Translator's Workplace

Information on Translator's Workplace can be found here:

Translator’s Workplace (TW) is a collection of electronic reference resource for translators, including Bible versions, original language texts, dictionaries, translation helps, commentaries, maps, articles, and books.

It also includes the Biblical Analysis Research Tool (BART) that provides research tools for studying the original Hebrew & Greek language texts.

TW is now supplied on one DVD, making installation much easier.

1. Insert TW 5.0 DVD and autorun should start the installation. If not, look for the setup file on the DVD.
   • Select: Install Translator’s Workplace 5.0
   • Be ready to enter the Key code that you were given, either by email or in the box with the DVD.

(TW 4.0 requires a different instruction set to run on Windows 7 64-bit.)

Instructions for using Translator's Workplace 5.0 on the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

On Win 7 64-bit, all translation programs should be set to run in XP SP3 compatibility mode.

Windows 64-bit instructions

1. After installing the TW 5.0 program, immediately right-click the “Translator s Workplace 5.0 shortcut” icon.

2. Select Properties Compatibility tab and check “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”.

3. Click the drop-down arrow and select Windows XP SP2 (or any higher number SP).

4. Repeat the above steps for the “BART 5.3 shortcut” and the Paratext shortcut icons. (The BART & Paratext settings need to be set the same to enable the reference/scrolling messaging between the translation programs.)

Notes

5 The correct TW 5.0 program location for 64-bit is “Program files (x86)\SIL\TW5”.

6 The various registry entries for TW will also be found under (x86) divisions.

Instructions also available at Start, Programs, Translator's Workplace 5.0, View the ReadMe file, Windows Vista 64-bit instructions

You may come across people with earlier versions of TW who have not installed it correctly. This is always the case if they must insert the CD in order to access the content. You can solve this problem for them by using the Copy Infobases feature.

• Go the the Advanced menu and choose Organise Infobases
• Insert the CD or DVD
• Copy the files from the CD to the local directory on the opposite side.

View tabs show beneath book windows. You can hide them by pressing AltT or clicking the button at the bottom of the window.

Opening resources one at a time is very time consuming. The preferred way to do it is to:

• Go to the file menu and choose Infobases to open…
• Return to the Translator's Workplace Menu Window and click once on every book or resource that you want to open. As you do they are added to the list in the Infobases to open… window.
• Then click the button Open infobases.

Go to the Window menu and choose Tile horizontally or Tile vertically. You do have some control over which window gets placed first. Before tiling, click on the window that you want in the top lefthand corner. It will be placed there when tiling. To do more than that it gets tricky. you could click the first 5 windows you want arranged, and it will arrange them horizontally or vertically in the reverse order that you clicked on them in.

You can arrange windows with the help of the Arrange TW Windows… dialog box.

• Click on Window | Arrange TW Windows…
• A small guide window pops up containing numeros window configurations.
• Choose one of the lettered windows that has the right size and placement of the way you want to position the active window.
• Now, first click on an open window that you want to be positioned in that way, then click on the lettered window in the Arrange Window guide.
• One by one, process all the open windows till you are satisfied with the arrangement.

There is a Save Desktop icon on top that allows you to save a combination of infobases and to open it easily the next time you use TW. Choose a name to indicate the type of materials being saved, or name the desktop “Startup”, in which case it will open automatically with TW.

With the icons on the top, there is a group that manages scrolling.

• Select Receive scripture refs. and Immediately scroll to scripture refs.
• Now tell TW to save settings on exit. Go to the File menu and tell it to Save Settings on Exit
• Exit TW and restart it
• As soon as everything is setup the way you like it, uncheck the line: File … Save Settings on Exit

You can open and use multiple windows of Translator's Workplace and BART. You can create and save different desktops for different purposes (e.g. “Greek Word Studies” or “Indonesian Bibles”) Then you can load these different desktops into the different windows of TW or BART running on your computer. Then you can instantly switch between the different TW window displays.

• Find out where the TW work directory is
  • Right click on the TW Icon on your desktop and choose Properties
  • Look at the line that says “Start in…” or “Working Directory” and you will see the path.
• Create subdirectories in TW work:
  • TW NT Exegesis
  • TW OT Exegesis
  • TW English Bibles
• Arrange the infobases according to these themes and save the desktop as “Startup” in the appropriate subdirectory.
• Now make two copies of the TW shortcut on the desktop.
• Rename the shortcuts: TW NT Exegesis, TW OT Exegesis, etc. also renaming the original shortcut.
• Edit the shortcuts and change the startup directory for TW to be the corresponding subdirectory under TW work.

Now each of the shortcuts will open a different set of TW materials! And you can even load them all at once with several copies of TW running at the same time.

More detailed information about the above available at:

Start, (All) Programs, Translator's Workplace 5.0, View the ReadMe file, New location for TW 5.0 desktop (*.twd) files

Start, (All) Programs, Translator's Workplace 5.0, View the ReadMe file, Windows Vista 64-bit instructions or your TW 5.0 booklet.