slate™ Desktop runs on your PC. There’s no the Internet connection. They don’t log your activities like online subscription services. You’re fully in control of confidential work.

Build Engines (Models)

Organize Translation Memories

Tools that organize an inventory of translation memories by client, subject matter and project type.

Create Training Corpora

Tools that clean, prepare and convert translation memories into training corpora to build translation engines.

Build Customized Engines

Tools that build custom machine translation engines.

Evaluate Engines

Tools to evaluate engines and estimate how they will perform as you work.

Weighted Updates

Tools to update Slate™ Desktop engines with new translation memories and optionally prioritize the influence of some segments over others.

Translation Service Provider

Pre-Translate Files

Tools that pre-translate source segments and save TMX and XLIFF files to include in any CAT tool project.

Plugins Connect to CAT Tools

Plugins connect Slate™ Desktop customized engines to computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools. Current support includes memoQ, Trados Studio, CafeTran and OmegaT.

Forced Terminology

Add global or per engine or per language source-target terminology files that Slate™ Desktop engines use to force translations of known source language terms.

Terminology On-The-Fly

Add new source-target terminology with just a couple of keystrokes while working. The engine adapts and enforces the new pair in the next segment.

Support Utilities

Deploy Engines

Tools that copy engines to another work environment.

Backup & Restore

Tools that backup and restore both the engines and the translation memories that created them.

Sample Translation Memories

Sample translation memories and other files to help you practice and learn.

You need to provide the following before working with Slate™ Desktop.

Hardware System Requirements

• Intel Core i3 (i7 recommended) or AMD Athlon 64 CPU (4-core x86-64, 2.4 GHz or faster)
• 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
• 2 GB of free hard-disk space for installation
• 250 GB (or more) of additional free space on a high-performance drive is required after installation

Windows Operating System (Option)

• Windows 7 64-bit Edition with Service Pack 1
• Windows 8 or 8.1 64-bit Edition
• Windows 10 64-bit Edition
• 32-bit Editions not supported

Linux Operating System (Option)

• Ubuntu 16.04 or newer (other Debian-based on request)
• CentOS/RHEL-based (other RPM-based on request)

MacOS Operating System (Option)

• To be determined, currently unsupported

Translation Memories

Personalized engine:

• 70,000 to 150,000 sentence segments
• One full-time translator’s work for 3 to 4 years

Customized engine:

• 200,000 to 500,000 sentence segments
• Support a team of translators
• There’s no upper limit to the number of segments
• Too many segments is an opportunity for variety that degrades performance

File Types

Slate™ Desktop reads and writes these standards-based localization file types:

• Text files with UTF-8 character encoding, Linux or Windows new line separators
• Tab-delimited files are specialized Text file (as above) with one tab per line. Text left of the tab is the source language. Text right of the tab is target language.
• TMX – translation memory exchange up to version 1.4b
• XLIFF – XML Localization Interchange File Format version 1.2 (.xlf, .xliff, .sdlxliff, .mxliff, .mqxliff)
• Gettext .po and .mo files

You can also work with file types supported by your computer-assisted translation (CAT), such as .docx, .xlsx, etc.

Specialization

It’s strongly recommended, although technically not required, that you work in a specialized field such as financial & regulatory reports, clinical trials & pharmaceuticals, technical manuals, legal contracts or other specialties that generally create consistent and accurate translations. These translation memories yield better custom machine translation than specialties such as marketing, creative writing and literature that strive for variety.

The installer installs and manages the following required dependencies.

GNU Utilities

The GNU Utilities are essential open source utilities that the Slate™ Toolkit needs to create models. The MS Windows package installs and updates them but we do not maintain them.

Perl Scripting Runtime

Perl 64-bit version 5.28 or newer is a free open source scripting runtime environment.

Python Scripting Runtime

Python 64-bit version 3.72 or newer is a free open source scripting runtime environment. Required dependency libraries include: pip, pywin32, six, numpy, nltk, lxml, regex, polib, jieba, PyArabic, tinysegmenter3, hazm, wxPython

License and support included with your purchase of Slate™ Desktop.

End User License Agreement

A perpetual, royalty-free end-user-license agreement (EULA) to use on your machines. No subscriptions or hidden fees.

Multiple Platforms

Install and activate on any supported operating systems. Today’s support includes MS Windows and Linux. MacOS is planned.

Single Activation

Install, activate and work on one machine. Build engines and work on the same computer.

Maintenance Updates

Maintenance updates are published occasionally with new languages, enhanced features and bug fixes.

Technical Support

Access to priority technical support during the period between major version updates via our online support portal, https://support.slate.rocks.

Money-Back Guarantee

Use Slate™ Desktop and learn how your translation memories perform as an engine. Experience our unparalleled technical support. If you’re not fully satisfied, uninstall Slate™ Desktop and request a refund within 60 days of your purchase. We will refund your full purchase price immediately – no questions asked.

Expert Review

We’ll help you understand how your first engine performs. Send us the automated evaluation report. We’ll review the performance with you.

Slate™ Desktop distributes these components under their respective open source licenses.

Slate Toolkit

Slate™ Toolkit is a collection of free open source software to generate and use phrase-based statistical machine translation (SMT) models. It is the only MS Windows compatible collection of SMT utilities and serves as the foundation for our commercial Slate™ Desktop products.